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Chip Foose is bringing life to a Cadillac sketch from 1935

General Motors, automotive home of Harley Earl, was a pioneer in the early days of car design. But for as many wild concept cars and even production cars as the company's studio created, there were still many that never got off the paper. Chip Foose is working to change the fate of one of those designs. According to Foose Design, Chip Foose's latest project is based on a sketch from 1935. Car dealer Wes Rydell and his wife Vivian commissioned a custom Cadillac coupe that was sketched out by GM designer Art Ross. It would take an existing Cadillac sedan, shorten it, lower it and give it a removable hardtop. The drawing is as far as the project got. Now Chip Foose is working on realizing the design in real life using a 1939 Cadillac Series 60 Sedan. He plans to follow the initial design brief, but with his own unique touches. He has also named the project "Madam X" in honor of what Harley Earl would call client projects. It is scheduled to be finished and ready for unveiling at the end of the summer. Foose is a well-known designer who has won some of America's most prestigious custom car awards such as the Ridler Award and designed vehicles for the TV show Overhaulin'. The final product should be quite a striking machine. You can see how it's coming along, as well as Foose's sketch of what the car will finally look like, in the gallery above. Related Video: Featured Gallery 1939 Cadillac Series 60 by Chip Foose View 13 Photos Image Credit: Foose Design, Inc. Auto News Celebrities Design/Style Cadillac Classics chip foose overhaulin

Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen expands on brand's future

Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen chatted with journalists at a recent roundtable, expounding on everything from domestic racing to Chinese manufacturing. The brand's been doing a slow burn on rolling out new products and increasing sales, but admittedly, there was a lot of work to do. After closing out last year 0.8 percent down in the U.S., the domestic luxury brand is more than 5 percent up so far this year, thanks to healthy double-digit bumps for the ATS and Escalade, and increased fleet sales. Globally, the brand's doing 21 percent better. The XT5 still outsells everything, though. Asked about slow sedan sales, de Nysschen cited a few reasons, one of them "energy prices," which are low enough to fuel the crossover craze. You can also read that as another admission that Cadillac doesn't have enough crossovers to please the crowds, a fact the XT4 will soon address. Yet de Nysschen also pegged the sedan malaise on "younger consumers who really are less tuned into dynamics and handling and all of those things that used to excite enthusiasts. It's more about the way cars complement and enable their lifestyle now." He topped that with a take on U.S. roads, saying, "I also have to say it may also be influenced a little bit by the decay of America's infrastructure. When roads no longer support high-performance sport sedans and ultra-low-profile rubber, people are going to respond to it." Those latter takes seem wide of the mark. Yes, BMW is the established leader, but the Munich carmaker sold 8,806 3 Series' so far this year in all variants, compared to 2,543 ATS coupes and sedans. Mercedes-Benz has sold 8,366 C-Class models so far in all variants. As for infrastructure, yes, it's a mess, but AMG sales rocketed up nearly 50 percent in the U.S. last year, nearly 10 percent of overall Mercedes sales, and the Three-Pointed Star expects that to rise again this year. People are buying sedans and performance models. They simply aren't buying enough of them with Cadillac badges. Cadillac has no plans to go racing in Europe since the brand doesn't have the kind of presence there to justify the investment. De Nysschen said they'll stick with the Daytona Prototype International formula in the U.S. domestic scene, and continue with the tech transfer from race to road.

Meet the next president's new Beast, a giant bomb-proof limo

We don't know who will be our president in 2017, but now we have a better idea of how that person will be transported on land. The next presidential limo, officially referred to as the presidential state car, will be another Cadillac. And a big one. You're looking at a lone spy photo of a car that will be of high interest to actual spies – not to mention Secret Service agents and lots of law-enforcement types. President Obama has been riding around in a Cadillac nicknamed The Beast for a while now. (It recently made an appearance on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.) Over the Secret Service radios, it goes by Cadillac One and Limo One. While the current car looks like a stretched Cadillac DTS sedan, it's actually kind of huge and built on a Chevrolet Kodiak medium-duty truck chassis. The same is likely to be true again, but this one will look a lot more like the latest Cadillac models. Through the camo we can see a front end reminiscent of the new CT6 large sedan. Imagine one of those scaled to about 5/3 of the production car and you've got the right idea. Fun fact: It will be the first presidential limo to feature Caddy's new wreathless crest logo on its grille. View 6 Photos As for features, we're in the dark and will remain so even after the new president-mover goes into service. The details are a legitimate matter of national security, but you can bet it's bulletproof, can withstand small bombs, and has some kind of onboard secondary air supply in case of a chemical or biomedical warfare attack. Oh, and it has that big red phone in back in the event things get really bad. The new one will no doubt carry the latest communications and safety technology. The new presidential limousine has been in the works for some time. The government sent out a request for proposals in 2013, and this model is expected to go into service sometime in 2017. Chances are it will make its debut at the inauguration of [INSERT CONTROVERSIAL NAME HERE] in about a year's time. Related Video: