Cien shelved, at least for now; But cancellation may not be the end of the road for Cadillac supercar.(Brief Article)

The bad news is that General Motors is officially putting the Cadillac Cien sports car on the shelf. The good news? GM now has a new shelf, one from which it can retrieve canceled vehicle plans if resources and market conditions support a second look.

Cien, the Simon Cox-created concept that GM revealed amid considerable hoopla at the 2002 Detroit auto show, has always been a popular choice for production both outside and inside the corporation. We even touted the mid-engined, 750-hp, 7.5-liter V12-powered two-seater as Best Concept of the Detroit exhibition (AW, Jan. 21).

Production hopes were heightened in May when a cadre of GM product development execs took an exploratory expedition to the British Isles to scout potential suppliers to build some 300 of the cars per year (AW, June 3). Tom Walkinshaw's TWR and David Richards' Prodrive were among the companies visited, with Prodrive tagged as the most likely contender due to its work on development of the concept Cien.

GM continued to fan the flames in mid-June when it rolled out the Cien to lead the parade prior to the start of the 70th annual running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans-and restated that Cien (Spanish for ``100'') was built to celebrate Cadillac's centennial in 2002.

Sadly, now comes word that, amid an uncertain economic climate, Cien's business case doesn't stack up against the General's myriad of other needs, such as viable, profitable small cars, performance cars for every division including Cadillac, and more and better trucks.

GM Performance Division chief Mark Reuss told AutoWeek an internal review completed in ...