The Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy is not the only muse of the motoring world. Cadillac has brought back its Flying Goddess with the new Cadillac Celestiq, the brand’s first luxury electric car. For them, this model represents a new chapter in their history and they have wanted to recover part of it for this reason. Of course, it does not return as everyone expected.
Although not as famous as the crown and shield, the Goddess of Cadillac adorned the hoods of vehicles between 1930 and 1956: At that time, these small statuettes became a symbol of style and luxury. The American brand did not want to be outdone and commissioned William Schnell a figure that represented “the spirit of unbeatable speed and power, but also grace and perfect balance.” It also served as a symbol of his personalized craftsmanship.
the first goddess
It was the year 1930 when, for the first time, the Cadillac Goddess appeared on one of its vehicles: in 1933 it was replaced by a redesigned version and became an accessory that only models powered by a V16 could equip. Things would change a year later when it was also an option for the V12s.
With the death of the V12 and V16 engines, in 1941, a new Goddess came to all Cadillac cars. It continued to evolve over the years, but the passage of time condemned it and the change in fashions condemned it to disappear in 1956. Its last appearance was on the Pininfarina bodywork of the 1959 Eldorado Brougham, but it was so stylized as to be hardly recognizable.
A six year search
In 2016, the Goddess was rescued from the history books on the occasion of the presentation of the Cadillac Escala prototype in Pebble Beach (California). The brand confesses that, from that moment, they began to look for a way to resurrect the Flying Goddess for the next generation of vehicles. And that chapter is written by electric cars.
The person in charge of bringing back the Goddess of Cadillac has been the sculptor Richard Wiquist of GM Design. They asked him to create a new symbol that would signal the future of the brand and, at the same time, be a tribute to its past. The resulting design is inspired by the 1933 image and looks like it won’t have much trouble standing the test of time.
three representations
Today, hood ornaments are virtually extinct, so the Cadillac Goddess won’t have her usual place on the Cadillac Celestiq. She appears in the license plate which corroborates that the vehicle was hand-built in Detroit… although, in reality, it is manufactured in nearby Warren. It has also been located in the charging socket and in the cabin.
Here we will find it on the aluminum dial with which the infotainment system is operated: it is backlit and covered by a glass surface. Cadillac has placed special emphasis on this representation because when you turn her knob, the Goddess does not move: she always remains upright.
