June 27, 2024 • 44 mins
Cadillac’s new $350,000 Celestiq offers buyers a unique experience. Hosts Tony Quiroga and Eddie Alterman travel to Cadillac House to see what Celestiq customers have in store for them. After a thorough walk around of the Celestiq from the engineers and designers who created it, Tony and Eddie option out a Celestiq with Cadillac’s design concierge.
For more on the Cadillac Celestiq visit Car and Driver online.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, and welcome to Car and Drivers. Into Cars, a
podcast from iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio, brought to you by eBay Motors.
I'm Tony ki Roger, the editor in chief of Car
and Driver, and I'm joined by my co host, former
editor in chief and current Chief Brand and Content Officer,
Eddie Alterman, and together we're Into Cars.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Each episode of this podcast covers a new car that
we think is worthy of your attention. The cars we
select may feature a novel design, cutting edge engineering, or
something entirely new. We'll cover the stories behind the cars,
answering the whys and exploring the whats, and then we'll
sit down with the people who actually made the cars
to answer our questions about them. Come along for the
(00:43):
ride and you'll hear it all the good, the bad,
and the ugly in the way that only carrent Driver delivers.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
This episode of Into Cars is a little different. We're
going on a field trip to Cadillac House at GM's
technical Center in Warren, Michigan, to have the customer experience
of a very special car, the three hundred and fifty
thousand dollars Cadillacs Celestic. In addition to specifying how we'd
order Cadillac's most expensive car. Ever, We're going to talk
to the designers, engineers, and people responsible for a car
(01:10):
that will compete with the Rolls, Royces, Bentley's and My
Box of the world.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
For what seems like decades, Cadillac has been teasing a
true flagship for its lineup, and now they've built it.
The Cadillac Celestic is a three hundred and fifty thousand
dollars to start six hundred horsepower ev sedan that's as
long as an escalade. But you don't just powerslide into
your local Cadillac dealership to get one. Owners have to
(01:42):
make the cut, and once they do, they're welcomed into
the world of Cadillac House. Cadillac House at Vanderbilt, that's
the official name, is the brand's attelier where customers go
to speck out their celestics. The trim and colored choices
are limitless, and it all has in the midst of
a mid century modern architectural masterpiece. Aerosarnin's General Motors Technical Center.
(02:06):
Dedicated in nineteen fifty six, Cadillac House is a jewel
box of glass, travertine and marble, located right in the
heart of the Tech Center campus. And the thing is
nobody gets to see it. You have to be invited in.
You either have to work there, be a journalist or
by a Celestic. It's truly one of the most amazing
(02:28):
places in America in terms of mid century architecture, but
it's just not open to the public. And we're going
to go there today. We're here at this incredible building,
Cadillac House at Vanderbilt, with Alexandra Damasca, who is going
to be our tour guide to sort of orient us
(02:50):
to the space. And this is where Celestic owners will
be specking out their cars, so give us the tour.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
It's quite a special place and that's why it was
selected for the Celestic bespoke design process. It seemed fitting
to create a space that would house the design process
that was happening on a one to one level between
the client and the designer and also with the support
of our concierge. And we're at the GM Technical Center,
(03:20):
which in its day was dubbed the Versa of the industry,
and there is so much meaning to the place where
we're standing. It's really the heart of the American automotive industry.
But it also is the origin point of the American
mid century modern design. It was one of the first
commissions to a now very prominent designer, Aerosaranin.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
An Aerosaronin did the Saint Louis arch He did the
TWA terminal at GfK.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
And correct a Bunch and many many iconic chairs. And
I think that's why it's not only the automotive industry,
it's part of the architecture and fern and also modern
art because when you look around, you look outside of
the catillag House and you see a fountain by Alexandra
Calder called the Water Ballet. There are many sculptures, and
(04:11):
one of them is the one that we're standing in
front of, which is a beautiful glimmering screen by Harry Bertoya.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And it really feels like you're in the heart of
the whole complex too.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
As I mentioned, on one side, you have the view
of the Alexandra Calder fountain, but also you see the
new design building which is called Design West and the
iconic Design Dome behind us. On the other side is
the Vehicle Engineering building. So we're technically standing at the
intersection of artistry and engineering.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
We're here with Aaron Crossley who's the design director for Celestic,
and Tony Roma, who's the chief engineer of Celastic, and
they're going to take us through the Celestic. We're standing
in front of what's this color called.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
This is cybery yellow metallic.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Tell us about the design and how this all came together.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
It starts out as an actual sketch, as a vision,
and it catches people's attention. You can tell even on
paper that it's really something that you need to build.
That started the process and the development of creating three
dimensional scale models and then full size models transitioned to
(05:27):
a concept vehicle, and then concept turned into a production car,
and it was really very natural. Everybody was very invested,
and you know, we've talked a lot about a flagship
for Cadillac. Tony's worked on a lot of them. I've
worked on a lot of them, and there's always been
one reason or another that it didn't quite take flight.
And this just all of the pieces came together in
(05:48):
terms of what the vehicle looked like from a design
evolution perspective, what the vehicle would do for the brand overall.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
You know, it is a completely new proportion, super long wheelbase,
very very low, So can you tell us about the
packaging of this.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
We had this maybe three quarter scale kind of vision model,
so we scanned it and tried to put people in it,
and you know, let's just say the studio was a.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Little aggressive with yeah, just normal.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
Yeah, So you got to take something and start tugging
and pulling on it and massaging it. And over the
course of a fair amount of time, we quickly realized
the flat battery pack out of something like a lyric
was not going to work for a car like this.
You really just can't get these proportions with anything like that.
So we take our pouch cells that we normally put
(06:42):
like toast, and we put them like pancakes. We flip
them down and we stack them up in varying layer
heights of sixes or nine. They have to go in
multiples of three because we do three pouches in parallel
and one hundred in series. So instead of being stacked
like I said, like toast in threes, it's turned on
their sides.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
And Domino's kind of exactly.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
So we have stacks of six, nine, and twelves depending
on where you look.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And oh amazing, I had no idea. I thought this
was like, oh, you just take the skateboard under the
hummer and throw.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
It out right now, Well, you couldn't get it this short.
That proportions wouldn't be anywhere like this. The roof would
have to be significantly taller.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
So how long and low it is, I can't think
of any car in modern times with the one hundred
and thirty old wheelbase.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
We're I freaked exactly the number of like five millimeters
longer than a Rolls Royce Coast and it ends in
at eight because of the significance to the culture in China,
so you know, we thought through even little TV details
like that. Right, So thirty three oh eight is the
wheelbase and the height.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I think it's lower than a Malibu.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
The proportions are crazy, like you said, and the working
on it in the studio, even in a setting like
this when it's by itself, you definitely get a sense
of scale. But then yeah, the first time you take
it out into the real world, you're like, yeah, boy.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It has a huge impact when you see it on
on the roadway in a sea of crossover SUVs.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
Well, and back to your point about the roofline, the
wheel tire package, These twenty three inch wheels are basically
the same as an escalade, So it's got the wheel
tire package from an escalator, with a roof shorter than
a CT six and the length that's halfway between a
short and long wheelbase escalade.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I think it speaks to the overall size of the
thing where they look natural, dec really natural.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
That's the wheelbase. I think right that you need those
wheels to make this work. If they were any smaller,
it would be look kind of silly.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Well, walk us around it a little bit and tell
us what you're proudest of.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
There's a lot of things I'm proud I think the
vehicle overall. When we talk about how unique it is
from an appearance, the low profile bowl proportion, I think
that that speaks a lot too. If you look at
all of the significant Cadillacts of the past, I mean,
they were always making these bold, unexpected design statements, and
I think Celestic continues that narrative for Cadillac. There's a
(08:58):
lot of beauty in the simplicity of the form as well,
and then it's highlighted and punctuated by incredible technology and
beautiful materials. I'm really proud of the work that the
team did collectively to be able to deliver this vehicle
with this level of material execution, I think is a
(09:21):
huge accomplishment.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
There's carbon fiber body panels.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
Right the hood, these front fenders, the rear quarter panels,
those are all carbon. The deck lid is also carbon,
but you really can't see any of it. It's covered
this AOC and D pillar trim. This piece right here
is carbon.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Oh wow, that's a huge piece.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
The only reason the doors aren't carbon fiber is because
we needed them to be radar transparent. There's a radar
unit right kind of in the center here that's looking
for objects that the power doors might bump into. So
we chose SMC essentially fiberglass only because the radar can't
see through carbon.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Of work done with the engineering teams around paint as well,
and paint pigments and being able to have that radar
transmissibility with the different pigments without causing any issues with that.
