Well, that didn’t take long. Mere weeks after unveiling the big, beautiful Cadillac Elmiraj concept at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, our spy photographers caught an early development mule for the rear-wheel drive 2016 Cadillac flagship.
That GM has been tinkering with a full-size, rear-drive vehicle to sit atop the Cadillac lineup is hardly a secret. Official press materials for the Elmiraj concept indicated the two-door showcar was “constructed with chassis and structural elements of an ongoing Cadillac vehicle development project slated for future production.” The release went on to proclaim “this new vehicle architecture expands the brand’s commitment to lightweight rear-wheel-drive performance.”
That’s a verbose way of saying the Elmiraj sat atop an early version of the automaker’s new Omega platform, which is designed to be slightly larger than the Zeta platform presently used in the Chevrolet Camaro, Chevrolet SS, and Chevrolet Caprice. Coincidently, the mangled-looking Caprice you see here, photographed just outside of GM’s proving grounds in Milford, Michigan, also sits atop an early version of the Omega platform.
Although an ultra-premium Cadillac Omega model, codenamed 01LL, has supposedly been put on hold, this less-expensive, Omega-based Cadillac flagship, codenamed 01SL, is still approved for production. If all goes according to plan, the finished Cadillac flagship – likely a four-door coupe – should launch in time for the 2016 model year.
Like most development mules, the bodywork is nowhere near representative of the future Cadillac’s styling, but merely a means of shrouding new mechanical bits during real-world testing. The choice of Holden/ Chevrolet Caprice bodywork isn’t surprising, as the Caprice is the largest rear-drive sedans in GM’s global portfolio.
There are plenty of cues that indicate this particular car isn’t your run-of-the-mill Chevrolet Caprice. The awkward headlamps, cribbed from a Chevrolet Captiva Sport/ Saturn Vue are certainly different, but the most significant cue lies with the front fenders. Roughly 3-5 inches of sheetmetal has been added between the trailing edge of the Caprice’s stock fender and the leading edge of the front door, suggesting the car’s underpinnings are longer than that of the present Caprice.
For the record, today’s Caprice PPV measures 204.2 inches in length, and rides upon a 118.5-inch wheelbase. Cadillac didn’t provide a wheelbase measurement for the Elmiraj, but did say the striking four-passenger coupe measured 205 in length. 2011’s Cadillac Ciel concept, also rumored to be built upon an early iteration of the Omega platform, was 203.7 inches long and rode upon a 125-inch wheelbase. It doesn’t appear as if this mule’s Caprice body was widened, despite the fact it measures only 74.8 inches wide and both Cadillac concepts are closer to 76-77 wide.
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