By Rob

This is from our most recent track test. Race fans might have a guess as to what track this is. This is the front straight of the track, before we turn into the infield road course. The car is probably a bit over 100 mph through this section.

Any guesses, race fans, as to what track this is? One of the things we were looking at in this test is powertrain cooling, given that we’re driving the car pretty hard and it was 85 degrees in March.

(That should be a decent hint.)

This is Phoenix International Raceway in Arizona. This place is known mostly for the Nextel Cup races it hosts. But that has nothing to do with why it works nicely for us. The infield road course here is good, the paddock facilities are great, it’s close to our Desert Proving Grounds facility and the weather is hot and dry.

Just what we need.

Posted by Editor at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Liz

In my last post, in response to some questions from readers, I wrote a bit about the use of camouflage on test cars. That got me thinking about another related aspect of testing future cars: mules, the ultimate camo.

We need to test aspects of vehicles long before we’ve ever built a full pre-production car. In a case like that, we have the ultimate camo. It’s called a “mule.” This photo shows what looks to be a regular Cadillac STS up on a hoist in a garage. In reality, these are “mule” versions of the 2008 CTS.

These cars contain a lot of future CTS engines, transmissions, driveline and chassis components. This shot was taken at a Cadillac dealership in Southern California that was kind enough to lend us a couple of service bays on a Sunday, when we had to adjust a few aspects of these cars before a long development trip.

Sure, they were a little rough . . . that’s why the term “mule” is suitable. But they’re a big part of the early development, and another method of doing real-life testing of future cars.

Posted by Editor at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

By Rob

This is a look at our set-up before our most-recent track test. Yeah, it can be a pretty serious operation.

We’re fortunate to have a really good team of technicians that supports most everything we do. You’ll notice the laptop. A lot of what happens here is calibration work, manipulating the settings on the car and collecting data.

The Corvette you see in the foreground -- a C5 -- is a car we maintain for training. We use it to train the engineers to hone their driving skills, and to “learn” the track, or refresh our memories if it’s a place we’ve been to previously.

Posted by Editor at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

By Liz

I’m asked a lot about our track tests -- what we do and where we do them.

The nice thing about track testing, of course, is that you can safely take the car much closer to its limits. It’s not about speed, really. It’s about the fact that on a good road course, many aspects of the car are simply put to the test in more-challenging and detailed ways in a shorter period of time. Acceleration, shifting, steering, braking, chassis control, and the entire “feel” of the car are all pushed and evaluated simultaneously under extreme conditions.

We go to a number of tracks, but some of it happens right at home. We have an excellent road course at our Proving Grounds in Milford, MI that was built just a few years ago. It’s super technical and state of the art. We hope to show you guys some photos from there (maybe video, too) later this spring.

Often, we will do track tests at off-site road courses, too. Most notably, these include Nuerburgring, in Germany, and we’ll share some highlights of those tests on this site in the not-too-distant future. We do visit many other road courses in the US, particularly those that might be convenient to other tests we’re doing in specific road or weather conditions.

Posted by Editor at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

By Rob

Track testing is a big part of what we do. We’re doing some track testing now, and have several more of these planned for this spring. Seems like a good time to share some of those highlights here, which we’ll do in the days and weeks to come.

This photo shows me getting ready for our track test last week. I wanted to post this shot first, before any of the other track-related stuff, to get across the point that, while track driving can be really cool, we take it very seriously and very carefully.

You can see that I’m in a fire suit. Before I get this car onto the track I will also put on a helmet -- that’s a must for the track. We’ll also use the HANS device (Head and Neck Support, same as the ones used in recent years for racing). This car has a roll cage in the rear and special seats with 5-point harnesses. These precautions are absolute requirements and are very helpful - meaning we can just focus on the car and the testing, knowing that we have all the right safety preparations in place.

Posted by Editor at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

By Liz

One of the unusual things about testing future cars is the use of camouflage. This is the stuff we use to disguise or cover the outside of vehicles, particularly when we’re driving on public roads.

Obviously, the main purpose is to conceal the styling of vehicles that are not yet ready to be seen publicly. Is this because we don’t want competitors to know what we’re up to? Or is it to conceal future ideas from

photographers and media? Or is it simply to disguise pre-production bodywork that is not yet perfected?

Yes, all of the above can be reasons to use camo.