So there was a lot of really upfront work done
to really understand what the right pigment load is, what
(10:22):
the right amount of aluminium is, so that we could
have such broad opportunities for color on the vehicle. I
think The other material note we love to talk about,
and we can start with the exterior, is that everything
that looks like metal is real metal.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Tremendous amount of like subtlety and the line work and yeah,
as you said, the shape itself is simple, but as
you look closer, you see all this cool stuff sort
of emerge. You know, the way that that bone line
goes all the way down the side of the car,
and that kind of crease in the door. It breaks
us a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
There's a lot going on down the side of the car,
even though, like you said, at first glance it looks
super simple.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Spent a lot of time perfecting that body.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Fide so Tony as the person responsible ultimately for things
like ctsvs. CT five v Black Wing, tell us about
the performance a little bit.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
Yeah, I can't wait until we get a chance for
you guys to drive this thing. It is like nothing
you've ever driven before. The technology we incorporated into the suspension,
We've got Mr Dampers, air springs, active role control. We
obsessed over the kinematics to give it smooth ride and
even motions, and these Mitchel entires completely overachieved on what
(11:41):
we thought they were going to be.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Those are the pilot. These are the pilot, EVS, PILOTV.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Yeah, it's funny when you look at it and all
the things we've been talking about, how elegant it is
and large and all of that, and you get in
and you expect that's what it's going to drive like.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
But then when you get in.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
And drive it the first time, like Mark Roysdrovit, he
got out of the car and he started talking about
how athletic and responsive the car is, which is exactly
what we were hoping. He would say, But you don't
expect that. So you get out of the car going
how did you do that? And that's exactly the response
we're looking for. It's smooth and elegant and quiet when
you want it to be, and then when you want
(12:16):
to be a little more aggressive that it responds very well.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So without of high character internal combustion ENGEN like you
have in the V cars, you have to find other
places to give it that character, right, and so we're
seeing that a lot in EVS because the power deliveries
is so similar from EV to EV. If you take
the engine out of the equation, what are the points
(12:41):
of differentiation? And you're starting to see like, Okay, it's
really in chassis development. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
And the good news is it's in things that we're
really really good at.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
So it's about giving the customer an experience that they
don't even know how you would do that. And that's
what we were able to do with this car. Because
every EV goes really quickly zero to sixty. Even the
slow ones quote unquote are really fast by ice vehicle standards,
So that's not a discriminator anymore. And in fact, I'm
sure you guys have been in these really really fast TVs.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
They're almost uncomfortable when you do that launch.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
Especially if you're you can literally make people in a
car like this.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
That was certainly not what we were calling for.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
And right from the beginning I've used this statement that
we were trying to make a great car that happened
to be an EV versus making a great EV. And
that's a key difference. And so we did obsess over
the kinematics and the suspension and the isolation and all
those things.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
How did you achieve that it was such a low hoodline.
We hollowed out the structure.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
Normally there would be some structure that would tie in
the front of dash to the radiator support area and
the upper suspension would get bounded by that. So the
upper control arm comes within about three millimeters of the
actual surface of the hood and we had to hollow
everything out in order to let it all come up
and just it's all about Yeah, there's no.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Bumps on the hood.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
And engineering jing the right clearances.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
This was the first time we had ever done that
at GM, that we had ever really made the structure
literally go around the traveling front suspension.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
You know, when I drove that escalated V I was
so astounded by the inertial management and how you have
such a barge and also massive body feel so small
and drive so small. So this thing does.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Save drive this oh yes, and no offense to my
escalated brothers and sisters, but the way better.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
You're going to be, You're gonna be blown away what we.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Were able to do with chassis modal for shake and
vibration and the response. Like I said, these tires, oh
my gosh, and the really low center of gravity that
comes with an EVY It's crazy. Yeah, the car is
just amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Can you talk a little bit about the mega castings
that are in the car.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Yeah, sure, it's one of the things we did early on.
We talked about you know, what did you do when
you when you saw the proportions, Well, we packaged the
people in space we wanted them to be. We distributed
the lithium pouches around to get the right amount of energy,
and then you've got to figure out a body structure
that connects all the dots. And when the engineers came
in the first time and said, okay, what if we
(15:12):
made the entire lower structure out of castings, you sort
of look at.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Them and you go, nah, that would never work.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
You're thinking castings, big heavy, you know, cast iron skillet
kind of thing. But then you really start looking at well, okay,
by the time we weld together hundreds of pieces of
metal and all the rest of the stuff, and we
just sort of went down this road. And so we've
got six major castings that come together to make the
entire lower structure. And these are all sand castings, so
(15:40):
we have the flexibility. We can three D print sand cores,
so it's a mixture of hard tooled and printed cores
to make the castings, and it gives us a lot
of flexibility if we have to change something.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I would think it's one of the major learnings. Oh
as far as engineering and this.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Absolutely and what is the volume ultimately, Well, we.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Don't talk specifics, but we don't have the ability to
even make very many of these even if we wanted to.
So you know, somewhere in the order of to a
day is around what we expect we're going to make.
But yet we're not talking specific some volume beyond that.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Well, can we go inside it and check out the interior?
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Absolutely? First off, how do you open the doors any
door handles?
Speaker 5 (16:19):
Well, that was one of the things early on, right,
So these lit round buttons, and like I mentioned, there's radar,
so you'll get used to when you drive a car,
you want to stay out of the zone for the radar,
and then you just push the button and it opens.
When you have the key fob in your pocket and
you walk up to the driver's door, it would open
for you.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
It's a setting. You can choose it or not.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
When you get in the driver's side and you push
the brake pedal, that closes the door for you. So
the owner in theory never even has to touch the
driver's door. How do you close this door from the
inside the door handle, and so you just flick it up.
It's a micro switch and it'll do itself. Or you
can push the door handle when you pull up to
pick somebody up and you put the car in park,
the screen pops up and you can just flick and
open their door for them.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
It's pretty cool the.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Leather smell coming off of this as soon as you
open the door. Yeah, and these door are the interior
door handles are retro.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
Yeah, that's a good seventies Yeah, that's exactly if you
go look at a sixties Cadillact, this is what they're
very much like.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yep, no record player, no bar, but no, no, we.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Pick it out for different markets, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
We hop in Yeah. Oh wow, one hundred and thirty
inch wheel base. I can feel it back here.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
It goes to the door all but it's the door
cast I think they're cast zanc. The windows switches, the
window lifters or three D printed aluminum well coade hooks
are three D printed.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
The metal on the assist handles all three D print.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
These are a real retro touch too. Yeah, the grab handles.
So that's an impressive screen up there. How big is
that screen?
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Fifty four inches? And this side over here has electronics
shutters in it, so as soon as you're driving down
the road, it turns opaque to the driver. So I
can sit here and watch Hulu on my side of
the screen or YouTube or whatever.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I want and the driver can't see it. Is this
the largest moonroof or panoramic sunroof? It's the largest I
know of.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
Yeah, let's put it that way and then you can
just you know, you can make it a load dark.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
It's like a triple seven window. And every piece in
here is unique to Celestic.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
The suite of components visually is the same from a
brand consistency perspective, but how we've executed it on Celestic
is unique to Celestic exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Can you talk about what some of the goals were
with the interior.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Design, having overall design or form language that was fairly
simple and easy to understand, so that it could then
be embellished by materials, craftsmanship, technology, a really simple breakup
that's easy to understand and realize in many different colors
and nations. You know, an interior that is meant to
(19:02):
be a blank canvas, that's meant to be customized and
enhanced by the owner of the vehicle, you know, when
they design it. I think another really unique thing about
this interior because of the way it is handbuilt, is
this ability to kind of taking advantage, if you will,
of this ability to line things up so you know,
(19:24):
you can trace this line from the base of the
A pillar basically all the way three hundred and sixty
degrees around the car. So really emphasizing the long lines
that you get from the exterior echoing those on the
interior IP.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
We went for this low and away look. You can
see even how the steering column interfaces with the IP.
That was a real design feature that we struggle with
a lot is to get this down and away from
you that spacious feeling. You know, you're in a big car,
but yet the header's pretty low, so you want to
make sure that it doesn't feel claustrophobics, very airy in here.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Where are the batteries package? Now that we're sitting in
the car, it's four seats, you know, very comfortable. I
have a ton of foot room, I have a ton
of leg room. Where have you packaged the batteries? Are
they down this center tunnel?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Hold that thought about foot room.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Right, So under Aaron and I here are the nine
stacks tall. Because a front occupant's legs are further out
in front of them, so they can handle the age point,
which call the hips down to your heel. They can
handle that being a little more so we can lay
our feet out. The rear occupants, because you're have the
front seat in front of you, you need your heel
down lower to be comfortable. So you only have six
(20:33):
tall underneath your heels there, but then it goes to
twelve underneath your body.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
So your floor is higher than yes, okay.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
And then the center tunnel, we turned the pouches that
are about half the width of the car. We turn
them ninety degrees and there's two stacks of twelve down
the middle, down under the center console here like a
Fiera gas tank. I can't think of a more elegant reference,
but but yes, like a Hiero gas tank.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yess, tell us about the motors a little bit.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
It's a two motors system, right, so one in the
front that has a built in APU for making twelve loads,
and then one large one in the rear. It adds
up to over six hundred horsepower of propulsion power, and
they're very similar to like the performance version of a
lyric there bespoke to us only because of what we
(21:22):
do to them. From an V standpoint, we kind of
encapsulate them, wrap them up. We did some different things
with the gearing, but they're very common. I could spend
one hundred thousand dollars on drive units and it wouldn't
make this car that much more special versus spending all
the attention we did on the interior and other things.
So the drive units are more than adequate. When you
drive this car, it's very quick, super comfortable to drive,
(21:44):
super quiet.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
So n n V. What is it stand? Oh, noise
and vibration. Okay, so that's the new there's no harshness
anymore because you don't have that.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Yeah, it could just be I don't use the acronym, right,
that could be it too. So the stereo system thirty
six speakers inside?
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Thirty eight speakers and then we have two outsides, so
you could say we've got forty we've got exterior speakers.
We've got a tailgate mode so if you're at a
car show, you can turn on and there's speakers outside,
or if you're washing your car, you can turn it on.
But the interior with the thirty eight speakers and the
AKG guys, if they're listening to this, they'll chuckle because
I've been telling them for years. And they won't let
(22:23):
me say the best audio system in the world because
that's a pretty subjective thing. But they know very clearly
that's been our goal. And we're in the middle of
the audio tuning.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Loops right now.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
Spend a lot of time with them obsessing over all
those little details.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
There's a lot of Steely Ban records. Listen to a
lot of diverse music right now. You can imagine.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I wonder how long it would take if you just
were sitting in the car listening to the stereo. How
long it would take to discharge the battery.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
We can calculate it, but it would be a very
long time. Yeah, this is the world's largest boombox. Four
weeks later you'd be deuff and out of.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
What about the sort of sound signature of the vehicle itself,
what we're going for in terms of the sort of
over the road sounds.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yeah, that's a really good question, and we've been working
on that as a brand I'd say, as the Cadillac brand,
we don't want this car to be too unique, and
on its own, it doesn't need to be. It's more
like everything else about the car. It wants to be
the most pure expression of Cadillac. So you'll find that
it'll be real similar to what you would find in
a lyric, only maybe just a touch more refined and
(23:29):
a touch more expressive. This car is all about quiet
and the quieter you make it. As you guys know,
you've driven so many cars over the years. I'm sure
we call it drain in the swamp, right, and you
start to notice those stumps that start sticking up and
the things that you never heard before when you finally
get everything else quieter. So we're obsessing over a lot
of really small little details.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
So I noticed there's a V button on the steering wheel.
