2016 Cadillac CTS-V First Drive – 640 all-American horses.
I had a rendezvous this week with the new Cadillac CTS-V Sedan ($97,985, as tested) at a little place called Road America, a venue chosen for purely exploitative reasons.Cadillac has unveiled the 2016 CTS-V sedan, a car that it will take aim at European manufacturers and attempt to inject a market dominated by Germans with a little American muscle.Earlier this week I played a game called “let’s-manage-heavy-crosswinds-at-145-miles-per-hour” at Wisconsin’s amazing Road America racetrack with a 2016 Cadillac CTS-V.
We just drove the Cadillac CTS-V for the first time, and our reviewer said it handles just as good as the mighty BMW M5, costs less and is actually faster. Set deep in dairy fairyland in Wisconsin, Road America is the world’s greatest country lane, a 4-mile dash around field and forest, mostly flat out, with globe-spinning corners, lurid braking zones and a concrete bottleneck called the Kink, scarred with tire marks and spilt oil. Cadillac introduced the world to the CTS-V, which will set you back close to $100,000, at Road America deep in Wisconsin.Road America features a 4-mile track that lets the company show off just what the car can do, according to a Wall Street Journal. Still, one has to wonder whether it has what it takes to topple BMW’s M5, a car that’s long been considered the leader in its luxury performance sedan segment.
It’s a reassuring gesture, though a little at odds with the near-simultaneous gurgle from the engine as the exhaust valves flutter. “Sure, I’m 16.5 feet long, weigh more than four thousand pounds, and will catapult to sixty miles per hour in 3.7 seconds and then run all the way to 200 mph,” the Caddy is saying, “but I don’t want to kill you in the process.” Palms damp against the microsuede wheel as I prepared to venture out onto the Road America track in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, that brief anthropomorphized cuddle was welcome. Cadillac’s organizers had coned off the Kink and set up another speed-control zone at the Moraine Sweep, so I can’t really say I’ve bagged Road America. There are few vehicles out there that can remain so composed and confidence-inspiring during such high rates of speed, peppered with some gusty adversity for good palm-sweating measure. It’s a challenging and complex course, and my confidence hadn’t been especially boosted by Cadillac’s team pointing out the shiny new stretch of fencing where a recent Ferrari racer demolished the old barrier.
Porsche corner, they continued, is colloquially named because of the various streaks of paint left on the concrete wall, scraped there by the German coupes after their drivers underestimated the turn. I bring all this up because on such a day, in such a place, I’m pretty sure Cadillac operatives could have pushed me around in a Chinese ox cart and still counted on favorable coverage. But the reviewer was impressed with the 2016 CTS’ upgraded responsive processor in the CUE system touch screen, which appears to be a much better version compared to past dashboards. And then there’s the engine: it is 6.2-liter direct injection, it has a two-valve V8 that can produce a whopping 640 horse power, and it can get up to 6,400 RPMs. The supercharger howls eagerly, the V8 roars like a beast provoked, and suddenly you’re hurtling toward the first turn and having to give equal consideration to hitting the brakes hard. had spent a proud hour telling me about the CTS-V’s near-prescient handling talents, but I still half-expected to go coasting off the edge of the track like a drifting Titanic.
Instead I did a fair impression of someone clipping the apex like they know what they’re doing, inwardly marveling and outwardly finally remembering to breathe. “Stomp on the accelerator again,” the CTS-V whispered to me. General Motors Co. recruited de Nysschen, 55, and gave him a free hand to restore Cadillac, allowing him to run it from New York and committing $12 billion for new vehicles. The CTS-V also has a lot of torque, but even placed into some hair-raising turns at high speeds, the reviewer said that it appeared to be fairly graceful even when buffeted by bad pavement. But just in case you haven’t read anything since NAIAS 2015, here’s the skinny on this new Detroit lion: 640 supercharged horsepower and 630 foot-pounds of torque from a 6.2L LT4 V8 engine, tailored to be slightly different from the LT4 found in the seat-staining C7 Corvette Z06. It does help that the car comes with six-piston Brembo brakes in front and four-piston Brembos in the rear, plus Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires and Cadillac’s own Magnetic Ride Control shocks.
But can the CTS-V compete with the real heavyweights of the luxury sedan world, like the BMW 5 Series, the Lexus GS 350, or the Mercedes-Bench E Class? The active exhaust valves – closed for the sake of decency in Tour mode, but staying clear longer in Sport and Track modes for better performance and a far more engaging soundtrack – spat open, releasing a viscous slurry of angry basso hornets, while the Recaro bolsters clung at my ribcage and the next corner surged to the forefront of my attention like the “enhance” gimmick in an episode of CSI. And the CTS sedan and ATS coupe are both struggling against more prestigious competitors; Cadillac sedan sales fell 20 percent in the first half and the only reason overall sales didn’t fall further is because the Escalade and SRX sport utility vehicles are selling relatively briskly. Things wouldn’t be complete without the mandatory (steel) Brembo brake set on front and back, the former being the largest of any vehicle of this type. Audible over the noise of the engine, over the thrum of the huge wheels on the tarmac and the Devil’s cornet of the quartet of tailpipes, there’s an unholy whoosh as the gaping vents on the front of the car suck in as much air as they can.
