At this year's 50th edition of the Sebring 12 Hours - The famous American name of luxury:  Cadillac will show it has a sports car side as well

Team Cadillac presented their new Le Mans and ALMS challenger in Sebring, Florida, in January. The completely new Cadillac Northstar LMP 02 will mark the next step in General Motors’ luxury brand’s sportscar race program.

The Cadillac Northstar LMP 02 features all the latest in sportscar technology, both in the mechanical and the aerodynamic domain. The best technological experience and knowledge in sportscars was made available by matching the Brackley, UK, based design team and the Warren, Michigan, based GM Racing engineers. The trans-Atlantic team produced the stunning looking car in less than nine months.

Cadillac’s third season in the world’s top sportscar competition includes a race debut in the 50th edition of the Sebring 12 Hours on March 16, as well as the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.

“Participation at Le Mans and in the American Le Mans Series is a means to connect with luxury customers through a program that demonstrates endurance, durability and technology,” said Cadillac’s General Manager, Marc LaNeve. “We anticipate considerable improvement over our performance in 2000 and 2001. The past two years have demonstrated that we can endure and also have innovative technology, like the Northstar engine. Now, we’re looking to be present on the podium race after race.”

Le Mans winning designer Nigel Stroud is Team Cadillac’s chief designer and led this new design team. While Stroud and the rest of Team Cadillac were still working with the 2001 car, resources were allocated to begin development of performance packages as early as May of last year.

“It has been a very busy year,” said Stroud. “The Cadillac Northstar LMP 02 is completely designed using CAD, which means not a single piece of paper or a pen has been used. The car packs a number of sportscar novelties, but we obviously won’t disclose which ones just yet. We spent some 40 days working in the wind tunnel to define the aerodynamics. We also tried a number of very extreme mechanical solutions, but in the end decided to go for a more conventional, yet state-of-the-art package.”

On the track as well, the preparations for the 2002 season started as soon as the 2001 Le Mans 24 Hours finished. Team Director Jeff Hazell has been orchestrating the team and test schedule while continuing to develop the second LMP 02 car – which is currently ahead of schedule.

As was the case in the previous two years, the Cadillac LMP will be powered by the already legendary Northstar V8 engine. The reliable engine had zero failures through the entire 2001 season and has allowed Team Cadillac to focus on gaining power and improved drivability.

Confirming their confidence in the program, Wayne Taylor, Max Angelelli, Eric Bernard and Emmanuel Collard will again lead Cadillac’s attack in Le Mans and selected races of the American Le Mans Series. Third drivers for the Sebring, Le Mans and Petit Le Mans endurance classics will be announced shortly.

Between now and Cadillac’s fourth start in La Sarthe (after 1950, 2000 and 2001), the team will embark on its most intense test program yet, including numerous test days on several race tracks, as well as further development in the wind tunnel.