What does that enable?
Speaker 5 (23:54):
So that enables what we call velocity mode. It lets
the inverters use all the range of their capacity. Normally
you don't, and like in velocity mode, it hurts range
a little bit because it keeps the battery conditioned in
a pretty narrow window. So you really only want to
use it if you really want all the power.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
So I'm looking back at the cargo area, which is massive,
which offers some practicality to this car, but it's sort
of unexpected to build a essentially a hatchback out of
this giant vehicle. Yeah, so what was the thinking, why
isn't it a sedan?
Speaker 5 (24:26):
Well, that was just driven by the shape. When you
look at that sketch there and talked about in the
very beginning, the lines that make the shape really demanded
that it not be a traditional, you know, three bucks
sedan that would have totally altered its characteristics. And there's
no logical place to put a bulkhead. I mean, trust me,
the engineers wanted to but that signature if we were
(24:47):
to get out and look in from the hatch, right,
that signature is one of the things that designers were
very obsessed with from the beginning. That four free standing
seats with this long center console.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, the seats are amazing. I don't have my dorometer
with me, but they're nice and soft, but also kind
of firm and supportive, and it feels like I'm not
sure where the adjustment is. It's virtual.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
It's all virtual.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, so I'm kind of reclined to back here.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
It's the same, essentially the same seat in the front
of the rear. This is the first car I know
of that anybody's really done. Four of exactly the same
interesting forty way power seats with all the massage. The
arm rests and the center console arrests are all heated
active cooling, not just ventilation. You know, power head rests,
all the bells and whistles. You've got a next scarf.
You'll notice the little vent at the bottom. That's part
(25:34):
of what we do to create what we call micro
climate around each occupant, and that is much to the
EV part of it, right, for efficiency and range you
create you create this exactly local climate around the person
to make them comfortable, so you're not constantly conditioning this
huge cabin.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Yeah. I've been in some evs where I had some
range anxiety and shut everything down except for the heated seat.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Pulled off a real trick here because the cabin itself
isn't huge, and we're sitting in one that has a
black interior, but there's so much light, and we're sitting
in a car inside.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
In the hill building.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, and a lot of it is this little sail
window back here that you look to your right and
it just brightens every I mean, it's a really amazing trick.
You pulled off here.
Speaker 5 (26:16):
When you recline back even further and you look out
that window. Yet it's actually pretty comfortable. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Is this the longest duration project you both have ever
worked on? A five years?
Speaker 5 (26:28):
Yeah, it's the longest single.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Car single car.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, And it's rare.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
For a chief engineer to really stick with a car
all the way from like that first vision model all
the way through the production.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
That's pretty rare.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
And same from a design aspect as well, because usually
once they had an execution mode, we move on to
the next project. And also being able to have the
car and its entirety usually we have exterior team and
interior team to be able to be overseeing the vehicle
on it its entirety, I think speaks to the importance
(27:03):
of the vehicle.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
So was this car from concept to production? Was it
designed and engineered with a price in mind? Or was
it designed and engineered first and then you said, this
is what it's going to cost.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
And I'd be lying if I said we engineered it
to cost in any way?
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Right?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
So this was designed with a vision in mind, a
vision and experience. This is truly an exercise of what
we're capable of from a design and engineering standpoint. The
material choices we made there were definitely goals. If my
bosses are listening to this podcast, right, they'll be like,
wait a minute, you know we gave you goals, of course,
but yeah, this is more about more about that than
(27:41):
the price. And the price sort of landed where it did,
and it's in the range of what you would pay
for a rolls rice or something, So I don't think
that's going to shock anybody. I think what people need
to do now is they need to see it, they
need to experience it.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
There was this holistic desire to do this vehicle and
to create this experience around it, and that was that everybody,
I think was equally passionate and committed to making that happen.
And it was kind of like, we will do what
we have to do to create that and we'll figure
the rest out as we go, but we need to
(28:16):
achieve the vision. And I think, you know, creating the
concept vehicle initially as well gave us that additional kind
of physical north star that this is what we're trying
to capture for production.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
But just to be clear, this does not have the
north Star system, different north different.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
North Star, but a word that has significance to the brand.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Well, I can't wait to drive it be either.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Thank you both for this incredible walk around. What a treaty.
Thank you to be here.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Thank you Eron, thank you Tony.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Thanks for all.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
So what happens after you decide to buy an over
three hundred and forty thousand dollars Cadillac When we return,
Eddie and I option out of Celestic as our private
two of Cadillac house continues?
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Welcome back to car and drivers into cars.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So Eddie and I are about to go through the
client experience of specking out a Celestic and building our
own Celestics. And we're joined here by the concierge.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Hi.
Speaker 6 (29:24):
Yes, my name is Rob san Martin. I am one
of three concierge currently with the Celestic program.
Speaker 7 (29:29):
Hi, my name is Maya Dagger and I am a
system marketing manager for Celestic Excellent.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Let's go through the process.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah, let's go see.
Speaker 6 (29:36):
So obviously, when you walk in, you're greeted by this
beautiful custom piece by Harry Bertoya. This is the first
commission piece ever by Bertoya and his largest, So essentially,
when we greet clients into this space, they see celestic
and all of its grandeur. Really, for any vehicle, photos
will never do it justice. So it's always a great
(29:57):
opportunity when we walk up these steps here to see
in its full presence. At two hundred and eighteen inches
in length, it's six inches longer than a standard escalade.
So again it's a very big vehicle, and it's very
impressive considering what it took to bring something of such
genuine quality into fruition. So this space in general, we
have such a great opportunity to customize how we surprise
(30:19):
and delight our clients. One client of mine in particular,
they had a love story from nineteen seventy one. They
fell over an El Dorado with a red interior and
a white exterior, and we partnered with the Archives who
had that exact same unit. We pulled it into the space.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Cool.
Speaker 6 (30:36):
Yeah, it was a very touching moment. They definitely had
a connection to the vehicle.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Did they try to buy the Eldorado, No.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
They did it.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
They actually still in possession.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Of that, they own their own. Yeah. Cool.
Speaker 6 (30:47):
So yeah, we've been fortunate. We have a lot of
clients that do have a storied past with GM and Cadillac.
In the spirit of surprise and delight and getting to
know our clients, we've met with them virtually, probably at
least three or four times before they come to this space,
we'll have understood their preferences.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
So once customers see the car, where do you take that?
Speaker 6 (31:08):
We do like the opportunity to give the client a
full vehicle walk around with a subject matter expert. So
we'll typically have, you know, a member from our engineering
team join us. But before we get to that and
we'll kind of pause here, move them over to our
lounge space, get them settled, get any refreshments that they want.
We'll also have a procured selection of food and beverage
(31:30):
out here. We'll let them settle. Once we feel like
the client is comfortable, we'll then transition back to the
vehicle and then do that full walk around experience.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
I'm comfortable, are you comforting? We're ready?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Great.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
We have the opportunity to engage clients in any appointment
that they really want, and the clients always find something exciting,
something that they end up gravitating towards that you don't
really expect. I had a client recently that was so
fixated on the active rear spoiler that that's all we did.
We just played with activating it and disengaging it for
(32:06):
at least Yeah, So every client is unique, every client
journey is special.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Part design expert or therapist.
Speaker 6 (32:15):
Maybe oh oh, trust granm on call.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
And so this is the first time the customers will
actually have seen the car too, yes, yeah, so they've
learned about it. How have they learned about the car?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
So?
Speaker 7 (32:26):
Yeah, it really depends. We do things known as like
our Whisper events, so we invite like a curated selection
of people to those events and they will have seen
the vehicle there. Sometimes we do, you know, bring the
concierge or some of our subject matter experts to introduce them.
So everybody's coming in at different points in their journey.
A lot of people come to the website too, and
they look at the vehicle and there's a high level
(32:46):
interest there. Through our emails, all the traditional channels that
we would normally go through.
Speaker 6 (32:52):
So we'll go through you know, a full program overview
regarding the vehicle, ask all those engineering questions, see the
vehicle for the first time for most clients, as you
had mentioned, and then we'll come to this space. As
I had mentioned, we would typically have their design on
the table. We would have all of those materials that
we're working with the design.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Well, did they've selected already? Yes, from their virtual appoints. Yes,
everything would have been predetermined.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
And so you have ninety basic colors on these bucks here,
all sort of arrayed in REIGBIV order.
Speaker 6 (33:27):
Right now, we have seventy five actually on the wall
because it gets super overwhelming. And then on top of that,
we have a matte pairing for every single color that
we can do in mat and in this offering we
have everything from affect pigments, tricoats, tent coats, solid ceramics,
so we have a great mix of everything. We could
also do a custom development if a client had a
(33:49):
very specific color that they wanted to achieve.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
So how many leathers do we have?
Speaker 6 (33:53):
We have around ten leathers right now that are currently available.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
So we've come in Eddie and I are We've had
a discussion with you already and now we've brought to
you some good ideas and some bad ideas. Okay, So
what's the next process. Do I walk over to that
wall and select my favorite leather. What's first?
