Keeping up standards

Welcome to our Cadillac Special issue; we’ve pulled together an interesting (I think) selection of cars that represent the heyday of this hallowed marque’s history: Forties, Fifties and of course Sixties. There’s a history of Cadillac too and we even bring things bang up to date with the latest all-electric Cadillac, the Lyriq, that goes on sale this year and which it has been hinted may cross the Atlantic – this time next year you might see them in the car park at your local Sainsburys or plugged in at the services on the motorway where so many Teslas seem to spend their time!

It occurred to me that it was a terrible thing that as editor of Classic American I had never owned a Cadillac myself. I then remembered that for six months I was actually the custodian of a 2000 Cadillac STS which we gave away in a prize draw in the magazine. It was a beautiful car, right-hand drive, whisper quiet and bristling with technology. Of course, mo’ technology, mo’ problems as they say down the ’hood… at least when they get older. I seem to remember those models had about eight separate computers on board that controlled everything from the engine to suspension and I thought to myself: “Blimey, I wouldn’t want to be dealing with that in 20 years’ time!”

Yet now Cadillac turns over a new chapter in its long and storied history; it’s going all-electric (apart from the Escalade for a few years) and in a way this is no different from its previous bold and technologically advanced iterations. I really hope it works out and that it will be able to get a foothold here in the UK/Europe. If an American car company can come over here from scratch 10 years ago like Tesla and go on to be the most popular (electric) car in the UK, there’s no reason why a giant like GM shouldn’t be able to crack that market too. It's just a shame it’s not doing ’61 Coupe De Villes with batteries… now that’s something I would definitely sign up for!