By Ed

In testing today at Germany’s Nurburgring, Cadillac’s upcoming new 2009 CTS- V completed a lap of the legendary Nordschleife in 7:59.32. This blistering time appears to be the fastest ever publicly documented for a production sedan.

Cadillac is nearing the completion of testing for the highly anticipated CTS- V , the limited-edition high-performance model based on the award-winning CTS sport sedan. John Heinricy, executive with GM Performance Division and an acclaimed racing driver, piloted the CTS- V through its sub-8 minute lap. The car itself had no performance modifications outside of those planned for consumer production, which is scheduled to begin this fall.

Estimated at 550 horsepower, the CTS- V is at the moment going through the final stages of intensive testing and development. One of the realistic objectives of the Cadillac team is to make the CTS- V the world’s fastest production sedan, as a part of the overall goal to make the V -Series Cadillac’s ultimate expression of performance and technology. More updates will be released in the coming weeks as testing is finalized, including the car’s certified SAE power ratings, acceleration specifications and U.S.-market pricing.

Video documentation of the car’s breakthrough Nordschleife performance will be posted here in the coming days. Stay tuned.

The eight-minute mark has long been recognized as a major Nurburgring milestone, reserved for race cars and the fastest exotic sports cars. While there’s no single official repository for Nurburgring data from private test sessions, numerous reputable websites and publications report lap times from race teams, automakers and independent sources.

The new 2009 CTS- V includes a suite of advanced performance technologies, including a new version of Cadillac’s acclaimed Magnetic Ride Control suspension and the LSA 6.2-liter Supercharged V8 engine. For the first time, CTS- V will include the choice of 6-speed manual or automatic transmissions, with the new automatic sporting steering wheel-mounted shift buttons.

Posted by Editor at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's a shot from the wrap-up of our winter tests. While we're not shooting for the type of traction of an AWD car, we do want the V-Series to be capable across a range of conditions a bit wider than your typical high-performance car.

These are important tests for dialing in our chassis controls (e.g. Stabilitrak.) And, by our fairly low amateur photography standards, this was very nicely shot by one of our chassis engineers (Thank you, Chuck!)

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We've shared a lot of videos and stories about track testing the CTS-V, for obvious reasons. But this isn't a race car. It's a luxury sedan (albeit a REALLY high-performing one!) That means we're striving to make it very capable and confidence-inspiring in a wide range of environments. If you've been to this blog in the past, you may have seen some of the coverage done regarding extreme winter traction testing.

A lot of that work, of course, involved the AWD system on the "regular" CTS. Even though this is the V-Series, we still went "up North" to do some of the same sorts of tests recently. These shots are from the "snow field" at our test facility in Kinross in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. While it's still cold up there even in April, these shots were actually taken a couple of months ago when they were still in the middle of winter.

Posted by Editor at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

By Ed

A quick little news item here, from outside our world of testing and development.

We won't start selling the new CTS- V until this coming fall. But I'm told we actually made our first sale a few nights ago. Here's the quick story: At a major charity event in New York City, a CTS- V was part of a charity auction benefitting the Prostate Cancer Foundation. The winning bid was $75,000, submitted by Mr. Cano Ozgener. Mr. Ozgener happens to be the founder of CAO International, a top worldwide producer of premium cigars. The event was Cigar Aficionado magazine's 17th Annual "A Night to Remember," raising $1.3 million for prostate cancer research and treatment. More coverage of this event can be found at www.cigaraficionado.com. As we prepare to launch the car, it's a nice little milestone to know that a prominent customer has stepped up to be the first in line, helping a great cause in the process.

Posted by Editor at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

By Ed

We've been putting up all sorts of videos lately, as you know. And, I apologize. Most of them are distinctly amateur-level. I know this because the cameraman shooting many of these is not very good. In case you're wondering, that cameraman normally is me.

Today, I thought we should really turn this over to a professional. This clip was done a few months ago by Cadillac for use at some of big auto shows around the world. I enjoy this because we had a good time hustling the car around our track the day this was filmed.

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Enjoy this short montage of footage from our recent Arizona test drives:

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Another clip featuring John Heinricy. In this video, John discusses how the CTS-V's sport mode Magnetic Ride Control setting. - Will Stewart - blog editor

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