By Rob

Here are a few more answers to some of your recent queries. Thanks again for your thoughtful questions!

Q (Paul): Did you select tires, and how do you measure ride/handling attributes?
A: Interesting questions. Yes, we work closely with the top tire companies in the world. In our case, Michelin is our partner on the CTS. There is a detailed submission process, in which they provide us a wide range of samples and we work back-and-forth to dial in all the attributes. This was very intensive for the CTS, as we now offer a new and unique Michelin Pilot Sport II summer-only tire, in addition to the Pilot Sport All-Season tires.

In terms of ride and handling measurements, it is a blend of subjective “seat of the pants” observation, with objective measurements and data. For ride quality, I’d say it’s 70 percent subjective. This is where our ride trips and millions of miles of seat time are crucial. Lots of repetition and lots of observation of how the car feels. The other 30 percent is more electronic, with ride frequency measurements and instrumentation giving hard data to support what we’re observing. For handling, there is also a blend of the subjective and objective. Measurements like maximum lateral acceleration and an agility test we call “control response” are really important. But a lot of the fine tuning is subjective. Track tests are crucial for feeling how precise and accurate the car is, how “flat” and responsive it is in the corners and “twisties”.

Q (Jake): Did you guys test vibration issues a lot?
A: Yes, vibration is something we test a lot. You might have seen us post a little bit about this a few months ago, in fact. There is a lot of fine tuning of things like engine mounts, differential mounts and other bushings that are the intersections between the driveline and the car itself. This includes very precise measurements using chassis dynos and accelerometers. The results of these “fine tunings” are than captured on the Dyno with data acquisition and than verified on the open road to insure the customer has a pleasing driving experience at all speeds.

Posted by Editor at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

By Rob

Thank you all for the many recent questions. We’ll answer these via a few posts, as there were so many good questions.

A couple of questions went into aspects we’ve covered a few times before, through no fault of your own. I’ll bypass some of those, if you don’t mind, and ask you to look through some of our previous posts. But by and large, lots of interesting questions. Here are some answers to some of them, with more to come soon. I’ll summarize the question (and where it came from) to provide a little context, as there were so many posts. Here goes . . .

Q (Jeff): Anything spotted late in testing that we improved for production?
A: Yes. While a lot of the testing we do is to confirm and validate what has been designed, there certainly are many occasions where we find an opportunity to enhance or improve something. Here’s one example: In some final chassis tuning rides this year, we felt we could achieve just a little bit more ride quality and isolation. We made some slight tuning changes for our top two suspension packages just prior to going into production.

Q (Teidsmore): How does your testing compare to BMW/MB?
A: That’s a good question – I would have to be an insider at BMW or Mercedes to able to answer that fully. And I’m not an insider with those organizations. I know that what we do continues to be ever more fine tuned and rigorous. I would say that the biggest changes in testing relate to the fact that Cadillac has been greatly upgrading and expanding its product lineup for several years now. A big part of that is the expansion into global markets like China, Europe and elsewhere. That has brought a wider perspective – we’ve done more testing in more places around the world. And, as visitors to this site know, for a few years we’ve increased the focus on top-level performance via developing the cars at tracks and roads like Nuerburgring and the Autobahn.

Q (Scott G): Snow tires? Do I need them?
A: We designed everything in the car to operate well with the All-Season tires, including wet weather and snow/ice performance. In general, no, snow tires are not required or necessary. But snow tires, certainly, perform even better in those conditions. As part of our development process we also tested several types of snow tires to evaluate how the car behaves with different aftermarket offerings. We specially recommend to our dealers a few different options of snow tires for customers that we have tested, should someone want that extra level of winter performance.

Q (Noel): White and blue lights – too bright, can I change them? And, can I change my standard interior trim for the wood trim?
A: We do a lot of testing of all aspects of lighting, including rides we conduct at night and indoor evaluations in “dark rooms.” The white and blue hues are used intentionally – they are crisp and easy to read, and we did pay strict attention to glare issues. Don’t forget, there is a dimmer control inside the car. The lights we have inside the car (LED accent lights, as well as lights inside the gauge cluster) are all on a dimmer control with a very broad level of adjustment. The types of lights we selected are intended to have good readability – even when the dimmer is turned down low to minimize glare.

As for the wood trim, yes, you can change that to a degree. The trim on the instrument panel can be switched from the standard trim to the optional Sapele wood. There is a kit available from our Cadillac Parts and Accessories collection to do just that. The door trim, however, cannot be changed.

Posted by Editor at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

By Liz

We've done this before a few months back, with good success. So we thought we'd try it again.

Let us know what questions you have, and/or what things you'd like to see in future posts. Use the comments section for this post to give us your questions and suggestions for subsequent posts. Keep in mind that (as you probably know, if you've been here before) this is a blog chiefly focused on the world of testing and developing future Cadillac models. It's great to get feedback and questions about everything. And we read it all. . . but our best shot at giving you the best answers and best posts going forward are when we focus on road testing and developing cars.

So have at it . . . we'll be anxious to see your questions and suggestions.

Posted by Editor at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (42)

By Rob

Many apologies for the slow pace of new posts. The act of launching a new car (while developing other future models) is all-encompassing. Still, we're sorry to have taken a short and unscheduled break online.

In the meantime, here's a link to one of our designers who blogged on the FastLane site about the process of creating the interior of the CTS. Eric Clough is a good partner of ours. He was one of the guys who helped design the incredible Sixteen concept. And he was the guy who led the interior design of several production Cadillacs, most notably the new CTS. Here's a look at some of his reflections on how they did it.

Posted by Editor at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)