CADILLAC CTS-V - Everything You Need to Know | Up to Speed

(car wheels screeching) - Let me ask you a question because you are smart and I respect your opinion. How did a dusty, granddaddy car brand create one of the sickest burnout machines of all time? And in the process, redeem himself completely. It came as a sedan, it came as a coupe. Ditch your damn headphones, Dad. It arrived as the baddest American truck (bleep) ever. (engine revs) (tires screech) Go tell dad to give you his crispy handkerchief because he's going to give you a case of dripping from his mouth. Here's

everything

you

need

to

know

to get up to

speed

on the Cadilac CTS-V (happy music).

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50 to receive 50% off your first order. Keeps.com/uptospeed50. The easiest way to support Donut is to support our sponsors, just click that link, it really helps us. Now, back to the show. A lot happened in 2004. "Baby Geniuses 2 Superbabies" was melting all of our little hearts, the New England Patriots had just won their third Supor Bowl, Cobie likes it, and the suburban mall shoe retailer, Just For Feet, closed its doors. forever. It was a dark time. But in the wake of that darkness, an unsuspecting white knight appeared, riding a four-wheeled steed, destined to shed some light on sad people across the country, and what was that white knight?

Cadilac and that four-wheeled steed, the CTS. (engine revs) (tires screech) The CTS was Cadillac's replacement for the Tera, a German-built sedan that looked like a Neon and was shipped to the US and rebadged as the Caddy. My stepmother's mother had was. She is my stepmother. You remember the ads, it's the caddy who zigzags. - Catera, the caddy who zigzags. - The guys and gals at GM wanted to bring the four-door sedan and do business back to the US and the CTS was the model to do it, and they did it with great success. Priced compact but built like a midsize, the new CTS was intended to take some sales away from similar SPECT Beamers and Benzes.

It was also the first Cadillac sedan in a long time to be offered with a manual transmission; the last one was the Cimarron from 1988. Now this was perfect for those moms and dads who wanted to get down to business after a day of doing some adult shit that sucks. How to have children. It didn't take long, but just like that creepy magician at your best friend's 10th birthday party, Cadillac had a trick up its sleeve. Just a year after the model's initial launch, the big guns were pulled out and a V8 was placed under the hood of the midsize sedan.

Now, they called their new improved creation CTS-V, but it wasn't just any V8, that would be lazy, instead of lazy they decided to go crazy. They removed the engine from the Corvette C5 Z06, a 400-horsepower 5.7-liter V8. That's right, this pup got the LS treatment with 395 pound-feet of torque, went from standstill to 60 in 5.3 seconds, and covered the quarter mile in the low 13s. This brand new Cadillac wasn't what your grandparents had in mind when they went to buy Nana a new city cruiser. Many daddies almost give their wives heart attacks when they take them for a walk around the block. (tire screech) Built by GM PERFORMANCE DIVISION for Cadillac, the CTS-V was the first car in a series of V cars still in production today.

This new V, a luxury muscle car built on American soil, took aim at the German-made BMW M5, Audi S6, and Mercedes AMG E-series. After years of being walked all over by the schnitzel guys (bleep), this stadium Frank American was ready to throw some mustard. (engine revolutions) The four-door Z06, as some called it, had more than just a big, beefy engine hidden under the hood, it had a Tremec T56 six-speed manual transmission, also from the Z06, it had independent rear suspension, it had four piston Brembos with 14-inch rotors and 18-inch wheels. This car was truly amazing. She was the talk of the town and the beauty of the dance.

America finally had an answer for the Varian boys across the pond and the answer was (bleep) you. Straight up, I'll give them a (bleep) about you. (beep) So what do you say? He looks (bleep) sick too. The bodywork took on a more aggressive look with the stainless mesh grille and polished-looking arrows. He made the car a damn chisel. (engine revolutions) The V's interior has a different instrument cluster, better seats, and a very long gear lever. Compared to typical GM interior standards from the early 2000s, this one had a really nice interior. And while it wasn't necessarily the fastest of the bunch compared to other high-performance four-doors, it did what GM wanted it to do: It got passionate young people excited about the mothball brand.

This was the beginning of a new era for GM luxury cars. The foundation has now been laid for this series of cars and they did not disappoint. For example, a tour of the Nurburgring. (engine revs) (tires screech) The first-generation CTS-V covered the 12.9-mile course in eight minutes and 19 seconds, now, to put that in perspective, the M5 completed it in 8:20. Considering GM's flagship sports car of the time, the C5 Z06 did just 20 seconds faster. The big, bulky four-door V proved it had some wings. So let's say you're a Beamer Boy, you probably know that M and M 3, 4, 5 whatever means motorsport.

If you are an Audi file you will know that S stands for sport and if you are a Benz Baby I am sure you will know that AMG stands for (speaks in a foreign language). The German brands have some meaning behind the name of their performance division, so if you're curious what the V stood for, it's not victory, it's not veteran, it's not speed, all of that would have been great, but the truth is that Cadillac hired focus groups to research which letter they should add to the end of their three-letter namesake, and the V was deemed unique and stylish.

