TriShield
06-10-2008, 10:34 PM
Sick With Power
http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com//media/il/features/general/09.cadillac.ctsv/09.cadillac.ctsv.act.f34.2..500.jpg
With a less visually satisfying launch, the CTS-V will rocket from zero to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, says Cadillac.
By Daniel Pund, Senior Editor
Date posted: 06-10-2008
My legs feel somewhat like they did the first time I took Percocet.
This is to say they feel like two 32-inch-long rubber bands — sweaty ones. My head inside the helmet feels thick and swollen like an overinflated football. And it's taking me so long to unfasten my helmet strap that I surely must be wearing winter gloves. I expected to be able to casually whip the helmet off between the 2009 Cadillac CTS-V that's just discombobulated my combobutates and the group of GM execs standing about 30 feet away.
Awkwardly, I arrive still fumbling, sweating and disoriented. So much for the cool nonchalance I've been striving so hard to cultivate for these many years.
Oh, also I'm nauseated. This is what happens once you've spent a couple laps in the passenger seat of the 2009 Cadillac CTS-V while being hurled around the test track at GM's proving ground in Milford, Michigan.
Lord of the Rings
http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com//media/il/features/general/09.cadillac.ctsv/09.cadillac.ctsv.bdg.500.jpg
Cadillac is justifiably proud of its sub-8-minute run at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
Now, I don't want to veer too sharply into overstatement. The 2009 Cadillac CTS-V, even with its 556 horsepower, is not the most powerful vehicle I've ever been in. And no, I did not actually drive the new V-specification CTS. That will have to wait another couple of months. And John Heinricy, the GM development engineer and part-time racer who put us in this condition after a few laps around the so-called Lutz-ring at GM's proving grounds in Milford, Michigan, drives as smooth as Teflon-coated butter slathered with pork fat and olive oil.
Heck, the silver CTS-V in which he's driving me around has been equipped with a six-speed automatic transmission, for goodness sakes. It is, in fact, the very car that Heinricy recently took to a 7:59.32 lap time around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. He looks as casual driving it around GM's track as he did in the 'Ring video.
Thanks to the Sparco racing seat and five-point racing harness that GM has added for safety reasons, my body is bound tightly to the vehicle. It's the stuff inside of my body that I wish were more securely strapped down. There's a steep hillock about three turns into the proving ground's road course that's immediately followed by the "toilet bowl," a heavily banked left-hander that's supposed to replicate the Nürburgring's Karussell. This particular section is evil.
I like to think my internal organs are attached to something. But apparently they're just suspended in there like chunks in chowder.
Cresting the hill, my feet reflexively scrambling around the floor for security, my eyes widen and a high percentage of my bloody bits are rushing up to hide under my shoulders. Then comes the compression. Like, a lot of compression. The kind of compression that makes you think the car's suspension will just say, "Oh, to hell with this" and the floorboards will come crashing down to the pavement.
They don't and it doesn't, of course. But my entire easy-living body is crashing down on my personal floorboard. Dude, are we done yet?
Don't Stress
http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com//media/il/features/general/09.cadillac.ctsv/09.cadillac.ctsv.eng.500.jpg
Hidden under all that plastic is the 556-hp supercharged 6.2-liter LSA motor.
Meanwhile the V-spec CTS seems entirely unstressed. The exhaust note is not angry and harsh like you'd expect from a race-tuned V8. It's not raspy in the upper sound registers like the stunning Mercedes AMG 6.2-liter V8. And it surely doesn't scream bloody murder like a high-revving, small-displacement Italian V8. It makes just a deep and unrelenting low roar.
And though this V8 engine is supercharged, there's no characteristic supercharger whine layered on top of the engine noise. This is one of Eaton's new TVS superchargers. The Roots-type blower carries four lobes on each of its two rotors, one more per rotor than a conventional unit. The GM Powertrain engineers promised that it would be quieter and more efficient than existing Roots-type units, and judging by this brief demonstration, it certainly is. The company has been so impressed by the new supercharger that Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter claims that the monster Corvette ZR1 might not have existed at all if the TVS unit hadn't been available.
Given that the CTS-V's LSA V8 is simply a dressed-down version of the 637-horspower LS9 V8 in the ZR1, it should come as no surprise that there's more power to be had from this relatively unstressed motor. Dave Mikels, the CTS-V's powertrain integration engineer, reckons a 10 percent boost in horsepower should be within easy reach for a tuner. "I know because we've done it in development," says Mikels with the sly smile that inevitably comes when boys talk about horsepower.
But more power is not, you know, strictly necessary, since this car will sprint to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, run the quarter-mile in around 12 seconds, and get all the way to 191 mph. (Cars optioned with the six-speed automatic instead of the manual transmission are limited to 175 mph.) Even at a hefty curb weight estimated to be 4,300 pounds, the CTS-V rocks the best power-to-weight ratio in its class. And this engine also punches out 551 pound-feet of torque at 3,800 rpm.
http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com//media/il/features/general/09.cadillac.ctsv/09.cadillac.ctsv.act.f34.2..500.jpg
With a less visually satisfying launch, the CTS-V will rocket from zero to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, says Cadillac.
