The last time Cadillac sold a Corvette-based luxury roadster things didn’t go so well. It’s not that the Cadillac XLR was a terrible car, it just wasn’t good enough to compete against the luxury big guns, such as the Mercedes CL. But that was old GM and the XLR was based on the front-engined C6. The situation is very different today. GM is healthy and we’re about to see the debut of the all-new C8, the first mid-engine Corvette.
According to The Drive, Cadillac could well be prepping its own version of the C8. Does this mean the XLR is coming back? We doubt the nameplate will be resurrected, but there is proof Cadillac is working on something sports car related.
A tipster sent in three photos of a mysterious key fob that shows several clues about what kind of car it belongs to. There is the typical lock/unlock, trunk open, and remote start buttons, but there’s also a button showing the convertible roof doing its thing. There’s another button for the front trunk release, or frunk. Notice the button that opens the engine cover? That engine is not up front, put it like that. Some visible serial numbers indicate the key fob belongs to an actual car.
Of course, this key fob could be nothing more than a prototype for a new design. But then why the mid-engined coupe indicators? It would make an awful lot of sense for GM to take further advantage of the C8’s platform instead of limiting it to a single model.
It costs billions to develop a new vehicle from scratch, hence the industry-wide use of flexible platforms. Wouldn’t GM want to recover some of the C8 development costs with another brand model? Of course, and Cadillac is the only real candidate. We also believe the C8’s platform is fully capable of handling a hybrid powertrain, so (and this is just us speculating) it’d make sense for a mid-engine Cadillac performance coupe to receive hybrid power as well. That’s what a flagship brand’s halo car is for.
Chances are, the C8 Corvette will debut this January at Detroit, but we doubt its Cadillac cousin, assuming it exists, will premiere at the same time. Stealing the spotlight from an all-new Corvette would not be smart.
