LUXE CAPACITOR

V12s are out, the world's best luxury cars now run on electrons. Can Cadillac see off Rolls-Royce in its own backyard?

- WORDS OLLIE KEW PHOTOGRAPHY JOHN WYCHERLEY

The two nations divided by a common language rarely agree on what a car should be like.

This isn't the usual Limey sneering about 'trunks', 'turn signals' and 'driving stick'. In America, luxury is size. Deluxe = 'make it bigger'. So our Stateside cousins have never threatened as a force in the luxury car stratosphere. They'd just glue walnut panelling to the USS Gerald R. Ford and hit the slots.

We can't agree on the terminology here either. In Britain, something absolutely first class is the 'Rolls-Royce' of whatever we're talking about. But Americans rate the best of the best as 'the Cadillac of [insert impressive thing here].'

So, what's the world's best luxury car - the Roller, or the... Caddy? Seriously? Because America has manifested a proper, pukka, unapologetic riposte to the British monopoly on snob value.

Welcome to the most expensive, outlandish, ambitious American sedan ever: the Celestiq. When it launched it cost $340k. That's been hiked beyond $400k for 2026. General Motors isn't so much parking its tanks on our croquet lawn as approving an air strike on Goodwood.

The Cadillac has home advantage. We've nabbed an unusually dowdy spec Rolls-Royce Black Badge Spectre and ventured to Detroit to meet the Celestiq, because this 18 foot long, 3,102kg leviathan isn't coming to Europe. Where would it fit? America first.

It's special order only in the US to Cadillac's most enthusiastic clients. Only a handful of dealerships are authorised to accept interest. GM will build no more than two per day. No two will be identical, each car individualised at GM's space age headquarters with in person consultation from the design team's top brass.