Cadillac Elmiraj Concept debuts over Pebble Beach weekend

When you spell it “El Mirage,” you're talking about the Southern California dry lake where many a hot rod hero made a name back in the day. When you spell it “Elmiraj,” you're talking about Cadillac's latest concept car, a powerfully lengthy coupe that hints at a return of the massive Eldorado from Caddy's past.

Either way, it's a big statement.

Media-trained designers waxed superlative at the concept's Pebble Beach weekend debut, assigning everything short of “desert topping” to the concept's meaning and purpose.

“It's about driving dynamics,” said designer Mark Adams. “It's a large, beautiful coupe that expresses elegance in its simplest form.”

“It's the ultimate expression of two-door luxury,” said Clay Dean, director of global advanced design.

“Elmiraj provides a look inside the Cadillac Studio on how we envision performance and luxury for the next generation of luxury drivers,” said Bob Ferguson, senior vice president for global Cadillac.

Elmiraj is a long – 205 inches long – four-seater coupe with no B-pillar and very little external adornment. It's minimalism at maximum. Though no one sat in them, the rear seats looked more than big enough for real adults to sit upright and maybe even stretch a little. This was surprising considering the coupe-like proportions of the roof line but it was important to the design.

“You have to make it functional,” said Dean. “This is where we have an advantage compared to Mercedes CL or even Bentley coupes.”

Functionality includes power, and to that end the Elmiraj has a 500-hp, 500-lb-ft, 4.5-liter twin-turbo V8 driving the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic.

“Luxury customers expect a sense of power,” said Dean.

At an estimated 4000-pound curb weight, they'll need it.

The Elmiraj will be on display Sunday up the hill from the Pebble Beach Concours. And maybe, in one form or another, in your dealer's showroom. Someday.

Monterey car week is packed with car shows, vintage racing and auctions. Autoweek will be there providing streaming photo galleries and live coverage of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, historic racing at Laguna Seca, the Monterey car auctions and plenty more. Go to Autoweek's Pebble Beach home page for complete coverage and live updates.

By Mark Vaughn