1976 Cadillac Seville Kingswood Green on 2040-cars

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Drive like a prince: Join us for a walk through Monaco's car collection

Small, crowded, and a royal pain in the trunk lid to drive into during rush hour, Monaco sounds like an improbable location for a huge car museum. And yet, this tiny city-state has been closely linked to car culture for over a century. It hosts two major racing events every year, many of its residents would qualify for a frequent shopper card if Rolls-Royce issued one, and Prince Rainier III began assembling a collection of cars in the late 1950s. He opened his collection to the public in 1993 and the museum quickly turned into a popular tourist attraction. The collection continued to grow after his death in April 2005; it moved to a new facility located right on Hercules Port in July 2022. Monaco being Monaco, you'd expect to walk into a room full of the latest, shiniest, and most powerful supercars ever to shred a tire. That's not the case: while there is no shortage of high-horsepower machines, the first cars you see after paying ˆ10 (approximately $11) to get in are pre-war models. In that era, the template for the car as we know it in 2023 hadn't been created, so an eclectic assortment of expensive and dauntingly experimental machines roamed whatever roads were available to them. One is the Leyat Helica, which was built in France in 1921 with a 1.2-liter air-cooled flat-twin sourced from the world of aviation. Fittingly, the two-cylinder spun a massive, plane-like propeller. Government vehicles get a special spot in the museum. They range from a Cadillac Series 6700 with an amusing blend of period-correct French-market yellow headlights and massive fins to a 2011 Lexus LS 600h with a custom-made transparent roof panel that was built by Belgian coachbuilder Carat Duchatelet for Prince Albert II's wedding. Here's where it all gets a little weird: you've got a 1952 Austin FX3, a Ghia-bodied 1959 Fiat 500 Jolly, a 1960 BMW Isetta, and a 1971 Lotus Seven. That has to be someone's idea of a perfect four-car garage.  One of the most significant cars in the collection lurks in the far corner of the main hall, which is located a level below the entrance. At first glance, it's a kitted-out Renault 4CV with auxiliary lights, a racing number on the front end, and a period-correct registration number issued in the Bouches-du-Rhone department of France. It doesn't look all that different than the later, unmodified 4CV parked right next to it. Here's what's special about it: this is one of the small handful of Type 1063 models built by Renault for competition.

2014 Cadillac CTS

Fixated By Europeans, GM Ensures The Third Time Is A Charm
Few things are better for consumers than competition raising the bar. And no campaign seems fiercer than the one currently underway in the midsize sport-sedan segment now that Cadillac has introduced its all-new 2014 CTS to go head-to-head against the benchmark Audi A6, BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class.
While the CTS has been on the market for slightly more than a decade, up until this third-generation, Cadillac hasn't truly had the proper high-performance rear-wheel-drive architecture to build a genuine world-class fighter, both inside and out. And now that the American automaker has successfully mirrored Audi, BMW and Mercedes in overall vehicle size, engine output and cabin appointments, the first shots have been fired.

2013 Cadillac ATS 3.6 AWD

All-Wheel, All Right
There is no escaping the luxury all-wheel drive empire Audi has built for itself over the past 15 years. While nearly every high-end marque has at least one offering with power at all four corners, the hardware can't help but play second fiddle to Ingolstadt's Quattro kingdom. Leather-lined all-wheel drive is simply Audi the way minimum wage is an English degree. But General Motors seems hell-bent on raiding as many established fiefdoms as possible with the 2013 Cadillac ATS. Engineers and designers made no secret of the fact that the baby Cadillac was penned specifically to take on the BMW 3 Series, but Audi should be no less concerned about the newest luxury prince from Detroit.
GM has been stuffing all-wheel drive systems under their vehicles for years, but the effort hasn't come without nasty side effects. Unfortunate understeer, extra ride height, smallish wheels and porky curb weight meant opting for all-wheel drive was like signing your driving pleasure's death warrant. Would you like polished brass or brushed nickel hardware for your right foot's coffin, sir?