Speaker 6 (34:10):
I'd like to anchor us with the exterior color, to
be honest, because I feel like that's the crowning jewel
of the vehicle itself. With that being said, yeah, let's
go take a look. Could you tell me a little
bit about your current collection or some of the colors
and materials that you find yourself gravitating towards them life.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
I'm liking some of these lighter blues, Okay.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
I have a nineteen ninety eight geoprism right very similar
to that, and I want to keep the family resemblance.
Speaker 6 (34:38):
Okay, I like that, you know, in that blue space.
I would love to investigate maybe something that has a
little bit more of a metallic as well as let's
pull a solid and then just for fun, let's look
at this.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
These are great blues, very cool, hard to choose. I
like that French blue in the middle.
Speaker 6 (34:58):
Yes, I do too. We call that Carolina blue. These
blues are really unique.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Right now.
Speaker 6 (35:03):
We have things that lean more into that purple space,
like the hydrangea you had mentioned, are Carolina blue that's
more of like a cornflower blue, and then we lean
into this wonderland, which is more like a Robin's egg.
So with that being said, we're leaning more in this direction,
I believe.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Sure.
Speaker 6 (35:20):
Okay, for that sounds good. Now if we talk about
the interior, could you tell me a little bit about
some of the spaces that you're inspired by. Where would
this vehicle typically reside.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Here in Michigan?
Speaker 6 (35:31):
Here in Michigan?
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Okay, So I want something a little bright for.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Those gray days.
Speaker 6 (35:34):
Light and bright, I agree.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
But I also love the Detroit Tigers, so I like,
I want something baseball. Mit.
Speaker 6 (35:40):
Okay, I have a huge you just plan the all right,
So I'm going to pull some of these fabrics. So
we have our cinnamons, our camea, and our sheer gray.
We can't go wrong with any of these. I like
the idea of maybe one primary color and then subtle
accents of the other.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
I like this in him In as the primary and
Tomie as the accent.
Speaker 6 (36:04):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So Rob, when you said, oh, interesting, does it mean
that guy's out of his mind or.
Speaker 6 (36:11):
No? I just typically, you know, I'm not one to
do that subtle contrast. A lot of my clients like
something that's a little bit bolder, but I love that.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
So we're looking at this gigantic sixteen foot diagonal screen.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
And the car is being built for us in real
time with the options that we just selected.
Speaker 6 (36:28):
So if you can see on the wall there, we
have already rendered that Carolina blue on the exteriors.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
So we picked the exterior, we picked the cinnamon leather,
and now we're watching the accents get applied.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
I don't want to get ahead, but can I choose
my carpet color?
Speaker 2 (36:45):
No, of course, this is where Tony really goes for bro.
Speaker 6 (36:48):
That's pretty. So you'll see and all these fine accents
we've started to pull that contrast color.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
It's nice, it's so cool.
Speaker 6 (36:56):
It's a smart vehicle.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I like this.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
I bet you say that to all the clients, trust me.
Speaker 6 (37:03):
No, I mean, I'm here to make sure that they're
not making a four hundred thousand dollars mistake. So there's
definitely been some choices that we've we've helped clients, you know,
steer them into a new direction.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
I can't wait to hear how you're talking out of
my carpet. Are you gonna what?
Speaker 6 (37:19):
Are you gonna choose the heat orange? So let's look
at format color.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
I like that red?
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Oh, come on, you like that red?
Speaker 1 (37:29):
You know what? Can I get the not just the forlorats,
but can I get the carpet carpet?
Speaker 6 (37:34):
Yeah, you can get the whole flooring in a different
color as well.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
There we go. Okay, it's surprisingly okay, it.
Speaker 6 (37:42):
Is surprisingly okay. And you know what, that's actually really funny.
I had a client recently that they were going with
four tones on the interior and we were just like wait.
But honestly, when it rendered, it was beautiful. We just
did accent piping, accent stitching, and an embroidered headrest in
a tress color as well.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Okay, I've made a choice that I probably shouldn't have made. Yes,
talk me out of it. How do we do this?
Speaker 6 (38:06):
I understand that you really love the red, but what
I'm really gathering is that maybe you're looking to do
something that's a little bit more bold.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
I am. I'm very bold.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (38:17):
So with the exterior, we have that beautiful Carolina blue.
I'm thinking we can bring blue into this space. I
think it would be lovely if we, you know, we
have this lighter blue exterior, and then if we go
in and we pull the Phantom blue, which is probably
our deepest blue. It could work really nicely. Santom is
super chromatic, and Phantom also is that perfect accent for
(38:39):
a brown. Honestly, you can't.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Go wrong with it. It's bold enough to looks terrific.
Speaker 6 (38:44):
Okay, it looks great. You love it, but it's not
what you want.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Can you do the lighter blue?
Speaker 6 (38:48):
Yeah, let's definitely look at the Santorini.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
But it does look really nice.
Speaker 6 (38:51):
So this is Santorini. What do we think?
Speaker 2 (38:54):
It does?
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Remind me of my yacht?
Speaker 6 (38:56):
It's very yacht adjacent, I hear you. To be fair,
we're going modern. I mean honestly with some of our
leather selections that we've made so far. We have our
cinnamon with that Santorini. Maybe we switch out the hard
decore for our Humana, which is our carbon fiber, and
then I think this could go into a whole nother direction.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Was she selecting piping for the carpet car. Yes, very nice.
Speaker 6 (39:18):
Just so you're aware, there's probably around three hundred thousand
areas within the vehicle that we're able to customize.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Oh that's nice. It it's really good. The piping has
gone to the seat color.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
This will be perfect for Greece.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
I's see.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
So how does the pricing work?
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Right?
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Not that I care about costs, you understand, well.
Speaker 6 (39:39):
You know the MSRP is directly correlated to the selections
that we're making. Obviously, there are some significant price drivers
in the vehicle. There are some significant upgrades. But that
being said, it will just be determined by the selections
that we make. We do start at the three hundred
and forty thousand dollars mark or just north of that.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
What is the most expensive celest One can build? Honestly,
the guys a limit?
Speaker 1 (40:03):
And is this configurator? This configurator is not online?
Speaker 6 (40:06):
This is it is not You can see the rendering
itself is pretty advanced, so it really takes support. All
you're talking about that's good, that's joke, But I actually don't.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Say.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
I have a lot of experience in building really ugly
porsches on their configurators. So is there a cloth seat option?
Speaker 6 (40:29):
There is a cloth seat back option, and then the
lower IP and mid range of the vehicle. We have
three cloth options.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
So you're changing the piping of the seats right now. Yes,
we're just doing the center stripe very solid. And can
you do the center stripe in Canerini?
Speaker 1 (40:45):
So the center stripe has changed colors there down the spine.
Oh wow, Can I do my rear seats in a
different color than my front seats?
Speaker 6 (40:53):
Yes, we can.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
I love having the driver's seat one color and everything else.
Speaker 6 (41:00):
Oh that's what you like.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
I like that?
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Oh wow, every panel of the seat. Yep. Oh because
and this order, basically, this ticket it goes to the
craft's people sitting on this campus or yeah.
Speaker 6 (41:17):
No, so we have our artists in center where the
vehicles are being built by hand. No more than two
a day will be built by hand, and they do
receive this actually in form of a book. We're documenting
our designs as we go and especially once they're finalized.
It's a very detailed book that's called a commissioning book,
and that is the bible for every single Celestic build.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
There are so many possibilities there, really are. You could
just spend hours and hours and hours doing this.
Speaker 6 (41:46):
And that's why you know. The design team, the color
and trim team, they developed a beautiful palette of available
offerings that we get to play with. And there are
no two Celestics better alike.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I think you're really leaving some website traffic on the
table here by not offering this can figurators.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
This is the best configurator I ever.
Speaker 6 (42:02):
Saw, but I also think it could definitely crash a server.
It's very heavy. We have our beautiful Santorini blue in
the lower portion of the vehicle as well. I really
love the combination of the strikingly bold with a classic
cinnamon caramel leather.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Tell me I have good taste.
Speaker 6 (42:20):
You do have a good taste, you do, man.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
What I've noticed is we've walked a long way from
what we had originally to here. Yeah, you've guided us expertly. Oh,
you've made your ideas our ideas.
Speaker 6 (42:33):
Yeah, you made some great choices today. These are really fun.
I can't wait to see it me too. From this point,
I would just, you know, generate an MSRP based off this.
I would work with our financial team to understand what
that was, provide it to the client for their review,
their approval.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
And I bring the appropriate number of suitcases of cash.
Speaker 6 (42:53):
Yes all, yeah, all fives. Please don't ask why? Yeah,
of course, thank you so lovely.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Meeting, Yeah, I was super fun.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
These interviews were brought to you by Ebaymotors. Visit ebaymotors
dot com for more.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Car friends. We hope you enjoyed the behind the scenes
tour of the Cadillac House and the Cadillacs Elistic. While
it might be the most expensive Cadillac ever built, it
also might be the most advanced and certainly the most special. Well.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
I think that was the best configurator ever. Never seen
anything quite that extensive and elaborate and huge, So that
was really fun. But you know, this really does promise
a return to form for Cadillac. It's a long promised
flagship and I think they may have finally delivered it.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
For more on the all new Cadillacts Elistic, visit carent
driver dot com and be sure to pick up the
latest issue of carrent Driver magazine.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
And tune in next week to see if the internal
combustion engine sounds and fake eight speed gearbox engineered into
the Hyundai IONIQ five n EV can successfully replicate the
experience of driving a combustion engine car. If you don't
like the idea of all this fake sound, this is
really cool. Sound is sound right? It's really cool?
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Thake gearbox has done so convincingly.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Thank you for joining us for the Car and Drivers
Into Cars. If you enjoyed the show, join us every
week for new episodes, and don't forget to rate and
review wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Car and Drivers Into Cars is a production of Car
and Driver and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio. Our show is hosted
by Eddie Alterman and myself Tony Kirogo. Our executive producer
is Matt Romano. Our ep of Post Production is Matt Stillo.
