Photo: Theophilus Chin
People that make renderings have been very busy the past month, what with Skoda's new SUV coming out and all the goodies from Pebble Beach. Even though we know Cadillac isn't interested in such things, we want to show you what the new Escala concept would look like as a wagon.
This rendering by Theophilus Chin is like a cross between the emotional response from the CTS-V Wagon and the classy style of the Audi Prologue Avant concept.
That German concept is considered by many to be the current benchmark for wagon or shooting brake design. It's not surprising, considering Audi is one of the few companies that's still big on turning sedans into family load-luggers.
Production wagons are rarely as classy as this rendering. When we see the frameless window and sloping roof, the Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake naturally comes to mind. Of course, it's not hard to make a concept that looks good, when you can give it flush handles, tiny mirrors, and wheels the size of an XXL pizza.
But the Escala concept will probably also be remembered for an entirely different reason: what's under the hood. General Motors hasn't made any huge changes to the V8 engine in many years. However, here we have something called an LT5. It's a 4.2-liter, so it's lost a couple of liters of displacement, but gained twin turbochargers in return.
Everything from the CT6 sedan to the C8 Corvette is supposed to use it. And that kind of gets us fired, as we remember how the CTS-V wagon liked to walk all over the BMW M5 and pretty much anything that stood in its way.
Another thing worth pointing out is that the Escala-based Wagon would be one of the biggest ever, measuring at least 5,347 mm (210.5 in) in length. That's longer even than the S-Class LWB.
That German concept is considered by many to be the current benchmark for wagon or shooting brake design. It's not surprising, considering Audi is one of the few companies that's still big on turning sedans into family load-luggers.
Production wagons are rarely as classy as this rendering. When we see the frameless window and sloping roof, the Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake naturally comes to mind. Of course, it's not hard to make a concept that looks good, when you can give it flush handles, tiny mirrors, and wheels the size of an XXL pizza.
But the Escala concept will probably also be remembered for an entirely different reason: what's under the hood. General Motors hasn't made any huge changes to the V8 engine in many years. However, here we have something called an LT5. It's a 4.2-liter, so it's lost a couple of liters of displacement, but gained twin turbochargers in return.
Everything from the CT6 sedan to the C8 Corvette is supposed to use it. And that kind of gets us fired, as we remember how the CTS-V wagon liked to walk all over the BMW M5 and pretty much anything that stood in its way.
Another thing worth pointing out is that the Escala-based Wagon would be one of the biggest ever, measuring at least 5,347 mm (210.5 in) in length. That's longer even than the S-Class LWB.
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