The sedan has four driving modes, namely Snow, Touring, Sport, and Race, all coming with distinct settings for the shocks, transmission, throttle, and traction control. You get the sense, talking to Caddy’s engineers, that the CTS-V’s fascia is practically more holes than it is bodywork: using computational fluid dynamics to figure out the airflow over, under, and through the car, they ended up with 50-percent more nostril at the front than the regular CTS. However, nowhere on the option box is there the choice of an on-call legal team to keep the courts from suspending your license after too many speeding tickets.
For one, its CUE infotainment system remains unimpressive and difficult to use for so many, while the BMW M5’s interior still has a huge edge over that of the CTS-V. Even with all that, the air is carefully herded around brakes, supercharger, and multiple radiators, each of the systems greedy for more than their allotted share. The CTS model is manifestly between regimes, backing away from the daring abstractions of the Art and Science design theme and bowing to the desire for more traditional lines to please a new audience of Chinese burghers and bankers.
GM is counting on Cadillac to drive profits in the next decade because tightening fuel-economy standards will boost production costs and whack margins for trucks, currently the automaker’s chief source of earnings. Yes, that is a significant jump in MSRP over the second-generation CTS-V, which was a tweener vehicle of sorts with near M5 size, power and heft for M3 pricing.
One of the key points of contention between some dealers and de Nysschen is that the CTS has gotten much more expensive, said John Bruno, general manager of Potamkin Cadillac in Manhattan. Eyes flicking anxiously between the speedo and the track, my nerve didn’t quite hold until the bright yellow cone marking the ideal brake point – the $1,300 Performance Data Recorder, Cadillac’s combined camera and telemetry system that records track performance to an SD card in the glovebox, later told me I just brushed 150 mph – and I focused on trying to shed speed while simultaneously turning into corner two without inadvertently pirouetting off to the fence. And even though $83,995 is a lot to take in for those used to the old model’s pricing, the third-generation CTS-V still manages to slightly undercut its German rivals. Like the 2016 ATS-V before it, the CTS-V has been an exercise in brand finagling. “V-Series’ job is to change the expectation of what Cadillac is capable of,” Hampden Tener, CTS-V product director, explained, producing cars that are “distinctly American and optimistic.” Until the V-Series extended to the ATS earlier this year, the CTS-V had to shoulder that responsibility all on its own. Under the carbon-fiber hood, and behind that chain-mail maw, is a supercharged 6.2-liter direct-injection, two-valve V8 producing 640 hp at a soaring 6,400 rpm, amid the strident sucking from the supercharger like an interdimensional vortex.
Now in its third-generation – kicking off with 400 HP in 2004, then upgraded to 556 HP in its second incarnation – the new model takes advantage of its more affordable stablemate to raise its game. The CTS-V borrowed it from the Corvette Z06, tweaked it a little, and matched it to a Hydra-Matic 8L90 eight-speed automatic, which Cadillac claims is not only equivalent in shift times to the best of the DCTs in rival cars but 12.5kg lighter than the six-speed it replaces. This is thanks to both GM’s Performance Traction Management (PTM) modes, and the Performance Data Recording (PDR) system that collects all the necessary information for drivers to study their moves and hone their skills. Photo: Cadillac The CTS-V’s great whacking torque (630 lb-ft at 3,500 rpm) gives the driver some options around Road America, with its vast and pastoral 90-degree turns.
All-wheel drive might be the obvious way to tame the LT4 V8, but Cadillac argues that it would also add another 200 pounds and, crucially, load it toward the front. Instead, you get Cadillac’s electronic limited split differential (eLSD) which shares a cooling circuit with the transmission oil cooler in the name of space-saving. GM GM, -1.25% emphasized reduced-roll center migration in the geometry of the rear five-link suspension, and it’s noticeable: Once it takes a cornering set, the CTS-V is stable as a jeweler’s bench. Cadillac rationed automotive journalists, video hosts and bloggers with three full laps on Road America each time we harnessed ourselves into the driver’s seat. Among the V department’s upgrades: The CTS-V uses zero-compliance cross-axis ball joints in the lower front control arms for more precise steering-feel, as with the smaller ATS-V.
