DETROIT: Cadillac CTS-V was launched at North America International Auto Show last month with a 6.2 liter V8 engine and is capable of producing 640 horsepower. The third generation of Cadillac’s CTS-V should put BMW and Mercedes-Benz on notice.
With a top speed of 200 mph, a 6.2-liter V-8 that can go from 0-to-60 in 3.7 seconds and 630 pound-feet of torque, the 2016 CTS-V is more powerful and about 100 pounds lighter and nimbler than its predecessor. Aluminum cylinder heads, titanium valves, a standard carbon hood and optional carbon fiber vent, front splitter and rear spoiler are the main contributors to that improvement.
Cadillac, which debuted the new model at the North American International Auto Show last month, is not disclosing the price yet, but the current CTS-V goes for between $71,000 and $75,000, depending on options. The car, which is assembled at General Motors’ Lansing Grand River plant in Michigan, will go on sale late next summer as a 2016 model.
Coming in the wake of the ATS-V unveiled this fall in Los Angeles, the new 640-horsepower CTS-V is credible evidence that Cadillac is serious about taking its luxury performance game to a higher level.
Powered by the same supercharged 6.2-liter V8 found in Chevy’s Corvette Z06, the CTS-V represents what Cadillac insiders call their kitchen sink car: Nothing was left on the table.
“How can anyone say government regulation on fuel economy is impeding performance?” asked analyst Dave Sullivan of AutoPacific after getting a look at the car.
A little more than two years ago, when the industry signed on to the Obama administration’s ambitious corporate average fuel economy standard of 54.5 mpg by 2025, more than a few industry sages were predicting the death of the performance car. The CTS-V will hold off that obituary for the foreseeable future.
President Johan de Nysschen, hired in September from Infiniti, wants to double Cadillac’s global sales to 500,000 by 2020 and expand its product offerings from six to 12 by the end of the decade, including a new flagship sedan to be unveiled this spring in New York.