Some of you visiting the site have asked us why we’re still using it on the 2008 Cadillac CTS, given that we are already showing this car publicly at auto shows and the like. There are a few reasons for this. Many of the CTS test cars we’ve been using for a long time were built long before we showed the car in an auto show. So they were prepared for camo from the start. We, of course, still have many uses for these and continue to drive them a lot.

In many cases, these cars are built primarily for testing, so they may not have the proper appearance aspects – such as finished paint, badges or other purely visual stuff. They’re built to be tested, not to be pretty. So those test cars will probably wear that camo proudly for a long time to come.

Of course, if you see a Cadillac with camo on it, it also may be that it’s some future model that actually has not been publicly revealed!

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

By Rob

This photo looks on the surface like a bunch of cars just sitting.

In reality, we are measuring cold-start performance – things like idle quality – as it relates to the software in the computers that direct our engines.

This was a cold, rainy fall morning – good conditions for monitoring the smoothness of the engines at idle, something really critical for Cadillac. This trip continued to a town called Charlevoix, then 250 miles or so back to our proving ground in Milford, MI.

Posted by Editor at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

By Rob

The recent winter testing – and as a snowmobiler, I don’t mind it a bit! – reminds me of our last trip up into rural northern Michigan.

We did what we call a “65 percent ride” through big stretches of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula last year. The term “65 percent” refers to the general progress of the car’s development – meaning the car was about two-thirds of the way to “final.” It’s an important juncture on the journey to the launch, as the car is taking shape quickly. This ride was very comprehensive in nature, and one of the main aspects was engine calibrations.

This is Traverse City at dawn. We’re just gearing up for the day.

Posted by Editor at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

By Rob

The glamorous world of vehicle testing, indeed.

This shows the cars parked at our development trailers, at what would become the conclusion of the winter-test regimen. We do enough testing up here at Kinross that we have this little “building” as a staging point.

Posted by Editor at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

By Rob

The snow handling course is great for testing tires, StabiliTrak, AWD and Traction Control -- all at the same time. This test confirmed that we’ve got the AWD torque transfer right where we want it. The key in designing the torque transfer is to get just the right amount of power to the front axle to keep the car on course.

These challenging conditions for cornering provide a good test for how robust the system is.

Posted by Editor at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

By Rob

The handling course at Kinross is not unlike a typical autocross track. The difference, of course, is that it’s covered in snow.

Here’s the car in the middle of a long sweeper. This car in particular has our top performance and handling package and our recommended snow tires. Very nice.

Posted by Editor at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

By Rob

We don’t just test our cars. We even test accessories and parts for them. During our recent Kinross trip, we did a lot of testing and subjective evaluation of various snow tires. We folded these into our ongoing testing and confirmation of our AWD system in these extreme winter conditions.

I’ll post a few of the images of what that sort of testing consisted of. Come back in a couple of days for some of those.

Posted by Editor at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

By Liz

Thanks for the warm welcome and nice comments! This blog is a new thing for us and a little bit of an experiment. So we're pleased to get comments. One of the questions we've received frequently involves how much we are still adjusting and tweaking a car like the 2008 CTS, which is scheduled to begin sales in just a few months' time.

Yes, we are in the later stages of development. Many things, indeed, are established firmly. For instance, we established a new track width for the chassis, going a bit wider for improved agility and stance. That’s a big decision that involves many factors, including tools and parts that must be confirmed and established long in advance. However, even at this stage there are things we are testing right now that can and will be tweaked.

Rob has posted a lot of stuff recently from our ongoing winter-traction tests. Some of this involves electronic calibrations. As a result, changes can be made pretty quickly. A laptop computer with our software can make adjustments to calibrations almost immediately. Other examples of things we can (and do) change quickly are steering feel and effort, as well as calibrations for engines, transmissions and stability control.

Also, a lot of what's going on is confirmation. We produce a few test cars at a time and as time goes on those cars get closer and closer to the full vision. As that happens, we continually test and confirm how individual systems are coming together and relating to one another. We call it integration. Even when we are actually in production of a car, we don't stop testing. We're constantly - maybe obsessively - searching for enhancements. And, there are always new features, even entirely new cars, planned for the future. And those are tested right alongside (or sometimes even inside) current cars. Hope that helps paint the picture a bit.

Posted by Editor at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)