Our supervising producer is Sierra Kaiser. This show was edited
by Sierra Spreen special thanks to our location sound recordist
Matthew Cisco. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.
Hello, and welcome to Car and Drivers. Into Cars, a
podcast from iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio, brought to you by eBay Motors.
I'm Tony ki Roger, the editor in chief of Car
and Driver, and I'm joined by my co host, former
editor in chief and current Chief Brand and Content Officer,
Eddie Alterman, and together we're Into Cars.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Each episode of this podcast covers a new car that
we think is worthy of your attention. The cars we
select may feature a novel design, cutting edge engineering, or
something entirely new. We'll cover the stories behind the cars,
answering the whys and exploring the whats, and then we'll
sit down with the people who actually made the cars
to answer our questions about them. Come along for the
(00:43):
ride and you'll hear it all the good, the bad,
and the ugly in the way that only carrent Driver delivers.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
This episode of Into Cars is a little different. We're
going on a field trip to Cadillac House at GM's
technical Center in Warren, Michigan, to have the customer experience
of a very special car, the three hundred and fifty
thousand dollars Cadillacs Celestic. In addition to specifying how we'd
order Cadillac's most expensive car. Ever, We're going to talk
to the designers, engineers, and people responsible for a car
(01:10):
that will compete with the Rolls, Royces, Bentley's and My
Box of the world.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
For what seems like decades, Cadillac has been teasing a
true flagship for its lineup, and now they've built it.
The Cadillac Celestic is a three hundred and fifty thousand
dollars to start six hundred horsepower ev sedan that's as
long as an escalade. But you don't just powerslide into
your local Cadillac dealership to get one. Owners have to
(01:42):
make the cut, and once they do, they're welcomed into
the world of Cadillac House. Cadillac House at Vanderbilt, that's
the official name, is the brand's attelier where customers go
to speck out their celestics. The trim and colored choices
are limitless, and it all has in the midst of
a mid century modern architectural masterpiece. Aerosarnin's General Motors Technical Center.
(02:06):
Dedicated in nineteen fifty six, Cadillac House is a jewel
box of glass, travertine and marble, located right in the
heart of the Tech Center campus. And the thing is
nobody gets to see it. You have to be invited in.
You either have to work there, be a journalist or
by a Celestic. It's truly one of the most amazing
(02:28):
places in America in terms of mid century architecture, but
it's just not open to the public. And we're going
to go there today. We're here at this incredible building,
Cadillac House at Vanderbilt, with Alexandra Damasca, who is going
to be our tour guide to sort of orient us
(02:50):
to the space. And this is where Celestic owners will
be specking out their cars, so give us the tour.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
It's quite a special place and that's why it was
selected for the Celestic bespoke design process. It seemed fitting
to create a space that would house the design process
that was happening on a one to one level between
the client and the designer and also with the support
of our concierge. And we're at the GM Technical Center,
(03:20):
which in its day was dubbed the Versa of the industry,
and there is so much meaning to the place where
we're standing. It's really the heart of the American automotive industry.
But it also is the origin point of the American
mid century modern design. It was one of the first
commissions to a now very prominent designer, Aerosaranin.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
An Aerosaronin did the Saint Louis arch He did the
TWA terminal at GfK.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
And correct a Bunch and many many iconic chairs. And
I think that's why it's not only the automotive industry,
it's part of the architecture and fern and also modern
art because when you look around, you look outside of
the catillag House and you see a fountain by Alexandra
Calder called the Water Ballet. There are many sculptures, and
(04:11):
one of them is the one that we're standing in
front of, which is a beautiful glimmering screen by Harry Bertoya.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And it really feels like you're in the heart of
the whole complex too.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
As I mentioned, on one side, you have the view
of the Alexandra Calder fountain, but also you see the
new design building which is called Design West and the
iconic Design Dome behind us. On the other side is
the Vehicle Engineering building. So we're technically standing at the
intersection of artistry and engineering.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
We're here with Aaron Crossley who's the design director for Celestic,
and Tony Roma, who's the chief engineer of Celastic, and
they're going to take us through the Celestic. We're standing
in front of what's this color called.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
This is cybery yellow metallic.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Tell us about the design and how this all came together.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
It starts out as an actual sketch, as a vision,
and it catches people's attention. You can tell even on
paper that it's really something that you need to build.
That started the process and the development of creating three
dimensional scale models and then full size models transitioned to
(05:27):
a concept vehicle, and then concept turned into a production car,
and it was really very natural. Everybody was very invested,
and you know, we've talked a lot about a flagship
for Cadillac. Tony's worked on a lot of them. I've
worked on a lot of them, and there's always been
one reason or another that it didn't quite take flight.
And this just all of the pieces came together in
(05:48):
terms of what the vehicle looked like from a design
evolution perspective, what the vehicle would do for the brand overall.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
You know, it is a completely new proportion, super long wheelbase,
very very low, So can you tell us about the
packaging of this.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
We had this maybe three quarter scale kind of vision model,
so we scanned it and tried to put people in it,
and you know, let's just say the studio was a.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Little aggressive with yeah, just normal.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
Yeah, So you got to take something and start tugging
and pulling on it and massaging it. And over the
course of a fair amount of time, we quickly realized
the flat battery pack out of something like a lyric
was not going to work for a car like this.
You really just can't get these proportions with anything like that.
So we take our pouch cells that we normally put
(06:42):
like toast, and we put them like pancakes. We flip
them down and we stack them up in varying layer
heights of sixes or nine. They have to go in
multiples of three because we do three pouches in parallel
and one hundred in series. So instead of being stacked
like I said, like toast in threes, it's turned on
their sides.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
And Domino's kind of exactly.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
So we have stacks of six, nine, and twelves depending
on where you look.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And oh amazing, I had no idea. I thought this
was like, oh, you just take the skateboard under the
hummer and throw.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
It out right now, Well, you couldn't get it this short.
That proportions wouldn't be anywhere like this. The roof would
have to be significantly taller.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
So how long and low it is, I can't think
of any car in modern times with the one hundred
and thirty old wheelbase.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
We're I freaked exactly the number of like five millimeters
longer than a Rolls Royce Coast and it ends in
at eight because of the significance to the culture in China,
so you know, we thought through even little TV details
like that. Right, So thirty three oh eight is the
wheelbase and the height.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I think it's lower than a Malibu.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
The proportions are crazy, like you said, and the working
on it in the studio, even in a setting like
this when it's by itself, you definitely get a sense
of scale. But then yeah, the first time you take
it out into the real world, you're like, yeah, boy.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It has a huge impact when you see it on
on the roadway in a sea of crossover SUVs.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
Well, and back to your point about the roofline, the
wheel tire package, These twenty three inch wheels are basically
the same as an escalade, So it's got the wheel
tire package from an escalator, with a roof shorter than
a CT six and the length that's halfway between a
short and long wheelbase escalade.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I think it speaks to the overall size of the
thing where they look natural, dec really natural.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
That's the wheelbase. I think right that you need those
wheels to make this work. If they were any smaller,
it would be look kind of silly.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Well, walk us around it a little bit and tell
us what you're proudest of.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
There's a lot of things I'm proud I think the
vehicle overall. When we talk about how unique it is
from an appearance, the low profile bowl proportion, I think
that that speaks a lot too. If you look at
all of the significant Cadillacts of the past, I mean,
they were always making these bold, unexpected design statements, and
I think Celestic continues that narrative for Cadillac. There's a
(08:58):
lot of beauty in the simplicity of the form as well,
and then it's highlighted and punctuated by incredible technology and
beautiful materials. I'm really proud of the work that the
team did collectively to be able to deliver this vehicle
with this level of material execution, I think is a
(09:21):
huge accomplishment.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
There's carbon fiber body panels.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
Right the hood, these front fenders, the rear quarter panels,
those are all carbon. The deck lid is also carbon,
but you really can't see any of it. It's covered
this AOC and D pillar trim. This piece right here
is carbon.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Oh wow, that's a huge piece.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
The only reason the doors aren't carbon fiber is because
we needed them to be radar transparent. There's a radar
unit right kind of in the center here that's looking
for objects that the power doors might bump into. So
we chose SMC essentially fiberglass only because the radar can't
see through carbon.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Of work done with the engineering teams around paint as well,
and paint pigments and being able to have that radar
transmissibility with the different pigments without causing any issues with that.
So there was a lot of really upfront work done
to really understand what the right pigment load is, what
(10:22):
the right amount of aluminium is, so that we could
have such broad opportunities for color on the vehicle. I
think The other material note we love to talk about,
and we can start with the exterior, is that everything
that looks like metal is real metal.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Tremendous amount of like subtlety and the line work and yeah,
as you said, the shape itself is simple, but as
you look closer, you see all this cool stuff sort
of emerge. You know, the way that that bone line
goes all the way down the side of the car,
and that kind of crease in the door. It breaks
us a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
There's a lot going on down the side of the car,
even though, like you said, at first glance it looks
super simple.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Spent a lot of time perfecting that body.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Fide so Tony as the person responsible ultimately for things
like ctsvs. CT five v Black Wing, tell us about
the performance a little bit.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
Yeah, I can't wait until we get a chance for
you guys to drive this thing. It is like nothing
you've ever driven before. The technology we incorporated into the suspension,
We've got Mr Dampers, air springs, active role control. We
obsessed over the kinematics to give it smooth ride and
even motions, and these Mitchel entires completely overachieved on what
(11:41):
we thought they were going to be.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Those are the pilot. These are the pilot, EVS, PILOTV.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Yeah, it's funny when you look at it and all
the things we've been talking about, how elegant it is
and large and all of that, and you get in
and you expect that's what it's going to drive like.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
But then when you get in.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
And drive it the first time, like Mark Roysdrovit, he
got out of the car and he started talking about
how athletic and responsive the car is, which is exactly
what we were hoping. He would say, But you don't
expect that. So you get out of the car going
how did you do that? And that's exactly the response
we're looking for. It's smooth and elegant and quiet when
you want it to be, and then when you want
(12:16):
to be a little more aggressive that it responds very well.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So without of high character internal combustion ENGEN like you
have in the V cars, you have to find other
places to give it that character, right, and so we're
seeing that a lot in EVS because the power deliveries
is so similar from EV to EV. If you take
the engine out of the equation, what are the points
(12:41):
of differentiation? And you're starting to see like, Okay, it's
really in chassis development. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
And the good news is it's in things that we're
really really good at.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
So it's about giving the customer an experience that they
don't even know how you would do that. And that's
what we were able to do with this car. Because
every EV goes really quickly zero to sixty. Even the
slow ones quote unquote are really fast by ice vehicle standards,
So that's not a discriminator anymore. And in fact, I'm
sure you guys have been in these really really fast TVs.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
They're almost uncomfortable when you do that launch.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
Especially if you're you can literally make people in a
car like this.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
That was certainly not what we were calling for.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
And right from the beginning I've used this statement that
we were trying to make a great car that happened
to be an EV versus making a great EV. And
that's a key difference. And so we did obsess over
the kinematics and the suspension and the isolation and all
those things.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
How did you achieve that it was such a low hoodline.
