Cadillac CTS Coupe Concept

Cadillac exterior design director John Manoogian II can't contain himself. He talks about the production CTS coupe and how it will hardly vary from the "CTS coupe concept," the unmitigated hit of the North American International Auto Show (Detroit), without adding the requisite, "If we were to build it." And so what's a poor Cadillac P.R. guy to do, but to say it hasn't been made official?

If you read Motor Trend, you know Cadillac has been kicking around the idea of a new coupe since before the doddering Eldorado was sent to that great Cadillac Ranch in the sky. And you know that this latest "coupe d'etat," designed much more recently than those earlier ideas, is set for a 2010 model year introduction probably some 18 months from now, alongside a Euro-centric CTS wagon-er, estate/shooting break. (One insider says, if you like the coupe, "Wait'll you see the wagon." Wait until when? That CTS wagon won't make its debut at Geneva and, in fact, hasn't been scheduled for any auto show so far this season.)

Manoogian credits designer Bob Munson for drawing the sketches that led to the coupe concept about two years ago, as work was wrapping up on the 2008 Motor Trend Car of the Year, the Cadillac CTS sedan.

"Bob had done a sketch of a two-door," Manoogian says. "And everyone's reaction immediately was, 'There isn't a market for two-doors, why would we want to do that?' We said, 'Well, let's just kind of give it a shot.' So we did a scale model, based on Bob's sketch." With design chief Ed Welburn's prompting, that led to a full-size clay. "So we did a full-size clay, took it out on the patio one day for Mr. Lutz, and he came out and said, 'Wow! That's pretty cool!' Then we made arrangements to show Mr. Wagoner as well, and everyone agreed: we can't afford not to do this car."

Here's the real kicker, the sign that GM indeed has hit a new design renaissance: Manoogian and Cadillac design director Clay Dean swear the CTS coupe concept is virtually unchanged from Munson's original drawings. Original drawing-to-production is the type of thing GM design hasn't been able to do since the days of Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell.

"When we started with the scale model, to what you see right in front of you," Manoogian says, "is identical. Our mission was, take that scale model and do a full-size car."