“This is that crazy SOB in the Cadillac.”
That crazy SOB would be me.
And what made me a crazy SOB? I was competing in autocross, the domain of Miatas, Mustangs and Corvettes. You know, sports cars. And I was doing it in a 2001 Cadillac Seville. Not even the performance STS version. Nope, the Seville SLS, the one with the softer, plush ride expected of a traditional Cadillac; possibly the most unlikely car you’d ever see at an autocross.
It was the ultimate demonstration of “run what you brung.”
I don’t know why it took nearly 30 years of driving for me to discover autocross, but it’s one of the most fun things I have ever done, even in a car that was ridiculously inappropriate for it.
Autocross is essentially an obstacle course. The goal is to drive around and through the pylons as fast as you can in the correct sequence and without knocking any of them down. You’re racing the clock, and drivers are ranked both for overall time and within classes as defined by the Sports Car Club of America. No surprise, a Cadillac Seville is not listed in any SCCA classes, so I was in F Street, for a not-otherwise classified car with a V8 engine. That meant I was running up against Mustangs, Camaros and Corvettes. Suffice it to say I did not win my class. Ever.
But I kept at it and steadily improved. The Seville’s 275-hp Northstar V8 gave me plenty of power in the straights to make up for how much speed I scrubbed off pushing a heavy FWD luxury touring sedan through the tight corners. Most drivers, including the one who described me as that crazy SOB, were a good deal faster than me, but the more I drove, the more a lot of them seemed impressed at how I managed to hustle that big Caddy through the course. They were probably as surprised as I was.
What was not a surprise, however, was the wear on the front tires. They never came close to lasting as long as the treadwear warranty, and when I’d take the car to Discount Tire for a tire rotation, they always noticed how worn they were, especially on the outer edges.
“I drive it hard sometimes.” I wasn’t lying.
So how was the Seville when I wasn’t making it do something it clearly wasn’t designed for? When I drove the car as God and General Motors intended, it was superb.
That was particularly true on the open highway where the cushy ride was a plus. I made it from Chicago back to Oregon in 3.5 days and was none worse for wear even after driving for several hundred miles.
And the Northstar was never at a loss for power. I chased a friend driving an Audi A6 up the Lewiston Hill — a 7% grade that gains over 1,900 feet in five miles north of Lewiston, Idaho — at speeds we really shouldn’t have been driving, and the Northstar never ran out of breath. Cruising down the Interstate, I could get MPGs in the high 20s. I even averaged 30 MPG one time.
Cadillac’s Northstar engine was widely acclaimed when it was introduced, a high-performance, twin-cam, 32-valve V8 intended to compete with Lexus, BMW and Mercedes. And while its smooth, effortless performance and mellifluous engine note were never questioned, its reliability…was.
Once again, GM had missed the part about durability. The Northstar gained a reputation for blowing head gaskets, leading to very expensive repair jobs. In a 2000 update, Cadillac lengthened the factory head bolts to increase thread depth and grip inside the aluminum block. I knew about the head gasket issue from my time at CadillacOwners.com, so when I took the Seville for a test drive, I had the car out on the road for about 30 minutes, keeping an eye on the temperature gauge. It never budged past top dead center. And the only time it went past that mark was one tick on that race up Lewiston Hill. As soon as I reached the top, the gauge went right back to its usual spot.
A 1991 Sedan de Ville introduced me to Cadillac ownership, and it became one of my favorite cars. I affectionately called it Cruella. My second Cadillac was a 2001 Seville, which I named Sabrina after Audrey Hepburn’s character in the 1954 film. To me, the Seville was every bit as elegant as its namesake. Cadillac had finally abandoned its outdated formal look with the stunning 1992 Seville, and although the 1998 redesign softened those crisp edges, it was still a sleek, handsome design, especially in Cadillac’s White Diamond paint.
Cadillac’s interior designers had also abandoned the blocky shapes and some tacky accouterments that had made some of its previous interiors look like Belle Watling’s waiting room. As a result, Sabrina’s interior was in excellent taste. The leather was softer than in a contemporary BMW, and the Zebrano wood trim was the real stuff. Regular applications of Lemon Pledge kept it gleaming.
My dog Hoover’s favorite thing in the world was to go for a ride. He spent a lot of time in Sabrina’s back seat, including road trips to Chicago and Minneapolis, to get together with my friends from CadillacOwners.com. I took a picture of him shortly after I got the car, and afterward, I noticed a striking resemblance to a 1968 Cadillac ad for the Eldorado. I still have those two pictures hanging on my office wall 17 years later.