We hollowed out the structure.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
Normally there would be some structure that would tie in
the front of dash to the radiator support area and
the upper suspension would get bounded by that. So the
upper control arm comes within about three millimeters of the
actual surface of the hood and we had to hollow
everything out in order to let it all come up
and just it's all about Yeah, there's no.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Bumps on the hood.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
And engineering jing the right clearances.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
This was the first time we had ever done that
at GM, that we had ever really made the structure
literally go around the traveling front suspension.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
You know, when I drove that escalated V I was
so astounded by the inertial management and how you have
such a barge and also massive body feel so small
and drive so small. So this thing does.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Save drive this oh yes, and no offense to my
escalated brothers and sisters, but the way better.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
You're going to be, You're gonna be blown away what we.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Were able to do with chassis modal for shake and
vibration and the response. Like I said, these tires, oh
my gosh, and the really low center of gravity that
comes with an EVY It's crazy. Yeah, the car is
just amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Can you talk a little bit about the mega castings
that are in the car.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Yeah, sure, it's one of the things we did early on.
We talked about you know, what did you do when
you when you saw the proportions, Well, we packaged the
people in space we wanted them to be. We distributed
the lithium pouches around to get the right amount of energy,
and then you've got to figure out a body structure
that connects all the dots. And when the engineers came
in the first time and said, okay, what if we
(15:12):
made the entire lower structure out of castings, you sort
of look at.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Them and you go, nah, that would never work.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
You're thinking castings, big heavy, you know, cast iron skillet
kind of thing. But then you really start looking at well, okay,
by the time we weld together hundreds of pieces of
metal and all the rest of the stuff, and we
just sort of went down this road. And so we've
got six major castings that come together to make the
entire lower structure. And these are all sand castings, so
(15:40):
we have the flexibility. We can three D print sand cores,
so it's a mixture of hard tooled and printed cores
to make the castings, and it gives us a lot
of flexibility if we have to change something.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I would think it's one of the major learnings. Oh
as far as engineering and this.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Absolutely and what is the volume ultimately, Well, we.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Don't talk specifics, but we don't have the ability to
even make very many of these even if we wanted to.
So you know, somewhere in the order of to a
day is around what we expect we're going to make.
But yet we're not talking specific some volume beyond that.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Well, can we go inside it and check out the interior?
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Absolutely? First off, how do you open the doors any
door handles?
Speaker 5 (16:19):
Well, that was one of the things early on, right,
So these lit round buttons, and like I mentioned, there's radar,
so you'll get used to when you drive a car,
you want to stay out of the zone for the radar,
and then you just push the button and it opens.
When you have the key fob in your pocket and
you walk up to the driver's door, it would open
for you.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
It's a setting. You can choose it or not.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
When you get in the driver's side and you push
the brake pedal, that closes the door for you. So
the owner in theory never even has to touch the
driver's door. How do you close this door from the
inside the door handle, and so you just flick it up.
It's a micro switch and it'll do itself. Or you
can push the door handle when you pull up to
pick somebody up and you put the car in park,
the screen pops up and you can just flick and
open their door for them.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
It's pretty cool the.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Leather smell coming off of this as soon as you
open the door. Yeah, and these door are the interior
door handles are retro.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
Yeah, that's a good seventies Yeah, that's exactly if you
go look at a sixties Cadillact, this is what they're
very much like.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yep, no record player, no bar, but no, no, we.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Pick it out for different markets, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
We hop in Yeah. Oh wow, one hundred and thirty
inch wheel base. I can feel it back here.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
It goes to the door all but it's the door
cast I think they're cast zanc. The windows switches, the
window lifters or three D printed aluminum well coade hooks
are three D printed.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
The metal on the assist handles all three D print.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
These are a real retro touch too. Yeah, the grab handles.
So that's an impressive screen up there. How big is
that screen?
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Fifty four inches? And this side over here has electronics
shutters in it, so as soon as you're driving down
the road, it turns opaque to the driver. So I
can sit here and watch Hulu on my side of
the screen or YouTube or whatever.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I want and the driver can't see it. Is this
the largest moonroof or panoramic sunroof? It's the largest I
know of.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
Yeah, let's put it that way and then you can
just you know, you can make it a load dark.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
It's like a triple seven window. And every piece in
here is unique to Celestic.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
The suite of components visually is the same from a
brand consistency perspective, but how we've executed it on Celestic
is unique to Celestic exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Can you talk about what some of the goals were
with the interior.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Design, having overall design or form language that was fairly
simple and easy to understand, so that it could then
be embellished by materials, craftsmanship, technology, a really simple breakup
that's easy to understand and realize in many different colors
and nations. You know, an interior that is meant to
(19:02):
be a blank canvas, that's meant to be customized and
enhanced by the owner of the vehicle, you know, when
they design it. I think another really unique thing about
this interior because of the way it is handbuilt, is
this ability to kind of taking advantage, if you will,
of this ability to line things up so you know,
(19:24):
you can trace this line from the base of the
A pillar basically all the way three hundred and sixty
degrees around the car. So really emphasizing the long lines
that you get from the exterior echoing those on the
interior IP.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
We went for this low and away look. You can
see even how the steering column interfaces with the IP.
That was a real design feature that we struggle with
a lot is to get this down and away from
you that spacious feeling. You know, you're in a big car,
but yet the header's pretty low, so you want to
make sure that it doesn't feel claustrophobics, very airy in here.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Where are the batteries package? Now that we're sitting in
the car, it's four seats, you know, very comfortable. I
have a ton of foot room, I have a ton
of leg room. Where have you packaged the batteries? Are
they down this center tunnel?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Hold that thought about foot room.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Right, So under Aaron and I here are the nine
stacks tall. Because a front occupant's legs are further out
in front of them, so they can handle the age point,
which call the hips down to your heel. They can
handle that being a little more so we can lay
our feet out. The rear occupants, because you're have the
front seat in front of you, you need your heel
down lower to be comfortable. So you only have six
(20:33):
tall underneath your heels there, but then it goes to
twelve underneath your body.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
So your floor is higher than yes, okay.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
And then the center tunnel, we turned the pouches that
are about half the width of the car. We turn
them ninety degrees and there's two stacks of twelve down
the middle, down under the center console here like a
Fiera gas tank. I can't think of a more elegant reference,
but but yes, like a Hiero gas tank.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yess, tell us about the motors a little bit.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
It's a two motors system, right, so one in the
front that has a built in APU for making twelve loads,
and then one large one in the rear. It adds
up to over six hundred horsepower of propulsion power, and
they're very similar to like the performance version of a
lyric there bespoke to us only because of what we
(21:22):
do to them. From an V standpoint, we kind of
encapsulate them, wrap them up. We did some different things
with the gearing, but they're very common. I could spend
one hundred thousand dollars on drive units and it wouldn't
make this car that much more special versus spending all
the attention we did on the interior and other things.
So the drive units are more than adequate. When you
drive this car, it's very quick, super comfortable to drive,
(21:44):
super quiet.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
So n n V. What is it stand? Oh, noise
and vibration. Okay, so that's the new there's no harshness
anymore because you don't have that.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Yeah, it could just be I don't use the acronym, right,
that could be it too. So the stereo system thirty
six speakers inside?
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Thirty eight speakers and then we have two outsides, so
you could say we've got forty we've got exterior speakers.
We've got a tailgate mode so if you're at a
car show, you can turn on and there's speakers outside,
or if you're washing your car, you can turn it on.
But the interior with the thirty eight speakers and the
AKG guys, if they're listening to this, they'll chuckle because
I've been telling them for years. And they won't let
(22:23):
me say the best audio system in the world because
that's a pretty subjective thing. But they know very clearly
that's been our goal. And we're in the middle of
the audio tuning.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Loops right now.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
Spend a lot of time with them obsessing over all
those little details.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
There's a lot of Steely Ban records. Listen to a
lot of diverse music right now. You can imagine.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I wonder how long it would take if you just
were sitting in the car listening to the stereo. How
long it would take to discharge the battery.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
We can calculate it, but it would be a very
long time. Yeah, this is the world's largest boombox. Four
weeks later you'd be deuff and out of.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
What about the sort of sound signature of the vehicle itself,
what we're going for in terms of the sort of
over the road sounds.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yeah, that's a really good question, and we've been working
on that as a brand I'd say, as the Cadillac brand,
we don't want this car to be too unique, and
on its own, it doesn't need to be. It's more
like everything else about the car. It wants to be
the most pure expression of Cadillac. So you'll find that
it'll be real similar to what you would find in
a lyric, only maybe just a touch more refined and
(23:29):
a touch more expressive. This car is all about quiet
and the quieter you make it. As you guys know,
you've driven so many cars over the years. I'm sure
we call it drain in the swamp, right, and you
start to notice those stumps that start sticking up and
the things that you never heard before when you finally
get everything else quieter. So we're obsessing over a lot
of really small little details.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
So I noticed there's a V button on the steering wheel.
