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 return to the SCCA World Challenge with a two-vehicle team that will “validate and enhance” V-Series performance. Cadillac intends to demonstrate the car’s capabilities, while also trying out new technologies and gaining valuable knowledge for future production vehicles.

The car of choice is (what else?) the CTS-V Coupe. The two cars will first compete on March 25, 2011 in St. Petersburg, Florida with Johnny O’Connel and Andy Pilgram piloting.

Before the race, the cars will be debuted at the North American International Auto Show in January. Development of the racing vehicles is to be conducted by Pratt & Miller, a racing engineering firm. The race models will be modified to SCCA standards based on the standard production CTS-V Coupe.

We’re looking forward to checking out the new racing Cadillacs. Until next month, Cadillac has released these renderings to tide us over. We’re in love….

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, if sales are any indication, seems to be happening).

With Cadillac though the situation is even more important. Every other luxury brand by a mainstream volume manufacturer operates in a mostly separate way from its parent from the public’s view. Cadillac has not.

Now Cadillac has undertaken an effort to remove the GM name from association with Cadillac in every way. That includes removing the GM name from marketing campaigns, promotional events like the Red Tag Sale and even from email addresses.  Now (like every other luxury brand)  will run its own promotions, starting with a new ad campaign later this month.

Good news! This should have been done a long time ago though – and its a bit funny that Cadillac is doing this when until recently a GM badge was placed on every Cadillac. Enough with the small stuff though, Cadillac needs to get the products right. That means more products like the CTS and CTS Coupe and less like the front-wheel drive SRX. Can they deliver where it counts? Time will tell.

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 is most definitely my favorite General Motors vehicle (besides the Corvette for its iconic nature) right now, followed by the 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 likely, but a wagon? Much less so.

Car & Driver recently interviewed Bob Lutz. They asked him about a CTS-V wagon and he responded saying “Yes. You’ll be able to get the CTS-V any way you want.” That is excellent news! A powerful performance car that can also do practical duty hauling passengers and cargo alike. Yes indeed!

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 the ability to do that is a rarity.

The video below provides a lot of the information and small clips from the drivers about the event. The Jalopnik vs. GM “challenge” didn’t quite turn out like they had originally planned, to say the least.

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 no other sports sedan that’s manufacturer is confident can beat the Cadillac CTS-V around the track.

That includes sports sedans from Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche – you name it . No doubt the various automotive news outlets have been pestering the aforementioned companies for a loaner vehicle – and to no avail, they just don’t want to participate.

GM’s Bob Lutz has this to say about the recent news:

“I think it means that the European high-performance sedans are excellent, even superb cars, but quite possibly not ready for racing laps right out of the show-room. The CTS-V is not only quicker, but will, in totally untweaked, stock form, run hot laps at any race track until it runs out of fuel.

Transmission oil and diff oil temps are stable, engine oil temp doesn’t go up, brakes get a bit more pedal travel, but don’t fade. The street tires get a tad greasy, but handling and control remain excellent. “May the best car win”! (It wins automatically if the competitors won’t show up!)”

After Jalopnik‘s original post announcing the pullout, Jaguar’s PR guy Stuar Schorr expounded further on the decision in the comments section. Here’s what he said:

“Ray, nice juvenile, but clever, use of the feline wordplay, but one correction on your missive. I said I was concerned that five hot laps without added brake cooling system could compromise the stopping power and thus create a safety concern for your driver. The car can handle it”

From a PR stand point, it should have been left to just Ray Wert’s post rather then Jaguar writing a live comment. This makes the story bigger, turning it into Jaguar vs. Jalopnik vs. Cadillac.

I feel Jaguar’s pain – this is turning out to be a PR mess for them when it didn’t have to be. The XF and XFR are undoubtedly impressive vehicles in their own right. Should the XFR be used as a track day vehicle?  Probably not.  Comments aside though, Jaguar is being singled out when no other manufacturer is competing in the challenge either.

These kinds of decisions are made higher up in the company than the PR level. Stuart Schorr is just the one that has to deal with the public relations regarding the decision. Jaguar’s legal and safety advisers reportedly are the ones that put a stop to the loan.  The automotive industry is complex!

In fact, I was just on the phone with Jaguar about a review of the standard XF for CarThrottle - the press fleet is tight right now but hopefully one can be available soon. That way, product being can be reviewed on the merits, and in ways actual owners will use. No racing – we promise!

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 was rapid enough acceleration (hitting around 0.99 g of longitudinal acceleration) for the vehicle’s on board sensors to record a “vehicle event” and alert OnStar.

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 world’s fastest production sedan, despite a few (unverified) claims to the contrary.

Who knows whether he really intended for anyone to take him up on the offer, but always eager to drum up publicity, Jalopnik eagerly accepted. They offered the Mercedes C63 AMG as a potential competitor, but Mercedes turned down their request for use of the vehicle. Jaguar stepped in instead, with the XFR being the new car of choice.

GM has embraced the whole thing and has created an event called the CTS-V Challenge and it takes place on October 29th at the Monticello Motor Club in Monticello, N.Y. Cadillac says it is considering all comers – any stock production four-door sedan is eligible to compete.

This is unlike anything we have ever seen before and should provide a lot of good publicity for GM – Lutz seems confident that the CTS-V will prevail. I would tend to agree. May the best car win indeed!

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 Cadillac as well.

That’s where the Converj Concept comes in. The car was debuted to show how a premium Cadillac vehicle could make use of the Voltec technology. GM was supposedly putting the “car under review” for production. Like with the Volt, the car has had proponents and detractors.

According to BusinessWeek those detractors included GM North America President Troy Clarke and Mark McNabb, who ran Cadillac, Hummer, and Saab. The thing is, those two executives are both gone from General Motors.

The main proponent – Bob Lutz, is still there however. I think it’s safe to say if Bob Lutz wants it and can make a good business case for building it, we’ll see it happen. Do it, GM!

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 be Cadillac’s flagship. However, from a styling point of view reviews of the car were glowing. They said that the car was “Sixteen-like” in it’s appearance.

Now to the really good news: a Cadillac 3-Series fighter like I’ve talked about a lot is coming and it’s called the ATS. Best of all, it’s based on a rear-wheel drive platform – in other words it will be a true competitor to the benchmark 3-Series. To me this is huge and shows that they finally do get it when it comes to at least one model in the Cadillac lineup.

Sources say the car has styling similar to the recently introduced Converj Concept and that Cadillac is aiming for the ATS to overtake the CTS as the brand’s highest-selling model. This is very exciting, I can’t wait to see these new models introduced.