Cadillac cars in the club.

Cadillac history began in Detroit in 1902, when engineer Henry M. Leland and investor William Murphy formed the Cadillac Automobile Company from the remains of Henry Ford's earlier company. The brand was named after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the French officer who founded Detroit.

Leland's precision manufacturing allowed Cadillac to use interchangeable parts, and in 1909 the brand was bought by General Motors. In 1912 Cadillac was the first to fit an electric starter to a production car, and in 1930 it introduced a V16 engine that cemented its luxury status.

In the post-war decades Cadillac cars became a symbol of the American dream, with bold tailfins, chrome and models such as the Eldorado, DeVille and Fleetwood. The 1959 Cadillac Eldorado is still seen as one of the defining designs of that era.

The Escalade SUV, built since 1999, became the face of a new Cadillac generation, while the CTS sedan marked the brand's revival in the early 2000s. Today Cadillac remains the luxury brand of General Motors and is moving to electric vehicles such as the Lyriq.