By Daniel Pund, Senior Editor
Date posted: 06-10-2008
My legs feel somewhat like they did the first time I took Percocet.
This is to say they feel like two 32-inch-long rubber bands — sweaty ones. My head inside the helmet feels thick and swollen like an overinflated football. And it's taking me so long to unfasten my helmet strap that I surely must be wearing winter gloves. I expected to be able to casually whip the helmet off between the 2009 Cadillac CTS-V that's just discombobulated my combobutates and the group of GM execs standing about 30 feet away.
Awkwardly, I arrive still fumbling, sweating and disoriented. So much for the cool nonchalance I've been striving so hard to cultivate for these many years.
Oh, also I'm nauseated. This is what happens once you've spent a couple laps in the passenger seat of the 2009 Cadillac CTS-V while being hurled around the test track at GM's proving ground in Milford, Michigan.
Lord of the Rings
http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com//media/il/features/general/09.cadillac.ctsv/09.cadillac.ctsv.bdg.500.jpg
Cadillac is justifiably proud of its sub-8-minute run at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
Now, I don't want to veer too sharply into overstatement. The 2009 Cadillac CTS-V, even with its 556 horsepower, is not the most powerful vehicle I've ever been in. And no, I did not actually drive the new V-specification CTS. That will have to wait another couple of months. And John Heinricy, the GM development engineer and part-time racer who put us in this condition after a few laps around the so-called Lutz-ring at GM's proving grounds in Milford, Michigan, drives as smooth as Teflon-coated butter slathered with pork fat and olive oil.
Heck, the silver CTS-V in which he's driving me around has been equipped with a six-speed automatic transmission, for goodness sakes. It is, in fact, the very car that Heinricy recently took to a 7:59.32 lap time around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. He looks as casual driving it around GM's track as he did in the 'Ring video.
Thanks to the Sparco racing seat and five-point racing harness that GM has added for safety reasons, my body is bound tightly to the vehicle. It's the stuff inside of my body that I wish were more securely strapped down. There's a steep hillock about three turns into the proving ground's road course that's immediately followed by the "toilet bowl," a heavily banked left-hander that's supposed to replicate the Nürburgring's Karussell. This particular section is evil.
I like to think my internal organs are attached to something. But apparently they're just suspended in there like chunks in chowder.
Cresting the hill, my feet reflexively scrambling around the floor for security, my eyes widen and a high percentage of my bloody bits are rushing up to hide under my shoulders. Then comes the compression. Like, a lot of compression. The kind of compression that makes you think the car's suspension will just say, "Oh, to hell with this" and the floorboards will come crashing down to the pavement.
They don't and it doesn't, of course. But my entire easy-living body is crashing down on my personal floorboard. Dude, are we done yet?
Don't Stress
http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com//media/il/features/general/09.cadillac.ctsv/09.cadillac.ctsv.eng.500.jpg
Hidden under all that plastic is the 556-hp supercharged 6.2-liter LSA motor.
Meanwhile the V-spec CTS seems entirely unstressed. The exhaust note is not angry and harsh like you'd expect from a race-tuned V8. It's not raspy in the upper sound registers like the stunning Mercedes AMG 6.2-liter V8. And it surely doesn't scream bloody murder like a high-revving, small-displacement Italian V8. It makes just a deep and unrelenting low roar.
And though this V8 engine is supercharged, there's no characteristic supercharger whine layered on top of the engine noise. This is one of Eaton's new TVS superchargers. The Roots-type blower carries four lobes on each of its two rotors, one more per rotor than a conventional unit. The GM Powertrain engineers promised that it would be quieter and more efficient than existing Roots-type units, and judging by this brief demonstration, it certainly is. The company has been so impressed by the new supercharger that Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter claims that the monster Corvette ZR1 might not have existed at all if the TVS unit hadn't been available.
Given that the CTS-V's LSA V8 is simply a dressed-down version of the 637-horspower LS9 V8 in the ZR1, it should come as no surprise that there's more power to be had from this relatively unstressed motor. Dave Mikels, the CTS-V's powertrain integration engineer, reckons a 10 percent boost in horsepower should be within easy reach for a tuner. "I know because we've done it in development," says Mikels with the sly smile that inevitably comes when boys talk about horsepower.
But more power is not, you know, strictly necessary, since this car will sprint to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, run the quarter-mile in around 12 seconds, and get all the way to 191 mph. (Cars optioned with the six-speed automatic instead of the manual transmission are limited to 175 mph.) Even at a hefty curb weight estimated to be 4,300 pounds, the CTS-V rocks the best power-to-weight ratio in its class. And this engine also punches out 551 pound-feet of torque at 3,800 rpm.