Back in late July, we received word that the ATS->ke3619, Caddy’s 3-series fighter, was heading into production after lengthy speculation. At that time, apparently Cadillac->ke18 had shipped the first-built ATS to a dealership, but its plans with this first model were never revealed. All we received was the canned “for later use” response about this first-production car.

We knew that the first-produced ATS would not be sold in the typical dealership and we were thinking that maybe GM would archive it somewhere, but we actually just found out that it is going to a better cause. GM is auctioning this first-run ATS off at Barrett-Jackson’s Las Vegas event on September 20th through the 22nd.

It being auctioned isn’t the big deal, as GM has decided to donate the car to the auction and Barrett-Jackson will waive all of its commission fees, which means 100 percent of the sale will go to benefit Team Joseph, a charity that benefits Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Needless to say, this is a honorable act of kindness by two giants in their respective industry and the second time GM has stepped up to auction off a car for charity. This one, however, seems like much less of a smokescreen than the last auction.

This time, we think a tip of the hat is in order for GM and Barrett-Jackson. It’s nice to see an American automaker in recent years stepping up and showing it is willing to give back to its customers, especially one that is still in recovery mode after almost going completely belly up just a few years ago.

While the estimated auction value of the Premium-trimmed ATS is unknown, we do anticipate it pulling in much more than the $47,795 MSRP for a 320-horsepower ATS. It may even crest the $100K mark.

Click past the jump to read Cadillac's full press release.

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