Opulent Velocity: Cadillac Imagines a Future Supercar

When we saw the teasers for Cadillac's vision of "the future of electric performance" back in March, we wondered if the concept would be the second coming of the Cien, the brand's 2002 two-door supercar concept. Today, we meet the new concept, called Opulent Velocity. Like the Cien, it is an ambitious vision, but if Cadillac's recent pursuit of ultra expensive, bespoke vehicles is any indication, it will likely fare better than the Cien.

Those butterfly doors are the most striking connection between the concepts. Otherwise, they're quite different approaches to the two-door supercar recipe, in large part because of the march of progress: Opulent Velocity is a showcase of Cadillac's expertise in electric vehicles and autonomous driving technology.

"Opulent Velocity expresses the most artful integration of technology, luxury and exhilaration characterized by Cadillac's halo V-Series variants, and future electrification design expressions," says says Bryan Nesbitt, executive director of global design for Cadillac.

The concept divides your time in the car into two distinct periods: When you're simply traveling from place to place, and when you're hunting for the thrill of a drive. The former is represented by "Opulent," the latter by "Velocity." Cadillac "imagines the personal freedom that full autonomous mobility could enable," and has equipped the concept with a full widescreen display (reminiscent of the nearly pillar-to-pillar in its Celestiq and Escalade IQ) and Augmented Reality Head-Up Display (AR HUD) that works in concert with the car's Level 4 autonomous capability. As defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers, this level is the second-highest in its five-category system. (Super Cruise, for context, is Level 2, or "Partial Driving Automation.") There are only a few Level 3, or "Conditional Driving Automation," vehicles on sale in the U.S. now, and they're both Mercedes. Level 4 is "High Driving Automation," and it's quite far in the future.

The other personality of this concept, however, belongs to the here and now. Rotate the multifunction controller of Opulent Velocity (another production-car tie-in), and the steering yoke and pedals, retracted when the car was driving itself, appear. "The velocity experience is inspired by Cadillac's Blackwing track-proven engineering -the ultimate in luxury performance," says the company. Taking its existing lap-time analysis technology a few quantum leaps forward, Opulent Velocity showcases a "Ghost Car" in the head-up display. "This mode presents a competitive driving course that allows drivers to improve their lap times or compete against peers on various designated tracks." Nifty!

Velocity mode also grants the driver access to road overlays, the active aero systems on the car, and suspension settings-MagneRide isn't mentioned in the release, but we would love to know what sort of witchery one of those engineers could imagine, if given the same creative freedom as Cadillac has given its exterior and interior designers in this concept.

Opulent Velocity was shown to the (well-paying) public for the first time in Monterey, California, at The Quail, A Motorsport Gathering. As a sponsor of the event, Cadillac is allowed the chance to show anything, including a concept, so it did.

The event is another piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding what Cadillac is aiming for. You may have no interest whatsoever in garden parties on golf courses surrounded by brass bands and shrimp cocktails, but high-end manufacturers do-think Rolls-Royce, Porsche, Maserati, and Pagani. Each of these brands showed off a new concept or production vehicle, and each is quite familiar with building highly personalized, even one-off cars for deep pocketed clients who see in the company the power to make their automotive dreams come true. Rolls, Maserati, and Pagani, in fact, all debuted one-off builds at The Quail this year. By placing a concept amongst this company, Cadillac is once again making a case that it belongs in the same conversation as these premium manufacturers.

It may not have a V-12, or the 5.5-liter V-8 from Cadillac's Hypercar, but Opulent Velocity, like Cien, is reaching for the sky. We're excited to see its future.