Seventeen years ago this month, Cadillac unveiled to the world a radical concept car to eradicate memories of a few decades of bland designs, one that General Motors' then-President Rick Wagoner described as "shocking in its boldness."
The crisp geometric lines and brash angles on the Evoq roadster shown at the 1999 Detroit auto show ushered in Cadillac's so-called art-and-science design language. That edgy theme carries on today in Cadillac's latest efforts, the XT5 crossover and CT6 luxury sedan, which go on sale in the spring.
But Cadillac's straight-from-the-press-release description of the Evoq back then -- "it appears to be computer-generated, rather than hand-sculpted" -- underscores just how far the theme has evolved over nearly two decades.