Chismillionaire Detroit Auto Show Report- Cadillac CTS Coupe

What's special about it?
It's so special that Clay Dean, Cadillac's global design director, calls the CTS coupe concept the breakthrough design of the decade. "The CTS coupe concept is the next great design, carrying the baton from the Evoq concept that ushered in the Art and Science era in 1999," he says.

Well, the Evoq turned into the XLR, a sales disaster, but this CTS coupe should fare much better when it eventually goes into production. For one, its CTS roots are solid and it doesn't stray too far from them. The CTS coupe rides on the same wheelbase as the sedan, yet it's 2 inches shorter in both height and overall length. The windshield has been laid back a few degrees, while the B-pillar has been eliminated to further clean up the profile as well. Unfortunately, the C-pillars seem to have grown abnormally large in response, giving the CTS coupe an almost hatchback-style profile.

Surprisingly, most of the sheet metal is new, as the grille, headlights and front fenders are the only direct sedan carryovers. According to John Manoogian, director of exterior design for Cadillac, typical exterior bodywork enhancements like extended moldings and a spoiler were kept out of the mix to maintain the purity of the overall design. Instead, only smaller details have been changed, like slimmer side mirrors, revised quarter-panel vents and hidden door handles.