Car Throttle

Here's Part II of the SEMA Preview coverage.  Alternative title: Turbos, widebodies, big brakes and roll bars, oh my!  In the previous post I covered GM, Mopar, Mazda, and Hyundai.  Now we're moving on to Toyota.

Toyota, Lexus, and Scion have always had a strong presence at SEMA. This year will be no different, with all three divisions bringing concept cars in a futile attempt to convince us the brand is still interesting. Toyota's "big announcement" was the introduction of the F-Sport package for the new-generation Lexus GS350 sedan, which makes the car better looking (negotiable) but not any faster. The exterior gets 19" alloy wheels with 235/40/19 tires (RWD F-sports get 265/35/19 rears, AWD's are square), a more aggressive front

I always make it out to Raleigh's Cars & Coffee event the first Saturday of every month. It's always worth it, even though I abhor waking up early, because there's always awesome stuff to see.  A lot of the same cars show up, so I won't show pictures of stuff you've already seen - for those you can check previous Cars & Coffee coverage here, here, and here. For starters, here is one of 337 Porsche 959's ever built, which was Porsche's rolling technical showcase that blew everything else out of the water in the 1980's, and set the standard for supercar performance.  None were ever imported to the US; it's likely this one has been fitted with the Canepa Design engine

If you've been following the news about Cadillac's reentry into the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) World Championship, you'll know that the CTS-V race car is slated to participate in its first race in March. Cadillac competed previously with the CTS-V Sedan, winning the Manufacturer’s Championship in 2005 and 2007 (the last year of entry), as well as the Driver’s Championship in 2005. This year's series begins St. Petersburg, Florida from March 25 to 27. Cadillac's race car, a CTS-V coupe, was first shown off at the North American International Auto Show earlier this month. There is a lot that of testing that goes into commissioning a racing program. That testing has begun, with CTS-V race car hitting the track for the first time

While the Cadillac V-Series lineup is smaller than ever, it is also better than ever too. The CTS lineup is no doubt Cadillac's star product, and the V-Series lineup has taken center stage with enthusiasts. It has been spread across the model range, offered in sedan, coupe and wagon iterations. Cadillac has taken to advertising them heavily, as the effect is a positive one for the entire lineup. Two new commercials have debuted as part of Cadillac's new advertising campaign. They feature the voice of Laurence Fishburne and Cadillac's recent "The new Standard of the World" tagline. The first is a 30-second spot for the CTS-V Coupe dubbed "Arrows." The second spot, checking in at two-minutes, is dubbed "Red-Blooded Luxury" and focuses its fire on

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

The whole marketing department at General Motors (and indeed the whole company) has gone through a lot of shakeups in a small period of time. Marketing perhaps has been given the biggest leeway for immediate change after Joel Ewanick took over. Ewanick directed GM to drop Publicis after its work with Chevrolet and the "Excellence for All" campaign. Cadillac has also gone through a shakeup as well, switching companies and dumping the short-lived (thankfully) "Mark of Leadership" tagline. In its place? "The New Standard of the World." The advertisement below is the first advertisement to debut under the new campaign, and needless to say it is good - very good. Check it out below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YcVhlE5DMY&feature=player_embedded

The joys of being an automotive journalist at an established print magazine? Spending your days testing vehicles like these for the rest of the world to pore over. Ironically, this test incorporates three of our most favorite vehicles from Audi, BMW and Cadillac all into one test - imagine that! One of which, the RS5, was just announced as coming over to the United States. There is no loser here - each one of these is fantastic high-end, high-tech machinery that we would love to have in our drive way. But what is the best of the bunch? Both Car and Driver and Motor Trend undertook similar tests, and produced video footage to prove it. C&D's footage-only video is first, while MT with its video review is second.

Cadillac's stunning CTS Coupe was introduced in concept form at the 2008 North American International Auto Show and was quickly approved for production. For the current generation of the CTS, Cadillac is doing it right with multiple variants - sedan, coupe and wagon. Not only that, the highly regarded V performance series is available on each of the three model variations as well. With the Coupe on its way to showrooms in August, it was time to release pricing. The standard car comes in at $38,990, and the performance V model at $62,990. Do want. While the Cadillac lineup is a bit of a mess in terms of product positioning and focus, there is no doubt the allure of the CTS Coupe (and sedan as well) remains strong. The

From the "not surprising but still utterly awesome" department comes the first official photos and details of Cadillac's coolest car ever, the 2011 CTS-V Sport Wagon.  It's a simple concept, but for a while we were all wondering if GM was going to have the balls to actually produce it.  Wonder no more, kids: the CTS-V Wagon is here! It takes all of the tasty mechanical hardware from the CTS-V Sedan and Coupe, and packs it into the sexy wagon bodystyle.  That means that under the hood is the same 6.2L Supercharged LSA V8, derived from the almighty Corvette ZR-1's motor.  With 556bhp and 551lb-ft of torque on tap, that should certainly be enough to haul the kids to soccer practice.  Thanks to an Eaton TVS

The North American International Auto Show has been wrapped up (for the press anyway), and perhaps the most exciting announcement to performance enthusiasts was the introduction of the Cadillac CTS-V Coupe. There was a bit of wondering about whether a V model was coming (not for long though) but it is here, and yes it is production! James covered it when it broke cover before the show. Now comes the video that was used at the car's ear-drum blasting introduction. Check it out below! httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RudSMKENQk