Car Throttle

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

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

The big GM-sponsored CTS-V Challenge event is drawing closer. Predictably, GM is drawing out the publicity for it as much as they can, first announcing the acceptance of entries, the amount of entrants and now the final contestants. TheCTS-V Challenge was born when GM's Bob Lutz challenged anyone to beat him around the track in the CTS-V in a company conference call. Jalopnik's Wes Siller gladly accepted the challenge, and he made it into the final group of contestants. There will be Wes Siller a Jaguar XF-R and two other journalists in the competition - Jack Baruth, under the The Truth About Cars banner, and Lawrence Ulrich. freelancer journalist/contributor for the New York Times. The vehicles they will be driving hasn't been announced. Four other cars will

Cadillac recently announced it's CTS-V Challenge, and now there is already more news about it that demonstrates the amount of interest surrounding the event. The CTS-V Challenge developed quite quickly - on a recent conference call with journalists, GM's Bob Lutz said he would be willing to take on all challengers against the CTS-V. It is being done as part of GM's "May The Best Car Win" campaign and GM claims the CTS-V is the world's fastest production sedan. Jalopnik accepted the original challenge, but GM has taken it farther than that. Over 120 applications were received, and right now GM is weeding through them for the final competition. Not all are valid though - Cadillac spokesman Nick Twork put it like this: "Honestly, about three-quarters

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

With the latest generation of the CTS, Cadillac has set forth on expanding the model lineup to it's proper size. While the first-generation was successful in revitalizing the brand, the sedan model wasn't followed up with coupe, convertible or wagon models. Successful companies create strong brands and models, then build off of them. The CTS is an impressive product, and this time it is being followed up with a coupe and wagon. Convertible? Maybe they're saving that for the third generation. Regardless, right now the news is about the V performance models. The CTS coupe isn't even out in full force yet and spy shots are already surfacing of the V model testing. The CTS-V sedan has acquitted itself very well against peers and is an excellent model. Given the capability of

Performance fans, wagon fans, Cadillac fans, crazy dads who want to lug around kids in a 550 horsepower (check!) wagon - take notice, your car is coming. Initially, the CTS debuted as only a sedan, and then the CTS-V performance variant was introduced. For it's second generation, while debuting as a sedan first, Cadillac saw the error of it's ways and developed coupe and wagon variants as well. With the two on it's way, people got to dreaming about V performance variants of the two new variants. Bob Lutz even said members of the Automotive Task Force expressed interest in the CTS-V Coupe. To me, that was a no brainer - how could you not build a CTS-V coupe? A CTS-V Sportwagon was less certain though -

While Bob Lutz dashed a lot of hopes about a RWD Chevrolet Caprice sedan, he did offer an important confirmation of new product for Cadillac. The CTS is one of the most impressive vehicles in it's segment, and the V-Series performance version has been billed as the world's most powerful performance sedan. Until recently (and it isn't confirmed for certain as of yet) it has held the title for world's fastest production sedan around Germany's Nurburgring race track. With variants of the CTS sedan complete, a coupe CTS is going on sale next year, after being shown at the Detroit Auto Show in concept form. With the incredible performance capabilities of the CTS-V sedan, why not extend that to the coupe as well? It deserves it! Despite the seemingly obvious answer to us, it wasn't certain whether or not the model would

The automaker that currently holds the title for fastest production sedan around Germany's Nurburgring race track may surprise you. The answer is Cadillac, with the supercar-like CTS-V that lapped the track in a record 7:59 minutes. Cadillac worked long and hard on the CTS-V to achieve that goal and it's amazing that they got to it. But now it looks as if Porsche may have beaten that record, if a report from Germany's Sport Auto is to be believed. Three seconds. That's the how much faster the Panamera Turbo is around the track, according to Auto Sport. Now Porsche hasn't confirmed this - if it's true you better believe they will. It'll be a number they'll want to trumpet. There's a few things that seem funny about this