Kip Wasenko: The Man Who Revived Cadillac Design
Kip Wasenko, retired General Motors designer
Cadillac’s styling was stuck in a rut, until GM’s Design Vice-President put a rebellious designer in charge of a new concept car.
RADNOR HUNT CONCOURS | Sept 9, 2022
You could host a car show dedicated to the design work of retired General Motors designer Kip Wasenko, and you’d have quite a show field. Yet despite having designed cars for nearly every GM marque, Wasenko’s greatest contribution is his creation and nurturing of the brand's heralded "Art and Science" design that proved transformative. It remains Cadillac’s guiding design principle to this day, including the forthcoming Lyriq and Celestiq.
A long road to the Cadillac
Wasenko spent his career at GM, starting in 1968 as a summer intern.
“The car that I did really, really rocked (GM Design VP) Bill Mitchell. I did a mid-engine, turbine car that came back to a total vertical fin in the back,” Wasenko said. “My inspiration was what would a modern-day Talbot Lago look like? It was pretty wild. Bill Mitchell said, ‘hire that kid.’ So I came back.”
Wasenko joined GM design in March 1969, where he was placed in the Buick Advanced Design Studio, eventually being transferred to GM’s Opel Division in 1973, then to GM’s Holden division in Australia. He came back to the United States in 1979, becoming assistant chief designer for Wayne Kady at Cadillac for a year before being named chief designer at an advanced design studio that designed a number of show cars, such as the Buick Reatta, mid-engine Buick Wildcat and Project Saturn.
But Wasenko, who grew up in inner-city Detroit watching cars roll out of Cadillac’s plant, had a reputation for ruffling feathers, and he held strong opinions about the need for change at GM’s premiere brand – Cadillac.
GM’s Vice-President of Design, Harley Earl, seated on the right, and his succesor, Bill Mitchell, third from left, who hired Kip Wasenko.
A turning point at GM
At the time, Waskenko’s position as chief designer of the advanced design studios allowed him to help guide the brand’s future design direction.
“I put this presentation together and I showed how the Cadillac Seville, Eldorado, Fleetwood, and DeVille, were all appealing to the same type of person. Yet they were spending a lot of money for differentiation, offering models all for the same buyer.”
If that didn’t go down well, what followed rankled the meeting’s attendees further.
“I was kind of Euro-focused after my time at Europe, and I showed what Mercedes, BMW, Audi and some other brands were doing that were threatening Cadillac’s domination of luxury car market. But I also showed them how new buyers were more performance oriented, as opposed to the padded tops and gold packages that were the country club cars of the past. It ruffled a lot of feathers at Cadillac and I became an unpopular person.”
But fate intervened. GM brought in a consultant who quickly agreed with Wasenko, and discussions began on what to do about Cadillac.
Kip Wasenko worked with future Design Vice-President Ed Welburn in the Oldsmobile studio, where Wasenko oversaw the design of the Alero.
In the meantime, Kip became Saturn’s first chief designer before going on to running GM’s advance design studios. There, he worked on a joint project with Lotus, which GM owned at the time, to produce a mid-engine 12-cylinder car. Named the M800, the car never made it beyond 40% scale design models; a full running prototype was never produced.
“They didn't want to swim against Ferrari and Lamborghini, but it was fun.”
Wasenko moved on to become chief designer for Oldsmobile Studio Number Two, which designed the Alero. Studio One was headed by future GM Design VP Ed Welburn, which designed the Intrigue.
Evoking the Evoq
Wasenko was still at Oldsmobile when Wayne Cherry, then vice-president for GM Design, called him into his office, where he was asked to do a concept car for Cadillac.
“What I didn’t know was that (Oldsmobile general manager) John Rock was going to be forced to retire and apparently the obituary had been written for Oldsmobile.”
Cherry made it clear why Waesneko was chosen to do the concept car. “You've ruffled a lot of feathers with Cadillacs. You said you were born and raised near the factory. We want you to do a concept car.”
That’s when Wasenko told Cherry the type of car he wanted to design: a two-passenger, high-performance car based on the Corvette. Wasenko, who likes to race in his spare time, thought that the Corvette was GM’s best performance package at the time. Cherry asked him why he wanted to do a two-passenger touring car given that Cadillac had already tried, and failed, with the Pininfarina-designed Allante.
“Honestly I'm an American,” Wasenko replied. “And as much as I love Pininfarina design, and Pininfarina has a rich history with Cadillac, I want to do one that pays more attention to the rich heritage of Cadillac. But I'm not doing a retro car.”
For Wasenko, the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado was one of his favorite cars, and it proved the inspiration for what followed, keeping in mind what he learned from Bill Mitchell.
The 1967 Cadillac Eldorado influence Wasenko’s Art & Science design theme for Cadillac.
“Bill said that, in his opinion, sheer, crisp edges were a sign a symbol of formality, like a freshly pressed tuxedo. And when I looked at Cadillac, a lot of the Cadillacs had crisp edges, certainly the ’67 did.”