It is a very boring story but it is the truth and many times the truth is boring. But history is written by those with power and since I have the most power, baby, from this day on tell your friends that V means vroom. (engine revolutions) Or for CTS vroom it was also the car that marked Cadillacs return to racing. Now you think: Was Cadillac at the races? If they were. The v wasn't the first luxury brand racing car, dating back to 1949, the guy named Paul Russo won the Milwaukee 100 stock car race in a series 62 Cadillac. Now, fast forward to 2004, the CTS- V raced in the SCCA World Challenge GT Championship, and the Four Seasons he built won the Manufacturers' Championship, a Drivers' Championship, 10 overall wins, seven pole positions and 36 podiums.

I just changed my mind. The V now represents victory. Well, the first-generation CTS-V had a lot of advantages, it also had some (bleep). The first is the explosion of spreads. You don't want the differential to explode. (engine revs) Secondly, while the sport suspension used on the car created excellent handling, it was very, very harsh on everyday roads, creating a very un-Cadillac feel, but when you're trying to chase a larger audience young, exuberant. Floating in suspension on a cloud is not the number one priority, so to hell with that. I have ruined all my cars with upgraded suspension.

Now finally, and probably most importantly, the car was slightly worse than its competition, it wasn't as fast, it wasn't as pretty, and even though it was still $20,000 cheaper, people still noticed. So, playing second fiddle to the Germans is not something GM PERFORMANCE DIVISION wanted to do, so they went back to the drawing board to take a step forward with some goals in mind. The first is a car with a little more. I just

need

a friend. Can you help me? (phone rings) - Mr. President. What do you need? - I need a car with a little more. - More power baby. - Poorer baby. - More power baby. - More power baby. - Me a little more. - More power baby. - More power baby. - A little more. (engine revolutions) - More power baby. - More baby power, more baby power. - Say more.

Force. Baby. - Baby. - Thank you, it's just not the same. The kids were cute though. And they went back to the drawing board. The second generation CTS-V appeared on the scene in 2009, feeding fans of four-door luxury with similar power. (engine revolutions) This time it got a 6.2-liter supercharged V8, the LSA, building on the success of the previous generation, Cadillac used a detuned version of the Corvette ZR1 engine with a 1.9-liter 4-lobe supercharger. the car developed 556 horsepower. (engine revs) (tire screech) That's 40% more than the previous generation. The new v vroom, zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds with a quarter mile time of 12.6 in a damn Cadillac.

And while most other high-performance sedans limited their top speeds to (bleep), I already said it, 155 miles per hour, the CTS-V didn't do any of that fake nonsense. If you're feeling frisky, you can push this bad boy up to 191 miles per hour, why? I don't care, he's sick. The new V also has Magnetic Ride suspension, with the push of a button you can turn your classic cloud shopping cart into a four-door hot rodding checkout machine. Returning to our performance litmus test, the new CTS-V lapped the infamous Nurburgring in a blistering seven minutes and 59 seconds. Now how good is that?

Well, not only was it 20 seconds faster than the previous one, but at the time they set the fastest lap around the Nurburgring for any production sedan ever. That's called a record baby. The differential nightmares that plagued early first-generation cars were now a thing of the past. The new V has asymmetric driveshafts connected to a reinforced differential and rear subframe. This new, stronger rear end and subframe eliminated camber and axle hop when taking off from a standstill, and this was also the first time you could get a V with an optional six-speed automatic with paddle shifters. You know your baby with Brembo brakes, better cooling, an aluminum hood and even more aggressive styling, the CTS-V was a certified slapper back to back, sophomore albums better than rookie.

At 60K, it was still $20,000 less than an M5 and $30,000 less than an E63 AMG. You can afford not to buy one. The only thing that could make this new generation sweeter would be some variations in the body style. Now, the second generation was the first time we saw the CTS-V in coupe and sportwagen form. The Corvette S-coupe and sportwagen on steroids broadened Cadillacs' appeal to young buyers. You can only get into the V truck from 2011 to 2014 and the manual versions of these cars are very expensive these days, you can't find them cheap, probably because it's the last time you'll see a manual truck from GM. or, honestly, most manufacturers.

In the true spirit of going bigger and better, the third and final generation of the V is equipped with the most powerful production engine ever offered in a General Motors vehicle. The supercharged 6.2-liter LT4 made 640 horsepower, just 11 less than a Ferrari Enzo. 2019 marked the end of an era for the CTS-V; in fact, the CTS will not be available at all. The V will continue to be present in other future Cadillac products, but at least for now it will not carry the CTS name. Now, we didn't even talk about the XLR-V, the STS-V or the ATS-V during this episode.

Now, if you are a dad who is a fan of those amateur caddies, you have to be grateful for the CTS victory. - More power baby. More power baby. - More power baby. - More power baby. - More power baby. - More power baby. - More power baby. - More power baby. - More power baby. - More power baby. - More power baby. I love you.