PEBBLE BEACH, CALIF. — In keeping with the brand's role as a technology flagship for General Motors, the premium V-12-powered Cadillac Cien concept car is a befitting icon to usher in the brand's 100th anniversary next year.
The aerodynamic Cien — Spanish for 100 — holistically illustrates Cadillac's signature 'art and science' philosophy, melding design and technology in a mid-engine, two-seat sports car.
Cadillac's 'art and science' design philosophy incorporates sharp, shear forms and crisp edges — a form vocabulary that expresses bold, high-technology design and invokes the technology used to design it.
"With the Cien, we've created the ultimate expression of 'art and science' using dynamic lines to achieve geometric forms similar to those of the Evoq, Imaj and Vizon concept vehicles that preceded it," said lead designer Simon Cox, executive director of GM's Advanced Design Studio for Cadillac in Birmingham, England.
Cien's low, sleek appearance, inspired by modern-day Stealth aircraft, introduces a different proportion for Cadillac and demonstrates the reach of the brand's identity.
Trapezoidal air inlets are milled into the front-end surface graphically forming Cadillac's shield-like grille along with the centrally mounted badge. The bank of air inlets cools the front-mounted radiators, and is flanked on either side by vertical headlamps.