In March 1902, Henry Ford ran away from his investors in the Henry Ford Company, leaving his former financiers behind to dissolve the group. The engineer brought in to appraise the old equipment, Henry Leland, convinced the investors to start a new car company and support him instead. So six years before Ford gave the world the Model T, he accidentally gave the world the Cadillac Automobile Company in August 1902. That makes 2022 the 120th anniversary of the brand that once called itself “The Standard of the World.” We don’t know if Cadillac has anything planned for the year, but US-based tuner Competition Carbon does. As Carscoops picked up, the aftermarket store that specializes in Corvette and Lamborghini mods plans to turn a current C8 Corvette into a supercar homage to Cadillac, dubbed the C120R. There will be two versions of this creation, one of which will be a V12 roadster.
All we have are Instagram captions and photos to go on at the moment, one of those photos tagged with a list of Competition Carbon’s partners in the project. One of the names is Kasim Tlibekov, who specializes in making body kits for all kinds of cars, another is Group A Motoring, which makes and sells body kit parts for six Japanese car manufacturers. In a post on the Group A Instagram page, a Competition Carbon caption informs us that the C120R is his “2022 SEMA project! Inspired by [2002] Cadillac Cien Super Car Concept (100 anniversary), we have redesigned it after 20 years and updated it to our modern world.” On the same post, Group A writes that this body kit “is probably the first complete rebody C8 project, already at 3D Printing So yes, despite the name, the body kit is made in SLA resin, not carbon.
As for the look of the kit, the reason for the intensity makes sense after looking at the Cien. The dual-channel hood that dips under the vectorized front end, the reshaped side intakes, the flying buttresses over the inflated and squared rear fenders, all come straight from the Cien, pictured below.
The adjustable rear wing and roof scoop are new. That first would be one of two hood treatments for the car. The first has eight cutouts, and we suspect the car that Competition Carbon is bringing to this year’s SEMA show will use the Corvette’s 6.2-liter V8. Another of the names tagged is Hartley Engines, a small New Zealand engine builder. Apparently another C120R is already scheduled for the 2023 SEMA show, which will have an open top and a V12 behind it. A 2018 post on Hartley’s Facebook page shows off a 5.0-liter Hartley V12 based on a Toyota 1GZ V12 with between 700 and 800 horsepower. The caption says the engine is about demonstrating capability and the configurability of internal products, and “We see this engine platform as a perfect fit for a small exotic automaker, someone who wants to build 10-20 unique cars, that [wants] to partner with our brand and have exclusive rights to our unique engine.” The next iteration was a twin-turbo version with roadworthy manners capable of delivering 1,000 horsepower, which appeared on the dyno in 2020. The hollowed-out hood is likely to get over the high intake of that V12.
Signature wheels wrapped with Toyo tires keep the metal parts off the ground. Usual.
We also assume that Competition Carbon plans to release this as a road car, assuming it gets built. If so, we’re waiting for more information on where the headlights will be, as well as license plates.