What does that enable?
Speaker 5 (23:54):
So that enables what we call velocity mode. It lets
the inverters use all the range of their capacity. Normally
you don't, and like in velocity mode, it hurts range
a little bit because it keeps the battery conditioned in
a pretty narrow window. So you really only want to
use it if you really want all the power.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
So I'm looking back at the cargo area, which is massive,
which offers some practicality to this car, but it's sort
of unexpected to build a essentially a hatchback out of
this giant vehicle. Yeah, so what was the thinking, why
isn't it a sedan?
Speaker 5 (24:26):
Well, that was just driven by the shape. When you
look at that sketch there and talked about in the
very beginning, the lines that make the shape really demanded
that it not be a traditional, you know, three bucks
sedan that would have totally altered its characteristics. And there's
no logical place to put a bulkhead. I mean, trust me,
the engineers wanted to but that signature if we were
(24:47):
to get out and look in from the hatch, right,
that signature is one of the things that designers were
very obsessed with from the beginning. That four free standing
seats with this long center console.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, the seats are amazing. I don't have my dorometer
with me, but they're nice and soft, but also kind
of firm and supportive, and it feels like I'm not
sure where the adjustment is. It's virtual.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
It's all virtual.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, so I'm kind of reclined to back here.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
It's the same, essentially the same seat in the front
of the rear. This is the first car I know
of that anybody's really done. Four of exactly the same
interesting forty way power seats with all the massage. The
arm rests and the center console arrests are all heated
active cooling, not just ventilation. You know, power head rests,
all the bells and whistles. You've got a next scarf.
You'll notice the little vent at the bottom. That's part
(25:34):
of what we do to create what we call micro
climate around each occupant, and that is much to the
EV part of it, right, for efficiency and range you
create you create this exactly local climate around the person
to make them comfortable, so you're not constantly conditioning this
huge cabin.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Yeah. I've been in some evs where I had some
range anxiety and shut everything down except for the heated seat.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Pulled off a real trick here because the cabin itself
isn't huge, and we're sitting in one that has a
black interior, but there's so much light, and we're sitting
in a car inside.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
In the hill building.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, and a lot of it is this little sail
window back here that you look to your right and
it just brightens every I mean, it's a really amazing trick.
You pulled off here.
Speaker 5 (26:16):
When you recline back even further and you look out
that window. Yet it's actually pretty comfortable. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Is this the longest duration project you both have ever
worked on? A five years?
Speaker 5 (26:28):
Yeah, it's the longest single.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Car single car.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, And it's rare.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
For a chief engineer to really stick with a car
all the way from like that first vision model all
the way through the production.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
That's pretty rare.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
And same from a design aspect as well, because usually
once they had an execution mode, we move on to
the next project. And also being able to have the
car and its entirety usually we have exterior team and
interior team to be able to be overseeing the vehicle
on it its entirety, I think speaks to the importance
(27:03):
of the vehicle.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
So was this car from concept to production? Was it
designed and engineered with a price in mind? Or was
it designed and engineered first and then you said, this
is what it's going to cost.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
And I'd be lying if I said we engineered it
to cost in any way?
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Right?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
So this was designed with a vision in mind, a
vision and experience. This is truly an exercise of what
we're capable of from a design and engineering standpoint. The
material choices we made there were definitely goals. If my
bosses are listening to this podcast, right, they'll be like,
wait a minute, you know we gave you goals, of course,
but yeah, this is more about more about that than
(27:41):
the price. And the price sort of landed where it did,
and it's in the range of what you would pay
for a rolls rice or something, So I don't think
that's going to shock anybody. I think what people need
to do now is they need to see it, they
need to experience it.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
There was this holistic desire to do this vehicle and
to create this experience around it, and that was that everybody,
I think was equally passionate and committed to making that happen.
And it was kind of like, we will do what
we have to do to create that and we'll figure
the rest out as we go, but we need to
(28:16):
achieve the vision. And I think, you know, creating the
concept vehicle initially as well gave us that additional kind
of physical north star that this is what we're trying
to capture for production.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
But just to be clear, this does not have the
north Star system, different north different.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
North Star, but a word that has significance to the brand.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Well, I can't wait to drive it be either.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Thank you both for this incredible walk around. What a treaty.
Thank you to be here.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Thank you Eron, thank you Tony.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Thanks for all.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
So what happens after you decide to buy an over
three hundred and forty thousand dollars Cadillac When we return,
Eddie and I option out of Celestic as our private
two of Cadillac house continues?
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Welcome back to car and drivers into cars.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So Eddie and I are about to go through the
client experience of specking out a Celestic and building our
own Celestics. And we're joined here by the concierge.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Hi.
Speaker 6 (29:24):
Yes, my name is Rob san Martin. I am one
of three concierge currently with the Celestic program.
Speaker 7 (29:29):
Hi, my name is Maya Dagger and I am a
system marketing manager for Celestic Excellent.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Let's go through the process.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah, let's go see.
Speaker 6 (29:36):
So obviously, when you walk in, you're greeted by this
beautiful custom piece by Harry Bertoya. This is the first
commission piece ever by Bertoya and his largest, So essentially,
when we greet clients into this space, they see celestic
and all of its grandeur. Really, for any vehicle, photos
will never do it justice. So it's always a great
(29:57):
opportunity when we walk up these steps here to see
in its full presence. At two hundred and eighteen inches
in length, it's six inches longer than a standard escalade.
So again it's a very big vehicle, and it's very
impressive considering what it took to bring something of such
genuine quality into fruition. So this space in general, we
have such a great opportunity to customize how we surprise
(30:19):
and delight our clients. One client of mine in particular,
they had a love story from nineteen seventy one. They
fell over an El Dorado with a red interior and
a white exterior, and we partnered with the Archives who
had that exact same unit. We pulled it into the space.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Cool.
Speaker 6 (30:36):
Yeah, it was a very touching moment. They definitely had
a connection to the vehicle.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Did they try to buy the Eldorado, No.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
They did it.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
They actually still in possession.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Of that, they own their own. Yeah. Cool.
Speaker 6 (30:47):
So yeah, we've been fortunate. We have a lot of
clients that do have a storied past with GM and Cadillac.
In the spirit of surprise and delight and getting to
know our clients, we've met with them virtually, probably at
least three or four times before they come to this space,
we'll have understood their preferences.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
So once customers see the car, where do you take that?
Speaker 6 (31:08):
We do like the opportunity to give the client a
full vehicle walk around with a subject matter expert. So
we'll typically have, you know, a member from our engineering
team join us. But before we get to that and
we'll kind of pause here, move them over to our
lounge space, get them settled, get any refreshments that they want.
We'll also have a procured selection of food and beverage
(31:30):
out here. We'll let them settle. Once we feel like
the client is comfortable, we'll then transition back to the
vehicle and then do that full walk around experience.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
I'm comfortable, are you comforting? We're ready?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Great.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
We have the opportunity to engage clients in any appointment
that they really want, and the clients always find something exciting,
something that they end up gravitating towards that you don't
really expect. I had a client recently that was so
fixated on the active rear spoiler that that's all we did.
We just played with activating it and disengaging it for
(32:06):
at least Yeah, So every client is unique, every client
journey is special.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Part design expert or therapist.
Speaker 6 (32:15):
Maybe oh oh, trust granm on call.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
And so this is the first time the customers will
actually have seen the car too, yes, yeah, so they've
learned about it. How have they learned about the car?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
So?
Speaker 7 (32:26):
Yeah, it really depends. We do things known as like
our Whisper events, so we invite like a curated selection
of people to those events and they will have seen
the vehicle there. Sometimes we do, you know, bring the
concierge or some of our subject matter experts to introduce them.
So everybody's coming in at different points in their journey.
A lot of people come to the website too, and
they look at the vehicle and there's a high level
(32:46):
interest there. Through our emails, all the traditional channels that
we would normally go through.
Speaker 6 (32:52):
So we'll go through you know, a full program overview
regarding the vehicle, ask all those engineering questions, see the
vehicle for the first time for most clients, as you
had mentioned, and then we'll come to this space. As
I had mentioned, we would typically have their design on
the table. We would have all of those materials that
we're working with the design.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Well, did they've selected already? Yes, from their virtual appoints. Yes,
everything would have been predetermined.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
And so you have ninety basic colors on these bucks here,
all sort of arrayed in REIGBIV order.
Speaker 6 (33:27):
Right now, we have seventy five actually on the wall
because it gets super overwhelming. And then on top of that,
we have a matte pairing for every single color that
we can do in mat and in this offering we
have everything from affect pigments, tricoats, tent coats, solid ceramics,
so we have a great mix of everything. We could
also do a custom development if a client had a
(33:49):
very specific color that they wanted to achieve.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
So how many leathers do we have?
Speaker 6 (33:53):
We have around ten leathers right now that are currently available.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
So we've come in Eddie and I are We've had
a discussion with you already and now we've brought to
you some good ideas and some bad ideas. Okay, So
what's the next process. Do I walk over to that
wall and select my favorite leather. What's first?
Speaker 6 (34:10):
I'd like to anchor us with the exterior color, to
be honest, because I feel like that's the crowning jewel
of the vehicle itself. With that being said, yeah, let's
go take a look. Could you tell me a little
bit about your current collection or some of the colors
and materials that you find yourself gravitating towards them life.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
I'm liking some of these lighter blues, Okay.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
I have a nineteen ninety eight geoprism right very similar
to that, and I want to keep the family resemblance.