Wasenko’s studio walls were soon covered with images of images of edgy industrial design, cutting edge architecture, and past Cadillacs he admired: the V-16s, the 1960 Eldorado and the 1967 Eldorado, among others. From it came the Cadillac Evoq, which was named the best concept car at the 1999 North America International Auto Show in Detroit.
“I was designing the car not for my tastes, but for I what I thought Cadillac should be, and that comes from its rich heritage and the sheer forms of industrial design, modern architecture and Cadillacs of the past.”
As Design Director for Cadillac, Wasenko would go onto to design the Cadillac LMP car, as well as the Evoq’s production equivalent, the XLR. He would follow with the SRX, the STS and the first CTS-V.
By this point, the automotive media knew who was responsible for Cadillac’s remarkable product renaissance: Kip Wasenko. Motor Trend named him one of the industry’s 50 most powerful people in 2005.
It was evident at the introduction of the CTS-V in 2004, first unveiled at a Soho gallery in New York City.
“The car was on the stage, and Lutz says, ‘hey, Kipper, come on up here.’ And he puts his arm around he said, ‘we're going to show you a car that he stood up for.’ And we pulled the cover off. And it was a CTS-V, the first one.”
But it’s a car that nearly cost Wasenko his job.
The birth a legendary Cadillac
The CTS-V was developed off-site at a supplier company, and Wasenko did what he could to prevent interference on its development, including key marketing executives such as Vehicle Line Executive Jim Taylor, something which was reported to the very top of the company. As the deadline for the CTS-V’s review approaches, Wasenko stays up all night getting it done, rolling it into the design dome at 5 a.m. before returning to his studio.
Not long after, a text comes in. Go to the auditorium immediately.
Wasenko arrives to find GM Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz, Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, Design Vice President Wayne Cherry, Executive Director of Architecture Engineering Mark Reuss, Director of Global Brand Development John Howell, and Vehicle Line Executive Jim Taylor all standing with their arms folded looking at the proposed CTS-V. It’s wearing a wire mesh grille, a stainless-steel piece that pushes the car $950 over budget.
2004 Cadillac CTS-V’s grille was a bone of contention.
“Kipper,” Lutz says, “You probably understand why you've been called over.”
“Yeah, I got a pretty good idea,” Wasenko replies.
“Why are you showing a wire mesh grill that nobody supports,” Lutz asks. “Mark Reuss doesn't support it because it's a $950 piece price. Wayne Cherry’s disappointed that you're not working with the team. Why are you showing this?”
“Well, it’s the right grille for the car.”
“Do you have one that satisfies the piece process?”
“Yes, I do sir. It's in the trunk,” Wasenko says, pulling out a large color photo of a plastic grille that satisfies the car’s cost objectives.
“Don’t you like that grille,” Lutz asks.
“I like everything I do,” Waskenko says. “I change it until I like it.”
“Well then, why isn't it in the car?”
Wasenko takes a deep breath.
“You know, we were committed to doing a true high-performance Cadillac,” Wasenko replies. “We had the 3 Series BMW as our target. We got a 5.7-liter, 400 horsepower LS6, and I've been in the tunnel ten times and with every eggcrate grille I tried, I cannot hit the target cooling. This wire mesh grille hits the target. I can take this grille out and it'll still hit the same flow. So, I committed to doing a car that performs.”
The reaction came swiftly.
“That’s not a Cadillac,” said John Howell, who was no fan of Wasenko’s. “That’s a Bentley or Jaguar.”
Bob Lutz
“The you don’t really know much about Cadillacs, do you,” Wasenko snaps back. “Did you ever take a look at a 1931 V-16 Cadillac, arguably the V Series back in 1931?”
“He got you there, man,” Lutz says, tension building among the executives.
“God damn it,” Jim Taylor says, “$950; this is irresponsible.”
Lutz turns to Rick Wagoner. “Rick, obviously, we have a big problem here. What do you think, Rick?”
“Man, I like the way it looks,” Wagoner says.
“Me too,” Lutz replies. “This gives the car the identity. I don't care what kind of eggcrate grille you put on it; It's not going to look as distinctive as this.”
“That’s why everybody else uses wire mesh for the same reason,” Wasenko says. “Jaguar uses it, Bentley uses it because it flows good air, and that's what we need to do on this car.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Lutz says turning to Taylor. “Guess what Jim? That's part of the program. And guess what Jim? I'm not giving you 950 bucks, so you're going to have to find it elsewhere.”
Fast forward to the CTS-V’s media reveal, where Lutz and Wasenko stand beside the car.
“Kip stood up for what he believed in what was right for this car,” Lutz tells the press. “Not only from a styling standpoint, but for a functional standpoint, because that's what the V series is all about. This isn't just fluff. This is a real serious car.”
For Wasenko, getting the CTS-V correct from the start was important. “I was fighting for what was right for the car; it wasn’t an ego thing.”
More importantly, it reveals what’s truly important about true car designers.
“Designers aren’t just funny little fashion guys,” Wasenko said. “Everyone thinks designers are shallow. They understand the importance of function.”