We had this storied journey where we had to build the team, in a sense, before we had an entry. This project is so complex, even now, walking through the factory, seeing all the things that had to be built. There are some 43,000 parts you're designing your own chassis. It's a big, big task.
We're using Formula 1 on Apple TV to show exactly how the extreme research and development tested in the world's harshest racing environments translates directly to the consumer. That's not a marketing line. It's absolutely real, drawing a line between Ford racing vehicles and the tech inside vehicles like the F-150 Raptor, Bronco Raptor and the new EV electric truck that's on its way.
The project was originally intended to be much less, simply a garage for the owners' current beloved collection of five Porsches-two convertibles, a coupe, an SUV, and an electric sedan. But as they started talking, says lead architect Carl Baker, the mission crept to include "the ability to indulge all of their hobbies."
In a more-natural habitat - the serpentine road course of Sonoma Raceway - this 1,250-horsepower hybrid advances its case as the fastest production car in American history, and among the speediest to ever roam this planet's surface.
In the short term, expectations are brutally realistic, but this is still a team intent on making noise from day one. That intent will be made clear when Cadillac unveils the livery of its first F1 car during a Super Bowl commercial Sunday. Such a move is a statement and arrival aimed as much at mainstream America as at a paddock that, for years, questioned whether the brand belonged on the grid at all.
The American automotive landscape is changing after a period that saw tighter emissions rules push automakers toward more efficient, quieter powertrains and prompted shifts away from big V8 engines. But many of those regulations, including the federal EV incentives, have fallen away, leading automakers that once promised to discontinue the gas-hungry engines to reinvest in V8 offerings - especially in full-size trucks and performance cars.
While Ford ( NYSE: F) was eating through billions of dollars in an attempt to gain a large market share in the US EV market and its EU and China units stagnated, its best-selling, and likely most profitable vehicle, the F-150, continued its gargantuan unit sales. The F-150 is part of the F-Series of full-size pickup trucks. Last year, unit sales of these in the US reached 828,832, up 8.3%.
The best custom builds do not just remix old ideas. They ask what those ideas would look like if they were born today, with access to current tools, materials, and manufacturing processes. The SP40 Restomod Speedster is that question answered in carbon and billet. It takes the stance and spirit of a 1930s streamliner, that long, low, purposeful shape built for speed rather than comfort, and reimagines it through the lens of modern coachbuilding.
Cadillac's response was to design specifically for that liminal space. The testing livery features what they call "the Cadillac precision geometric pattern" in gloss and matte sequences, turning functional camouflage into brand vocabulary. They're using the constraint of secrecy to communicate design philosophy, establishing that their approach blends automotive prototype discipline with motorsport theater. The giant Cadillac crest draped across the engine cover isn't trying to hide anything. It's declaring that the space between stealth and spectacle is itself worth designing for.
"A lot of cars have been called "singular" over the years, but the DeLorean DMC-12 is one example of the description fitting perfectly well. DeLoreans have cropped up in plenty of pop culture places over the decades, from beloved blockbuster films to indie rock videos. More recently, several efforts have been made to revive the name and aesthetic - though, as with most things DeLorean-related, that hasn't been without some controversy."