Speaker 6 (34:38):
Okay, I like that, you know, in that blue space.
I would love to investigate maybe something that has a
little bit more of a metallic as well as let's
pull a solid and then just for fun, let's look
at this.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
These are great blues, very cool, hard to choose. I
like that French blue in the middle.
Speaker 6 (34:58):
Yes, I do too. We call that Carolina blue. These
blues are really unique.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Right now.
Speaker 6 (35:03):
We have things that lean more into that purple space,
like the hydrangea you had mentioned, are Carolina blue that's
more of like a cornflower blue, and then we lean
into this wonderland, which is more like a Robin's egg.
So with that being said, we're leaning more in this direction,
I believe.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Sure.
Speaker 6 (35:20):
Okay, for that sounds good. Now if we talk about
the interior, could you tell me a little bit about
some of the spaces that you're inspired by. Where would
this vehicle typically reside.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Here in Michigan?
Speaker 6 (35:31):
Here in Michigan?
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Okay, So I want something a little bright for.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Those gray days.
Speaker 6 (35:34):
Light and bright, I agree.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
But I also love the Detroit Tigers, so I like,
I want something baseball. Mit.
Speaker 6 (35:40):
Okay, I have a huge you just plan the all right,
So I'm going to pull some of these fabrics. So
we have our cinnamons, our camea, and our sheer gray.
We can't go wrong with any of these. I like
the idea of maybe one primary color and then subtle
accents of the other.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
I like this in him In as the primary and
Tomie as the accent.
Speaker 6 (36:04):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So Rob, when you said, oh, interesting, does it mean
that guy's out of his mind or.
Speaker 6 (36:11):
No? I just typically, you know, I'm not one to
do that subtle contrast. A lot of my clients like
something that's a little bit bolder, but I love that.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
So we're looking at this gigantic sixteen foot diagonal screen.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
And the car is being built for us in real
time with the options that we just selected.
Speaker 6 (36:28):
So if you can see on the wall there, we
have already rendered that Carolina blue on the exteriors.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
So we picked the exterior, we picked the cinnamon leather,
and now we're watching the accents get applied.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
I don't want to get ahead, but can I choose
my carpet color?
Speaker 2 (36:45):
No, of course, this is where Tony really goes for bro.
Speaker 6 (36:48):
That's pretty. So you'll see and all these fine accents
we've started to pull that contrast color.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
It's nice, it's so cool.
Speaker 6 (36:56):
It's a smart vehicle.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I like this.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
I bet you say that to all the clients, trust me.
Speaker 6 (37:03):
No, I mean, I'm here to make sure that they're
not making a four hundred thousand dollars mistake. So there's
definitely been some choices that we've we've helped clients, you know,
steer them into a new direction.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
I can't wait to hear how you're talking out of
my carpet. Are you gonna what?
Speaker 6 (37:19):
Are you gonna choose the heat orange? So let's look
at format color.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
I like that red?
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Oh, come on, you like that red?
Speaker 1 (37:29):
You know what? Can I get the not just the forlorats,
but can I get the carpet carpet?
Speaker 6 (37:34):
Yeah, you can get the whole flooring in a different
color as well.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
There we go. Okay, it's surprisingly okay, it.
Speaker 6 (37:42):
Is surprisingly okay. And you know what, that's actually really funny.
I had a client recently that they were going with
four tones on the interior and we were just like wait.
But honestly, when it rendered, it was beautiful. We just
did accent piping, accent stitching, and an embroidered headrest in
a tress color as well.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Okay, I've made a choice that I probably shouldn't have made. Yes,
talk me out of it. How do we do this?
Speaker 6 (38:06):
I understand that you really love the red, but what
I'm really gathering is that maybe you're looking to do
something that's a little bit more bold.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
I am. I'm very bold.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (38:17):
So with the exterior, we have that beautiful Carolina blue.
I'm thinking we can bring blue into this space. I
think it would be lovely if we, you know, we
have this lighter blue exterior, and then if we go
in and we pull the Phantom blue, which is probably
our deepest blue. It could work really nicely. Santom is
super chromatic, and Phantom also is that perfect accent for
(38:39):
a brown. Honestly, you can't.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Go wrong with it. It's bold enough to looks terrific.
Speaker 6 (38:44):
Okay, it looks great. You love it, but it's not
what you want.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Can you do the lighter blue?
Speaker 6 (38:48):
Yeah, let's definitely look at the Santorini.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
But it does look really nice.
Speaker 6 (38:51):
So this is Santorini. What do we think?
Speaker 2 (38:54):
It does?
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Remind me of my yacht?
Speaker 6 (38:56):
It's very yacht adjacent, I hear you. To be fair,
we're going modern. I mean honestly with some of our
leather selections that we've made so far. We have our
cinnamon with that Santorini. Maybe we switch out the hard
decore for our Humana, which is our carbon fiber, and
then I think this could go into a whole nother direction.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Was she selecting piping for the carpet car. Yes, very nice.
Speaker 6 (39:18):
Just so you're aware, there's probably around three hundred thousand
areas within the vehicle that we're able to customize.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Oh that's nice. It it's really good. The piping has
gone to the seat color.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
This will be perfect for Greece.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
I's see.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
So how does the pricing work?
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Right?
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Not that I care about costs, you understand, well.
Speaker 6 (39:39):
You know the MSRP is directly correlated to the selections
that we're making. Obviously, there are some significant price drivers
in the vehicle. There are some significant upgrades. But that
being said, it will just be determined by the selections
that we make. We do start at the three hundred
and forty thousand dollars mark or just north of that.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
What is the most expensive celest One can build? Honestly,
the guys a limit?
Speaker 1 (40:03):
And is this configurator? This configurator is not online?
Speaker 6 (40:06):
This is it is not You can see the rendering
itself is pretty advanced, so it really takes support. All
you're talking about that's good, that's joke, But I actually don't.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Say.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
I have a lot of experience in building really ugly
porsches on their configurators. So is there a cloth seat option?
Speaker 6 (40:29):
There is a cloth seat back option, and then the
lower IP and mid range of the vehicle. We have
three cloth options.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
So you're changing the piping of the seats right now. Yes,
we're just doing the center stripe very solid. And can
you do the center stripe in Canerini?
Speaker 1 (40:45):
So the center stripe has changed colors there down the spine.
Oh wow, Can I do my rear seats in a
different color than my front seats?
Speaker 6 (40:53):
Yes, we can.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
I love having the driver's seat one color and everything else.
Speaker 6 (41:00):
Oh that's what you like.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
I like that?
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Oh wow, every panel of the seat. Yep. Oh because
and this order, basically, this ticket it goes to the
craft's people sitting on this campus or yeah.
Speaker 6 (41:17):
No, so we have our artists in center where the
vehicles are being built by hand. No more than two
a day will be built by hand, and they do
receive this actually in form of a book. We're documenting
our designs as we go and especially once they're finalized.
It's a very detailed book that's called a commissioning book,
and that is the bible for every single Celestic build.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
There are so many possibilities there, really are. You could
just spend hours and hours and hours doing this.
Speaker 6 (41:46):
And that's why you know. The design team, the color
and trim team, they developed a beautiful palette of available
offerings that we get to play with. And there are
no two Celestics better alike.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I think you're really leaving some website traffic on the
table here by not offering this can figurators.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
This is the best configurator I ever.
Speaker 6 (42:02):
Saw, but I also think it could definitely crash a server.
It's very heavy. We have our beautiful Santorini blue in
the lower portion of the vehicle as well. I really
love the combination of the strikingly bold with a classic
cinnamon caramel leather.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Tell me I have good taste.
Speaker 6 (42:20):
You do have a good taste, you do, man.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
What I've noticed is we've walked a long way from
what we had originally to here. Yeah, you've guided us expertly. Oh,
you've made your ideas our ideas.
Speaker 6 (42:33):
Yeah, you made some great choices today. These are really fun.
I can't wait to see it me too. From this point,
I would just, you know, generate an MSRP based off this.
I would work with our financial team to understand what
that was, provide it to the client for their review,
their approval.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
And I bring the appropriate number of suitcases of cash.
Speaker 6 (42:53):
Yes all, yeah, all fives. Please don't ask why? Yeah,
of course, thank you so lovely.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Meeting, Yeah, I was super fun.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
These interviews were brought to you by Ebaymotors. Visit ebaymotors
dot com for more.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Car friends. We hope you enjoyed the behind the scenes
tour of the Cadillac House and the Cadillacs Elistic. While
it might be the most expensive Cadillac ever built, it
also might be the most advanced and certainly the most special. Well.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
I think that was the best configurator ever. Never seen
anything quite that extensive and elaborate and huge, So that
was really fun. But you know, this really does promise
a return to form for Cadillac. It's a long promised
flagship and I think they may have finally delivered it.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
For more on the all new Cadillacts Elistic, visit carent
driver dot com and be sure to pick up the
latest issue of carrent Driver magazine.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
And tune in next week to see if the internal
combustion engine sounds and fake eight speed gearbox engineered into
the Hyundai IONIQ five n EV can successfully replicate the
experience of driving a combustion engine car. If you don't
like the idea of all this fake sound, this is
really cool. Sound is sound right? It's really cool?
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Thake gearbox has done so convincingly.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Thank you for joining us for the Car and Drivers
Into Cars. If you enjoyed the show, join us every
week for new episodes, and don't forget to rate and
review wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Car and Drivers Into Cars is a production of Car
and Driver and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio. Our show is hosted
by Eddie Alterman and myself Tony Kirogo. Our executive producer
is Matt Romano. Our ep of Post Production is Matt Stillo.
Our supervising producer is Sierra Kaiser. This show was edited
by Sierra Spreen special thanks to our location sound recordist
Matthew Cisco. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.
Hosts And Creators
Eddie Alterman
Tony Quiroga
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