By Rob

We recently wrapped up our latest round of snow and winter testing and this photo captures one of the more memorable moments. Things do not always go as planned – particularly when testing handling on ice and snow.

Testing StabiliTrak (Cadillac’s fine electronic stability control system) means we do very thorough experiments with different settings and calibrations to make sure the version we take to production is the best it can be. This ensures we test right to the limit, and sometimes just a bit over that limit. This time, the laws of physics pushed the car off into the snow bank – but safely. Moral of the story: if you’re driving a car with StabiliTrak (or another form of ESC) use it, DON’T SHUT IT OFF!

Posted by Editor at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

By Liz

As a visitor to this blog, you probably have seen “spy” photos, in which web sites or magazines “catch” future vehicles in tests like the ones we do. This shot turns the tables on one of the spies! Our CTS has been the subject of a lot of spy photos – especially prior to its unveiling last month on the auto show circuit. And, yes, we do run across these folks from time to time on our rides. We did on our trip through Death Valley a few months ago, in fact. This picture was taken in the parking lot of a general store/gas station in Death Valley. Not exactly like the paparazzi outside a Hollywood club, eh?

Has a photo of a spy photographer ever been posted on the Internet? There’s a first time for everything.

Posted by Editor at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

By Liz

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it’s kind of nice to think about our hot weather tests in the midst of the drab and freezing winter. The “heat soak” test in Death Valley last summer was a rare case in which a key part of a development drive actually required no driving at all. We stopped our drive for a few hours to measure and observe the cars (and ourselves) absolutely cooking in 120-degree heat with no relief from shade or wind.

Thank goodness the cars all passed the test. This is not a place you really want to linger in the heat of the day any more than you have to.

Posted by Editor at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Check out this short clip. Just a little view of winter testing done recently at Kinross.

Posted by Editor at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

By Rob

This was taken just a few days ago here in Kinross in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It’s a measurement instrument attached to the nose of the car that we use for traction and stability control tests.

The instrument measures the position of the car’s body as it relates to the position of the wheels and steering input. It is connected to a laptop and other sensors inside the car.

Sliding around on the ice and snow provides us with a very severe and detailed look at how to establish AWD calibrations – particularly how to determine what exact conditions should tell the system to intervene and send power to the front axle.

Posted by Editor at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

By Rob

This was a pleasant sight upon waking up one morning in the beautiful – but very remote – arctic cold of Northern Sweden. Our chassis controls expert, Konrad, spotted this and took the photo of a nice old Cadillac (looks like from the early 1970s) that’s holding up nicely in these tough conditions. This is no show car – looks like a real runner. Notice the new tires and wheels. Needless to say, this is a pretty unlikely spot for a vintage Caddy and a nice surprise.

Posted by Editor at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

By Rob

With apologies to any Swedes viewing the site, who will find this obvious, Arvidsjaur is a town in the beautiful northern region of Sweden called Lapland. I would not know this myself were it not for the fact that a few automakers test cars here, including our team.

Arvidsjaur is just 110km (68 miles) south of the Arctic Circle. We’re talking incredible cold, incredible snow and lots of reindeer. We came here a little more than a year ago to get a jump-start on winter testing.

Posted by Editor at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

By Liz

Enough already! Much of the U.S. remains locked in nearly unbearably cold weather. Rob’s posting this week about winter testing makes you daydream about the sun. It made me wish we were doing heat testing now!

This is a shot from a hot-weather test in Death Valley a few months back. It was taken at Stovepipe Wells, the aptly named spot in California’s most brutally hot region – it was 120 degrees the day this picture was taken! We “heat soaked” our cars in this parking lot for a couple of hours, leaving them running with all the accessories on and keeping them stationary. That way, there’d be no wind to cool them at all. This snapshot of summer helps me get through another brutal winter day.

