Cadillac CTS-V Sets Record at Shanghai F1 Track

Milestone in China
Our friend John Heinricy is up to his old tricks.  On the 1-year anniversary of the milestone Nurburgring lap in the CTS-V  John and the CTS-V made more news. This time it wasn’t in Germany. It was in Shanhai, China.  The Shanghai Formula 1 Circuit, to be exact.  John and the CTS-V set [...]

A Year at the ‘Ring

As the old saying goes, timing is everything. It was just about a year ago (May 9, 2008 to be exact) that we took a standard production sedan CTS-V with factory-spec street tires — in other words, the same CTS-V that you see at Cadillac dealerships — and took it to the famous Nürburgring in Nurburg, [...]

World’s Fastest Production ‘Ring Runner Sedan Up for Auction

Quick, what production sedan ran the fastest ever documented time at the Nurburgring’s Nordschleife?
BMW M5? Mercedes-Benz E63?
How about the Cadillac CTS-V?
You may remember that seasoned hot shoe and recently retired John Heinricy, formerly Director of GM High Performance Vehicle Operations, absolutely scorched a 7:52.93 last year at the Nurburgring, which put the Cadillac CTS-V and [...]

John Heinricy Talks About the “V”

Here’s some more video, this one featuring GM High Performance Vehicle Operations Director John Heinricy talking about his recent record-setting lap at Germany’s Nurburgring (and answering first hand a couple of questions that have popped up here on the blog.) - Will Stewart, blog editor

Numbers …

By Chris

We’re nearing the end of our testing in advance of CTS-V production launch.
That means we’ve recently finalized some numbers. The SAE certified power
is 556 hp and 551 lb-ft of torque. After our recent sub eight-minute lap at
Nurburgring we also finalized some basic acceleration numbers. Zero to 60 mph is 3.9 seconds. We’re doing the quarter mile in 12.0 seconds.

More to come in the next few days, including new video of our latest track
tests.

The Video You’ve Been Waiting To See

By Ed

We just came back from Germany. As promised, here’s the video of John Heinricy’s sub-8 minute lap of the Nurburgring’s Nordschleife.

To clarify, the car had no performance or operational modifications outside of what we intend to offer in production. We did have a couple of customary safety precautions, as the first goal of our testing is always to keep drivers like John safe. The car had a harness bar upon which a 6-way racing safety belt system was mounted. We also had a fire supression unit on board. These things add a little bit of weight to the car, certainly not helping performance any. Stock tires, too.

We had a chance to mount some cameras on the car and had the benefit of a beautiful day. Enjoy.

More from Nurburgring

Last week, we told you about the 2009 CTS-V’s searing lap time at Germany’s famous Nurburgring test track. Here are a couple of photos of GM Performance Division executive – and racing driver – John Heinricy taking the CTS-V through it’s sub-eight-minute lap — believed to be the fastest ever by a production car. - Will Stewart, blog editor

2009 CTS- V Blisters Nurburgring

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, director of vehicle integration 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.

Dispelling Rumors

By Chris

One of the fun things about finally getting out there in the auto shows is that some of the rumors can either be confirmed, or dispelled. Last year at the Nurburgring some eager photographers snapped a shot of the CTS-V, which happens frequently there. Some of the shots from a long-distance lens “caught” the car with the hood open. I remember we were just outside our garage for maybe 10 minutes, yet, those shots were taken and online quickly.

From these shots tons of web speculation ensued. Some folks surmised that the car would be AWD (they now know it is not.) Others wondered if it would be naturally aspirated (nope), supercharged (bingo!), or even turbocharged (not.) Well, now all of that can be put to rest. What helped continue the speculation a bit was that ‘Ring observers noticed that our car was running awfully fast. And the sound of the car was not really characteristic of a supercharger. Most auto experts would tell you they can hear a supercharger easily. . . not in our case, apparently. And that is by design. Quite a lot of focus was put into the details of the sound, which we should take a look into via subsequent posts. Stay tuned. . .

Special Preview: ‘Ring Run

By Rob

The final element of the preview drive was a test session at the Nuerburgring. Great fun, although with quite a bit of seriousness to maximize safety on this most treacherous track. I’m sure the various journalists in the big car magazines will describe this far better.