1975 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible 2-door Loaded! on 2040-cars

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GM's Cruise Origin EV platform to be shared by many electric vehicles

GM on Monday announced that it was spending $2.2 billion at its Detroit-Hamtramck facility, part of its $3 billion commitment made after the UAW strike to transform Hamtramck into the company's first plant to exclusively build a wide variety of electric and autonomous vehicles. The operation will eventually employ 2,225 people. Hamtramck is still building the Cadillac CT6 and Chevy Impala. Production of those cars will wind down Feb. 28, when GM will idle the lines for 18 months of retooling. During the transition, more than 800 workers will likely be transferred to build pickups at Fort Wayne, Indiana, or Flint, Michigan. When Hamtramck production of new EVs begins in late 2021, the Cruise Origin electric shuttle revealed last week will be among the first vehicles built there. Also, an electric pickup likely branded as a Hummer to be sold as a GMC, which will be debuted by LeBron James during the Super Bowl this Sunday. GM made quite a few pronouncements during the unveiling of the electric, autonomous Cruise Origin last week in San Francisco. We heard that the Origin was designed to last for for 1 million miles, be "roughly half the cost of what a conventional electric SUV costs today,” and riders could save as much as $5,000 per year by giving up their cars for Origins. Much was left out, as well, such as detailed specs on the platform, and when the Origin could see wide deployment. Carscoops addressed one open question about the platform, reporting that the Origin's bones will be shared among a number of other GM battery-electric vehicles, probably starting with the Cadillac EV due in 2021. The site received confirmation of that tidbit from Megan Soule, the automaker's assistant manager of Electrification, Battery Technology, Fuel Cells, R&D and GM Ventures Communications. It seems what we've been shown in the Origin is the first fruit of the multi-vehicle EV strategy GM CEO Marry Barra presented at the 2017 Barclays Global Automotive Conference. One of the slides (below, full PDF presentation here) touts an "All new multi-brand, multi-segment platform" with a "Structurally integrated all new battery system." The next slide places that modular platform at the center of 11 new vehicles, the van-looking silhouette on the upper right labeled "SAV," for shared autonomous vehicle, apparently in reference to the Origin.

Ringbrothers drops more hints about its wild SEMA creations

Ringbrothers isn't finished teasing its SEMA creations. First we got a sliver of rear quarter on a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro that revealed a bundle of carbon fiber and SEMA-obligatory deep-dish wheels. The Wisconsin tuner's now announced its litter of cars headed to the show and a few specs, along with two shadowy drawings. The Camaro, christened with the name Valkyrja and a two-tone paint job, gets stretched in two directions with severe fender flares to widen the body and an extended wheelbase. We're not sure what's happening with the Camaro's snout in the drawing, but under that bulging hood we'll find a 416-cubic-inch LS V8 from Wegner Motorsports. Wegner built the 416-cu-in supercharged LS3 V8 that powered Ringbrothers' 1,000-hp G-Code Camaro in 2016.  The second member of the gang is a 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 dubbed Unkl. The exterior begs for attention with a deep blue sea paint job, deep front chin spoiler, bulging hood, yellow brake calipers, and what looks like a racing number inside a roundel on the doors. Unkl gets its motivation from a 520-cu-in Boss V8 built by Kaase Racing Engines, rumored to throw about 800 hp.    Finally, Ringbrothers is bringing its Cadillac Madam V for another Las Vegas go-round after giving the custom coupe some updates. The Madam V is a 1948 Cadillac Series 62 fastback coupe body placed atop an ATS-V chassis, first shown in 2016. The firm didn't elaborate on the changes, so all we can expect for now are the coupe's postwar good looks mixed with new-millennium engineering, and a 3.6-liter twin-turbo V6 with 464 hp under that exceptionally long hood.    For any in attendance at the show, the Valkyrja Camaro debuts at the BASF booth on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019 at 9:30 a.m., the Unkl Mustang gets revealed a couple hours later at the Flowmaster/Holley booth, and the Madam V Cadillac will be on display throughout the show at the Ringbrothers booth.

Junkyard Gem: 1987 Cadillac Cimarron

The General's Cadillac Division hit its all-time sales record during the 1973 model year, with 304,839 cars sold. Then the OPEC oil embargo in the fall of that year caused oil prices to triple, while simultaneously accelerating several negative trends in the American economy. In the aftermath, sales of imported luxury cars surged, the President resigned, the communists conquered South Vietnam, and Cadillac introduced a compact car based on the proletariat Chevrolet Nova. Sales of those Sevilles — which cost better than triple the price of their Nova siblings — proved strong, and so it seemed to make sense to create a Cadillac-ized version of the Nova's replacement: the front-wheel-drive Chevrolet Cavalier, which debuted for the 1982 model year. Thus was the Cadillac Cimarron born, and that's what we've got for today's Junkyard Gem. The Cimarron stayed in production for the 1982 through 1988 model years, but sales were strongest for the first few years and so the 1982-83 cars make up the bulk of my Cimarron junkyard finds. This very clean '87 in a Denver-area yard is a rare late-production car. Although the Cimarron was by far the swankiest GM J-Body ever made, its Cavalier ancestry was unmistakable. While the Nova-based Seville caused some grumbling over the cheapening of the Cadillac brand, the Cimarron inspired widespread anger and loathing among those who love cars. Even with a leather interior and nice audio system, the Cimarron still caused pain to its owners who saw cheapo Cavaliers (and Pontiac J2000s and Olds Firenzas) looking nearly identical at a glance yet costing far less. In 1987, the list price on a new Cimarron started at $15,032 (about $35,550 in 2021 dollars). The cheapest Cavalier listed at $7,255 that year, though the loaded Cavalier RS sedan with V6 engine started at $9,159. For 1982 through 1986, the base powertrain in the Cimarron consisted of a 1.8-liter or 2.0-liter four-cylinder — yes, the same double-digit-horsepower engines that went into Cavaliers — paired with a four- or five-speed manual transmission. The 2.8-liter V6, rated at 125 horses, was an option in those cars and became standard equipment in the 1987 and 1988 Cimarrons.