Posted by Editor at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

By Rob

As if it weren’t cold enough at home, we’re going back and forth to Kinross for winter-traction testing now. This is a key point in time – we’re checking and re-checking the AWD system and chassis controls in the car, as it’s the first time we’ve put AWD into the CTS. We snapped a lot of photos – this is a rare one in which you can actually see the car clearly amidst the snow that’s constantly falling and the snow being kicked up by the wind and tires.

We’ll have some other shots and stories from Kinross shortly. Also coming soon are some interesting pictures and video from some of the other winter-traction tests we’ve already done – including some from driving we’ve done in other near-Arctic areas in Sweden.

Posted by Editor at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

By Rob

It happens to most everyone. You get asked, “What do you do for a living?” In our case, the answer is "driving Cadillacs."

Several times a year, we organize long development-drive trips on public roads, striving for a very comprehensive “real world” evaluation. We’ll take a week, sometimes more, and cover hundreds of miles, driving from dawn through evening each day.

I’m Rob K. When someone asks me what my job is, the title “lead development engineer” is not very revealing. Instead, I usually just say that I’m an engineer, and I test drive luxury and sports cars. That usually elicits a response such as, “Sounds like fun,” or, “Can I trade jobs with you?”

It can be fun. And, no, I probably wouldn’t trade jobs with you. It can be very interesting. It can also be tedious and nerve-wracking. It takes us all over the world, testing in some incredible settings. Along the way, we obtain a lot of memories, knowledge, photos and laughs. When we get back from a ride trip, or an important track test, the e-mails start flying, sharing the stories from the road. That’s exactly what we’re doing here.

Brand-new freeways just constructed in China... Germany’s famed Nurburgring... California’s Death Valley. We’ll share some interesting highlights from those trips, along with stuff we’re doing right now.

Now, I’m writing this from a lesser-known place: Kinross, Mich., some 350 miles north of my home in the Detroit area. With due respect to the very nice locals, there is one reason we come here: snow. They measure snow here in feet, not inches. Well, actually there is something in addition to the snow: the deactivated Air Force base nearby, providing a giant piece of snow-and-ice covered pavement. I’ll show you more about that soon. Right now, they’re digging out from the latest storm — a foot-and-a-half deep.

Posted by Editor at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

By Liz

Several times a year, we organize long development-drive trips on public roads, striving for a very comprehensive “real world” evaluation. We’ll take a week, sometimes more, and cover hundreds of miles, driving from dawn through evening each day.

The last one we did was just before the holidays. The goal was to make this drive as comprehensive as possible, getting as many conditions, climates, and driving styles as possible in fairly close proximity. Where would you go to get warm weather, cold weather, mountains, city streets, twisty country roads and long highway passes all in one area at one time?

For us the answer was Southern California. Starting in the shadow of the San Diego harbor, as you see here, we wound our way east and north, where dusty, desert highways give way to chilly pine forests in the higher elevations. On this ride, it was as if we replicated the great majority of daily driving conditions most people encounter in daily driving.

Posted by Editor at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

By Rob

Earlier, I mentioned our visit to the frozen tundra of Kinross. Here’s a look across the tarmac. If you look really closely, you can see a tiny little speck just above the horizon in the middle of the picture. That’s a small plane preparing to land. This former U.S. Air Force facility still has a working runway that operates adjacent to the vehicle test site.

The facility is pretty unique. It’s maintained and groomed a bit like a ski hill or an ice rink. There is a big oval course that is probably 1,500 feet or so in diameter. This is sort of a double oval - one is a lane entirely covered in ice, the other covered in snow. We also use a handling course that is basically like an autocross or a simple road course. The difference here is that it is covered with a consistent coating of snow. There is also a “snow field,” which isn’t actually a field, but rather a big swath of tarmac covered in snow. The snow field is used to test aspects such as emergency maneuvers, accident avoidance and lane changes. There are two other “pads” roughly the size of a football field each that are completely ice-covered. We come here so frequently that the company has leased one of the former Air Force buildings as a garage. In the coming days, we’ll have a chance to post some more shots of our cars going through tests that are pretty extreme.

Posted by Editor at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)