Cadillac CTS-V Washington DC

Lucky man, that Doug Kott. Our Executive Editor, in case you haven't seen our September issue, had the enviable pleasure of traveling to Germany and putting Cadillac's new CTS-V — yep, the one with the Corvette Z06's V-8 engine — through its paces on the twists and turns of the Nürburgring's famous 12-mile Nordschleife ("North Loop") circuit. Anybody care to guess who assigns the press trips at R&T?

Not me, or I'd have been there. Truth be told, however, in a situation like that, the driver arguably spends as much time figuring out the track as he does the car. So it was with open arms that we received one of the first production Cadillac CTS-Vs at our home office in California, looking menacing in its Raven Black paint and — more important — ready to be subjected to our usual battery of tests on familiar turf.

So, what did we learn? Well, let's just say the much-ballyhooed development program at the Ring is clearly more than lip service. GM's Performance Division has indeed transformed this Cadillac into an American M5 fighter, a superb rear-drive sports sedan that blows us away with its power, brakes, suspension tuning and balance.

Yes, you are reading about a Cadillac. And the V owes much of its prowess to its rigid chassis, a version of GM's Sigma platform. Rear drive and rigid, it serves as the basis for not only the CTS, but also the SRX and the next Seville. In the V, the only modification it needs is a tubular underhood brace between the shock towers. Shut the doors on the V, or any CTS for that matter, and there's a tight, European feel.

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