About the Authors

Rob Kotorak

I’m the Lead Development Engineer for Cadillac’s CTS and CTS-V cars. That basically means that it’s my job to lead the development, or testing, of the cars before, during and after they begin production.

I have a lot of experience on rear-wheel drive performance cars. And that’s a good thing, as, like a lot of kids, I grew up naturally interested in speed and performance. My family has always tinkered with motorcycles and snowmobiles. And I haven’t outgrown that! Twenty years ago, I went off to college at General Motors Institute (now called Kettering University) and began the process of making my interest in performance a real career.

I worked on the famed “F-Cars” (for the uninitiated, that means the Chevy Camaro and Pontiac Firebird) in the 1990s, and that was a good training ground. My specialties were brake development and chassis systems ,such as traction control and stability control. On the first-generation CTS, CTS-V and our coming versions of these cars, my job is to develop and test the entire car -- but I’ll always be most attuned to ride, handling and performance. It can be difficult, as there are more than 3,000 parts inside a car like CTS, and it’s an exhausting task to prove that we get all of them just right. On the other hand, it puts me in some pretty cool situations... behind the wheel, in some very interesting places from test labs, to deserted country roads, to famed racetracks all over the world.

Liz Pilibosian

My job: There's testing on the Nurburgring, world premiere events at global auto shows and presentations to industry leaders and experts. But, more frequently it means things like durability testing, manufacturing validation, development rides and an endless stream of meetings, emails and phone calls. That’s my life as assistant chief engineer. And, especially when you love the car and the team building it, it’s good.

Ed Piatek

My official title is Program Engineering Manager. More about what that really means in a minute. But the basis for why I’m in this field of developing cars goes really has to do with an old 1930 Ford Model A hot rod that was in the garage when I was a kid. That hard wired me at an early age. When I went away to college, I spent (some would say “wasted”) much of my free time and money racing two-stroke sprint go-karts.

These days are a bit different. Program Engineering Manager for the Cadillac CTS-V really means managing the changes we put into the project to enhance the car and keeping track of all kinds of progress as the car moves towards launch. Early on, that meant literally ensuring that the V-Series “stuff” (new engine, new chassis and driveline content) would fit into the car nicely and would deliver on the targets our leaders established. That meant a lot of computer analysis. Now, as we’re closer to reality, it is more about hardware then software, including working with the manufacturing team to verify that we can build it exactly as intended, and validating that the car drives and operates exactly as designed.

I started in the late 1980’s working first on testing brake systems, and helping develop some of the first cars with Stabilitrak (electronic stability control.) Then, I was a chassis systems engineer on Cadillac’s SRX and STS models during the inception of both of these cars a few years ago. Following that, I had a fairly brief stint managing a group of suspension engineers across some other GM vehicles, before returning to Cadillac for this opportunity to help develop the fastest, highest performance Cadillac ever. It’s quite a privilege and an awesome responsibility, considering the proud tradition and legacy of Cadillac. And, a car like this is intended to enter an elite club consisting of some of the world’s most capable luxury/performance cars. That sense of Cadillac’s heritage and the extremely elite competition form the basic mentality for every decision we make.

I normally get at least a few hours a week of “seat time” in the car. That’s kind of the payoff for the meetings, emails and conference calls. And the progression the car makes through the development process between each of these evaluations is a powerful incentive - it really makes you want to get it into production so everyone can experience it. So that’s what I’ll be doing for the next few months . . .

Chris Berube

Developing a high-profile, high-performance car is a bit like football – all the games are important, but then there’s the Super Bowl where it’s the best of the best. I look at the Cadillac CTS-V as this kind of major challenge, where the rewards (and the stakes) are high. I don’t mean to suggest that other types of cars are not as important – in fact, many are more important in terms of volume or business aspects. But for an engineer and a driving enthusiast, well, this is a big deal!.

As is the case with several of the people on the team for the Cadillac CTS-V, I got here via a combination of career and “weekend” experiences. I have about 20 years of various types of engineering experiences – starting with things like designing air conditioning components for cars and ranging all the way to integrating high-performance sports cars. I helped do some of the early conceptual work on the cars that later redefined Cadillac quite a bit. More recently, I did some of the powertrain integration for the high performance SS cars for Chevy – like the Cobalt SS and HHR SS, as well as the Saturn Red Line series of vehicles. That gave me a lot of experience with supercharged engines, and cars with greatly upgraded chassis and performance content..

But that’s just a portion of it. Outside of work, I’ve had some terrific driving experiences that are great fun and also highly influence what I do for a living. I started SCCA racing in 1990, basic autocross stuff. That grew into a bit higher levels of club racing. We even won a points championship in 2003 in a Saturn SC2 (ITA class for those familiar with amateur racing) and a couple of class titles in the famed One Lap of America. This experience helped a lot, once I moved into jobs that were tightly focused on high performance vehicle development. I am one of about two dozen folks in the company that have the highest level of performance driving training – meaning we do the most extreme track testing, including driving the Nurburgring (link.) And that’s been incredible!.

For CTS-V, my job specifically is Lead Development Engineer. That means leading a group of really talented engineers across several disciplines, with the focus on integration. Integration in our context means the smooth and effective application and combination of all the various elements in the car. Like I wrote above, on this Cadillac that integration is a Super Bowl-type of effort, as we’re developing the fastest, most capable Cadillac ever at the highest levels of competition. And it’s an amazing experience.