It’s a tradeoff, Lyman said. “They’re selling fewer vehicles, but getting better prices,” he said. “If they maintain discipline it may work out, but they’ll suffer lower sales in the meantime.” Will Churchill, who owns Frank Kent Cadillac in Fort Worth, Texas, said de Nysschen’s plan is smart in the long run. With a raised thumb towards the staging crew, the press of the floor-mounted gas pedal, and the rewarding acknowledgement of the 1.7L supercharger, I surged out of pit lane and up the hill onto the home straightaway. All of this makes the CTS-V feel very much like a Russian-doll version of the smaller ATS-V: 6 more inches of wheelbase, 445 pounds heavier, two more cylinders, 176 horses more, and another $23,530 to the price; but with the same brakes, tires, chassis dynamics and the same blithe, superport confidence. The CTS’s suspension gets fortified — aluminum multilink double-pivot front suspension flexing with GM’s magnetic dampers, stiffer springs and stiffer anti-roll bar.
My face beading with sweat from the heat of my enclosed racing helmet, my hands and feet attempting to mimic the precise inputs of the professional drivers that grace this four-mile track in the warm months. With its 707 HP and $65k price tag it’s more powerful and cheaper than the CTS-V, though it lacks the permanently-reassuring brakes and handling abilities.
The V Series car shapes up well, too: 80 HP more than the M5 and 63 HP more than the E 63 S; it has 130 lb-ft more torque than the M5, and 40 lb-ft more than the Mercedes. Cadillac executive chief engineer Dave Leone suggested that more exotic ceramic composite brakes — used because they shed heat more readily than steel rotors — would have, on balance, offered less stopping power and would have been more costly. The CTS-V starts from $83,995 (plus $995 destination and the $1,000 gas guzzler tax), though factor in another $5,500 if you want the fancy Carbon Fiber Package that looks so fantastic.
In contrast, BMW wants $93,600 for the M5 (though destination and guzzler tax pushes that to $101k) while Mercedes asks $101,700 for the E63 S AMG (or $102,625 when the extra charges are applied). Cadillac’s big boast with the CTS-V – well, aside from all that horsepower – is its split personality. “When you ask me what I’m most proud about on this car, Cadillac’s Leone says, “it’s the bimodal personality… with the simple flick of a button and a flick of your foot you can transform it.” Set the drive mode to “Tour” and give the CTS-V some highways to cruise along, or peaceful suburbia to prowl around, and you could almost mistake it for its regular CTS cousin. Journalists were permitted only two hot laps in every three-lap stint, and that, combined with the zone control, suggested to me a very definite limit to the steel rotors’ ability to sustain prolonged abuse.
For those on my side, Cadillac hasn’t announced a factory-backed exhaust kit for the new CTS-V just yet, but considering that there was one offered on the old one, there remains hope. Perhaps you need a lighter foot for those sort of numbers; in my combined non-track driving I saw around 13 mpg, though that reached 20 mpg after spending more time on the freeway. At the same time, Mercedes offers a E63 AMG wagon and sedan in this generation, and the option of all-wheel-drive; something else missing from Cadillac’s spec sheet. They have 18-way adjustment – including bolsters that cinch in tighter than seems to be the norm, welcome if like me you find you still generally slide around even in sports seats – with on-screen graphics to walk you through exactly what you’re tweaking.
When I re-entered the pits, I was able to observe the digital instrument panel, which communicated that the current oil temp was 298 degrees Fahrenheit. A new chipset improves processor speed threefold and quadruples the graphics performance, while touch response from the 8-inch capacitive display in the center stack is swifter.
Graphics are rendered faster, navigation calculations are quicker, voice recognition more accurate, and the whole thing loads more rapidly when you first hit the starter button. Combined with a few UI tweaks, something Cadillac has been doing in each iteration of the controversial infotainment system, it makes a big difference to everyday usability. CUE can still be cluttered at times, but it was always the proclivity toward lag which made it so frustrating: you just weren’t sure whether you’d hit the right touch point or not. Plug in your iPhone and you can access Siri, Apple Maps, your music, make calls and dictate messages, and stream internet radio, while CUE’s functionality continues in the background.
Toggle into Touring mode, and the big V retracts a few of its claws, softening throttle progression, hushing the exhaust, and relaxing the taut suspension. The magnetic dampers, 19-inch wheels and low-profile Michelins do absorb bumps pretty well, but don’t kid yourself into thinking it’s somehow reminiscent of the big and fluffy Broughams and DeVilles of yore.
Regular roads simply don’t come close to testing its limits: the briefest of playful stabs at the throttle and you’re generally beyond the speed limit, while if your foot lingers even just a little more you’re well into license-losing pace. I can’t really blame Caddy for it, but I can recommend that, if you’re lucky enough to add a CTS-V to your garage, you budget for a spare set of those fancy Michelin tires or two, then Google up the nearest track. Cadillac tells me that’s the CTS-V calibrating to your torso, something which in a different car might feel more like the unwelcome stretch of an undertaker’s measuring tape. For all its power and growl, though, not only did the 640 HP monster never really give the impression it wanted to eat me, after a couple of laps we’d become co-conspirators.