Retired race cars often go on to live interesting second lives. While some take up permanent residence in museums around the world, others are restored for track use at big-time historics events. Others are stashed away in rural villages, destined to become the next great barn find. With all that being said, I’m not sure how many go on to be torn apart, reassembled, and parked in an upstairs office with carpeted floors.
That’s essentially what happened with this Cadillac Northstar Le Mans Prototype, which wears chassis number LMP-00-002. Jim Craik is the owner of the Riley & Scott-built centerpiece. As he explained to me, he sourced the carbon fiber monocoque in Australia, and parts from several other Cadillac prototypes have been used to rebuild it—piece by piece.
“[The seller] wasn’t asking very much for it, and when I found it had raced at Le Mans, I bought it,” Craik recalled. “My plan was to put glass on it and make a coffee table.”
As you can see, that plan was thrown out the window a long time ago.
General Motors put a lot of oomph behind these Cadillac Northstar racers some 25 years ago. Of course, it had to if it wanted any chance of competing with the Audi R8. The chassis was a from-scratch design, while the engine was a twin-turbo, 4.0-liter V8 that shared many parts with GM’s Indy Racing League power plant. Later in the season, Craik explained, Riley & Scott was testing a naturally aspirated variant with good results. That’s the engine he has now.
The core of the car you’re looking at is the one that burned at the 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans. It wore a black Motorola livery back then with the No. 4, but the original bodywork was done for after the fire. (You can see it around the 37:20 mark of this video from the original broadcast.)
“This photo really tells the story,” Craik said. “During the morning warm-up, one of the drivers backed it into the pit wall. All four Caddy teams jumped on the repair and made the start.
“On lap four, something in the motor let go and she burned.”
Nowadays, the tub is enveloped in parts from other cars. Craik told me he collected two complete bodies to borrow from, along with several partials. If you’ll peek at the flags on the tail section, you’ll see that they are from the 2001 Petit Le Mans, which ran just a few weeks after 9/11.
“I would say we have 80% of the parts, but at this time, it is art,” Craik said. “All the greasy bits are downstairs.”
Which brings us back the beginning of this story. I asked Jim exactly why he chose to display the Cadillac like this, rather than putting it in a garage with a concrete or epoxy floor. The answer he gave was a reasonable one: “We only have a two-car garage, and the GT40 and Cayman have dibs on that.”
Ha!
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