Powerful, elegant and supremely comfortable, Sabrina may have been ill-suited for motorsports, but she did everything else very well. Once again, I had a Cadillac that I enjoyed immensely — whether I was on the open road or dodging pylons on an autocross course.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1998-04 Cadillac Seville – The FWD Sport Sedan’s Last Stand
Classic CARmentary: 1998 Cadillac Seville STS
Great looking car, have always wanted one of these!
Why not run a Cadillac? My boss at the time was auto crossing his Porsche 914 and it sounded like fun. I couldn’t immediately convince my then girlfriend (yes, she did later succumb and become my wife) to let me drive her new GTI, so I used my 1986 Saab 9000 instead. Like your Seville it was a fantastic highway cruiser, but plowed badly around the cones and I only won my class each week because no one else was in it. When I safely completed three weeks of competition without damage she relented, and it was much more fun running the Golf, although I rarely finished first since I now had lots of competition. I never saw another Saab competing, but the mother of one of the most rabid drivers did show up once in her Lincoln. You would have approved.
Our son competed in SCCV (Sports Car Club of Vermont) autocross in a lowered SAAB 9-3 with lightened flywheel and modified suspension and did pretty well, never won his class but was very competitive. Now he autocrosses an electric 2021 Mini and does quite well, full torque at zero RPM and a short wheelbase low car is perfect for that sport. Both were/are his everyday drivers.
I think the ’92 Seville was one of the few timeless designs to come out of the Nineties, so elegant. Poor Roger Stempel, who championed it, got fired right after, he never had a chance to show what a real car guy CEO could do at GM.
son’s 1999 modified SAAB 9-3 autocrosser
I love everything about this. You dont have to be competitive to have fun. Enjoy!
+1
My autox days are over, but I had a blast back when I was participating regularly. First in my ’15 Honda Fit/Jazz (“Peace and Prosperity with Drum Brakes!”), then in my ’17 Chev SS (née Holden Commodore SS-V Redline), and finally in my ’76 Cosworth Vega.
I knew a guy who autocrossed his Buick Regal TourX, and I did seriously consider running ours at least once.
I was never competitive, but always had a great time!
Great looking Caddy. Your Seville has really aged well, and has both quality and presence compared to modern luxury/sports cars or CUVs.
Years ago, I saw a later model 5 spend V6 sports trim Cadillac Cimiron hold its own in a motocross. It always launched hard at the start, with a one wheel burn out, swerving all over, but had top times in it’s class. It did better than an automatic Legend that was there that day.
Excellent! Love the Northstar, and I even had a 2000 Eldo blow the gasket. I know it was a big if, but as far as ride, fun and personal fit, it was the best car I ever had
Ever take the pooch on an Autocross? !!
I ran my 1966 Shelby GT350 in autocrosses for years. It was a very fun car to run, but hard to get real good times as the power of that Cobra 289 (306 HP) was intoxicating. The rules we ran under were a local group of clubs loosly aligned as SEVSCO (South Eastern Virginia Sports Car Organization). The combined clubs did autocross and rally. Of the clubs, Beach Ford Mustang Club, of which my wife and I were members was considered to be the autocross specialists and Colonial Rally Masters the rally experts. The group had classes from A to F if I remember correctly, The Shelbys, Z28s, Corvettes, and similar oriented cars were B-stock, a regular Mustang ran D stock. Wildest car we had at our events was a 1970 Ford Torino with the 429CJ engine and a 4 speed.
I still have (somewhere) a bunch of trophys from those events. I was president of BFMC when my wife became pregnant with our 3rd child, she was the third one in the club to have that happen. Here is a picture of my “arrest me red” Shelby.
Great story! The old adage is, “it’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow.”
As a broke, new college graduate in 1996, I bought an 1989 Mercury Grand Marquis off of a dealer shortly before they were going to send it to the auction. It was a one-owner grandma car that had been traded. It was reliable and comfortable, but it handled like a pig.
After a year, I bought the best set of tires I could afford; then I saved up some more money and installed a police-spec suspension. I wouldn’t say it handled well then, but it did become a lot of fun to drive. I actually did consider auto-crossing it, but never had the nerve.
Still, my mechanic did ask me more than once, “Why does this car wear out tires so fast?” I would always reply, not entirely kidding, “probably from going around corners on two wheels.”