Car Throttle

Cadillac and competitive racing are perhaps not two words that are normally associated with one another. However, the brand has participated in the Sports Car Club of America World Challenge in the past. And it did so quite successfully in fact, winning the Manufacturer's Championship in 2005 and 2007, along with the Driver's Championship in 2005. The brand's current CTS-V series lineup has been critically lauded for its performance chops. While the V-Series has been phased out on the outgoing STS, for the CTS it is alive and well with a full lineup that includes CTS-V Sedan, Coupe and Wagon variants. The CTS-V billed as the world's fastest production sedan. How's that for a performance Cadillac? With these capable performance vehicles, Cadillac announced a

With a bankruptcy and bailout all unfolding over months last year, it goes without saying that the image of General Motors as a brand was tarnished significantly. Prior to this period, someone at GM had the bright (not!) idea of adding a small GM badge to every one of its vehicles and brands. The company has since made an effort to correct this misstep by removing the badge. For Cadillac though, more needs to be done. With GM the name that was plastered all over the news for months, it is no wonder that individual brand names Buick, Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac are viewed much more positively. GM has taken the steps to give those brand autonomy and that is needed if they are to meet success (which,

While Chevrolet gets a lot of the attention with the new Cruze and Volt, Cadillac's big introduction at the Los Angeles Auto Show was the CTS Coupe. It was shown to journalists yesterday in a special event ahead of the start of the show. Some great live pictures of the car can be found on GMInsideNews. While I can't say the same for the rest of the lineup (FWD SRX, FWD XTS - I'm looking at you), Cadillac is making smart decisions with the CTS - introducing a coupe and a wagon for this generation to complement the sedan. Also, a CTS-V Coupe and CTS-V Wagon have been confirmed - satisfying those looking for the performance of the V across the lineup. The CTS Coupe

The automotive world seems to be abuzz with news about wagons lately. The CTS Sportwagon is getting a lot of attention, along with the recently introduced Acura TSX Sportwagon and potential rumors about a wagon model for the new Buick Regal. The OPC model coming over as the Regal GNX has been a particular focus. This news from Bob Lutz is a good sign we could get one. One thing Cadillac has fixed with the CTS in this generation has been new model variants. Unlike the last car, both a coupe and wagon model have been introduced to complement the sedan. The CTS-V sedan has gotten a lot of good press, but many wondered if the other variants would get the same treatment. A CTS-V coupe seemed

After much fanfare, the Cadillac CTS-V Challenge was completed last week. The coverage in the automotive media has been so intense, proving that the event did its job for Cadillac, but also making people a bit worn out hearing about it. Cadillac recently released this video as a summary of the event. The final results were overwhelmingly in favor of the CTS-V, albeit when driven by GM's professional drivers. Mr. Lutz scored a great time but Michael Cooper, one of the private drivers invited, beat that score on the track. What the CTS-V Challenge did was generate a lot of buzz for Cadillac and prove that the car was capable of doing track time (and insanely quick times). As the other automakers proved, having a car with

Nonstop news has surrounded Cadillac and the CTS-V ever since Lutz challenged all comers to beat him in the CTS-V.  The CTS-V Challenge was born out of this and is set to take place this Thursday, October 29th at the Monticello Motor Club in New York. In past articles on the CTS-V Challenge, we have reported various automakers turning down requests by journalists to attend the event.Jalopnik's Wes Siler originally planned to attend the event in a Mercedes, but was turned down. Jaguar was the only one to accept the challenge by offering a vehicle, the Jaguar XFR. Now, they are pulling out, and that leaves no manufacturer representation of any kind at the event that we are aware of. In other words, there really is

The Cadillac CTS-V is already billed as the world's fastest production sedan by General Motors (hence the CTS-V Challenge). Hennessey, a traditional performance tuning stalwart, has taken things even further with the Cadillac CTS-V700. It is the "4-door ZR1" says the company. This is what the aftermarket is all about right? The performance specifications on the Hennessey CTS-V700 are pretty amazing. 700 horsepower at 6,300 rpm and 701 pound feet of torque at 3,400 rpm - CTS-V700 indeed. 0-60 clocks in at 3.1 seconds - yes, you did read that right and the car is good for a 1/4 mile in 10.9 seconds at 129 mph. Top speed? 211 mph! You can see all that on video as it runs through a 11-second, 128-mph quarter mile. That

A lot has been going on at General Motors over the past few months. Fresh out of bankruptcy, the company has worked to project a different image as part of the "New GM" launch. That includes pushing new product like the Chevrolet Camaro, Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Terrain, Buick LaCrosse and others. That has included some impressive steps forward, like the cancellation of the "Vuick" Crossover. Also new is the "May the Best Car Win campaign" with the much-trumpeted "60 day money back guarantee." GM's Bob Lutz, or Maximum Bob as he is known, seems to have taken that tagline to heart. On a recent company conference call, he challenged anyone to a race with the CTS-V against any other production four-door. GM claims the Cadillac CTS-V is the

The announcements of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and vehicle programs over the past year has been breathtaking. In the 1990's electric vehicles rose to prominence and then fell out of favor as hybrids were introduced. Chevrolet's Volt really seems to be the catalyst that started the latest dash to a future of vehicles that use little or no gas. With the Volt recognized as a "halo" vehicle for General Motors, many think that it should have been produced as a Cadillac instead. That way Cadillac would have gotten an image boost at the forefront of something new, and GM could have charged more for it since it's a Cadillac. The merits of that are still being debated, but it's not too late to do that for

A lot of General Motors news has been coming out lately and it's been hard to keep up with it all. GM recently invited a group of consumers and journalists to come to the company's Technical Center to preview the models that the "New GM" has in the pipeline. Attendees weren't allowed to be really descriptive in terms of styling but we've got some big confirmations on what is coming. There is bad and (really) good news. Let's start off with the bad news: the apparently-FWD Cadillac DTS replacement does exist, wearing XTS and XTS4 designations that indicate the car will be made available with all-wheel drive. As I've said before, the fact that it is front-wheel drive is a major disappointment for what is supposed to