Although General Motors added the word ‘concept’ to the end of the CTS Coupe’s nameplate at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, there was no question that the stylish two-door was headed to production. We’ve since learned that the CTS Coupe will begin rolling down the production line of May of next year, and we now have an official launch date for the two-door Caddy — November’s Los Angeles Auto Show.
Codenamed GMX226, the stylish couple will debut at the LA show — according to Edmunds – and will be built alongside the CTS sedan at the Lansing Grand River Plant. Production will start in May of 2009. The coupe will feature a backup camera which is not currently found on the sedan, and won’t have traditional door handles, but rather a touch-pad setup instead.
Thankfully, it appears that the majority of the CTS Coupe concept’s lines have been faithfully duplicated on this production model. Some feared that the concept’s radical fastback design might be watered down, revealing the Coupe’s sedan roots, but our profile view proves these fears as unfounded. It appears that the production version may have a slightly more pronounced rear deck, but if that’s so, it’s not enough to significantly alter the concept’s silhouette.
The CTS Coupe prototype further separates itself from its sedan donor thanks to the elimination of a conventional door handle, adopting instead the concept’s Corvette-style design which hides the door trigger behind the door’s aft cut-line. The concept and production similarities continue with the Coupe’s revised lower side sill, and the distinctively sculpted waistline, which begins at the A-pillar/fender vent, and narrows as it stretches rearward. The camouflage hides whether or not the line terminates into the concept’s razor-sharp point at the C-pillar, but it looks likely that that’s another design convergence between the show- and production cars. Earlier photos also confirmed that the concept’s bold central exhaust will also reach showrooms.
There are some visible differences between the Detroit Show Standout and the production model. Cost and feasibility studies have killed the concept’s glass-to-glass side windows, in favor of a visible B-pillar on the production model. The rest of the changes are found in front of the A-pillar. The concept coupe’s large, CTS-V-style hood bulge is gone on this prototype (although we’d love to see it return on the “V” coupe). And the show car’s reshaped front fenders — which sweep more voluptuously to a revised front bumper, tweaked front ground-effects, and more dynamic headlight and fog-light clusters — appear to have been replaced with stock items from the CTS sedan. It looks to us like the CTS Coupe and sedan will share identical front fenders and front fascia designs. From there back, however, the cars could scarcely be more different. The drama of the CTS Coupe concept is alive and well, and on its way to Cadillac showrooms.
Although the CTS Coupe will bow at November’s show, it remains unclear when GM will take the wraps off the CTS-V Coupe.
