More Racing News

[Bob <mx@snet.net>]

GENEVA -- Cadillac, the quintessential American luxury brand, is poised
to do something decidedly un-luxurious: hit the racing circuit.

General Motors Corp.'s premium division today will announce at the
Geneva Motor Show that it is returning to the 24-hour LeMans endurance
race in 2000 after a 50-year
hiatus.

Cadillac's entry in LeMans' prototype category will be an open-air
sports car developed by Riley & Scott of Indianapolis and powered by a
twin-turbocharged Northstar engine.

"Racing is not expected from Cadillac," said John F. Smith, general
manager of Cadillac. "We think we can draw attention to the technology
of Cadillac vehicles -- and the
long-term reliability and durability of our products."

The move, under development since May 1997, is the latest gambit in a
long-term strategy to position Cadillac as GM's global luxury brand.
That means wooing finicky,
performance-minded European luxury-car drivers reared on Mercedes-Benz,
BMW and Audi -- all staples on the racing circuit.

"Wow. Great," said Gregor von Opel, whose Cadillac dealerships in
Frankfurt, Erfurt and Wuerzburg, Germany, sold 30 Cadillac Sevilles last

year and 40 in the first two
months of this year.

"Cadillac is not too well-known. That's the only problem with the car
here. This will be very good for the car's image. People here think it's

not sporty. They think it's very
American, very soft."

The June 2000 run in LeMans by Cadillac's car, trimmed with a
distinctive Cadillac grille and taillights, is intended to begin
changing that enduring European perception. The visibility in race-crazy

Europe also is designed to pave the way for four new Cadillac models
being developed with European consumers in mind, including a replacement

for the entry-level Catera.

To telegraph Cadillac's global aspirations, the Hamtramck-built Seville
sedan was unveiled at the 1997 Frankfurt International Motor Show. Last
year, however, Cadillac's 87 dealers across Europe sold 1,318 cars -- up

from just 480 in 1997 -- compared to more than 39,000 in the United
States.

"With the Seville we have only one product that comes in one flavor -- a

Northstar engine with an automatic transmission," Smith said,
acknowledging the slim choices Cadillac offers European consumers.
"We're trying to plow the road for the new products by raising our
profile at LeMans.

"We think we will draw attention to the technology in Cadillac vehicles
-- and people can see a statement about the long-term reliability and
durability of our products."

Cadillac's Evoq concept car, unveiled at January's North American
International Auto Show in Detroit, clearly was aimed at European-minded

luxury sport car buyers who long
ago dropped flabby Cadillac from their shopping lists. The enthusiasm
for the car was not lost on GM planners who plan to build the car,
pending some key production decisions.

When Cadillac last raced LeMans in 1950, Harry Truman was in the White
House, Detroit was in all its post-war glory and West Germany had just
become a republic. At LeMans, under the guidance of legendary racer
Briggs Cunningham, Cadillac's specially-tuned DeVille finished 10th,
with a Cadillac-powered, one-of-a-kind prototype right behind. (do any
of you remember the "Le Monstre"? -MB)

Instead of building on its comparative success at LeMans, however,
Cadillac opted to concentrate on the growing luxury market in
rich-and-happy America throughout the 1950s and '60s. Cadillacs got
bigger and softer while GM got richer and more powerful.

"We became very content with a rapidly growing domestic market," Smith
said. "But the world has changed and we're changing with it."

Cadillac planners estimate the worldwide luxury vehicle market totals 4
million cars and trucks each year -- only 1 million of which are sold
inside the United States and Canada, where new-car sales overall are
growing slowly.

That's why Cadillac is repositioning itself with a new rear-wheel-drive
product line -- code-named Sigma -- that should begin appearing in
showrooms by 2002. It's also why Ford Motor Co. is spending more than $6

billion to buy Volvo Car Corp., the upscale Swedish automaker.