[Lester]

CTS-V is both faster and more
nimble than its BMW counterpart

BY DAVID BOOTHWESTCHESTER, N.Y. -
Imagine BMW's chagrin. Not
only does its flagship supersports
sedan, the all-conquering M5, get
trounced, but the car doing said
trouncing is from — Gasp!
Shock! Horror! — North America
and not one of its traditional Ger-
man competitors. Worse yet, the
car stomping all over its previous
hegemony wears a Cadillac—
yes, a Cadillac — badge. Oh, the
shame.

Cadillac's all-new, monstrously
motored CTS-V is both quicker
and faster than the once-dominant
M5. Powered by a new 6.2-litre,
supercharged V8 only recently lib-
erated from the fire-breathing
Corvette ZR1, the CTS-V boasts.
556 horsepower, 551 pound-feet of
torque and can accelerate to 96
kilometres an hour in just 3.9 sec-
onds.

American brands have always
been able to get massive amounts
of horsepower from their super-
sized-displacement engines, so
perhaps we can forgive the Bim-
mer its deficiency in straightline
speed. But the M5 remains the
master of the twisted line, the
curvy road, the winding race
track -T- right? Oops, wrong
again. As it turns out, the CTS-V
now holds the production sedan
record for the fastest lap around
the Nurburgribg, thr 22.7-kilo-
metre race traick in BMW's
homeland, Gemiany that is the
gold standard for determining
the fastest cars in the world. The
CTS-V took seven minutes and
59 seconds to negotiate the Nur-
burgring's 172 corners; the M5
took eight minutes and 13 sec-
onds. But that's hardly the worst
of it.

Adding further insult to injury
is the fact that Cadillac’s
record lap was set in a CTX-V with
an automatic transmission.
Both manual and automatic seem
equally suited to the race track
until I tested both the manual
and automatic-equipped CTS-Vs
around the 22 corners of the
Monticello Motor Club's new
race track back to back. Despite
my skepticism, I equally had
to admit that Cadillac has so
thoroughly engineered its new
six-speed automatic transmission
that it is equally competent to its
six-speed manual and easier to
drive to boot.

The Caddy doesn't trounce the
M5 in positively every way.
Steering feel still favours the
Bimmer. The CTS-V can't be
tossed into corners with quite the
abandon of the M5. However, in
all other measures of handling,
the muscle-bound CTS is all but
as good as the Bimner.

So, the cars, apart from the
CTS-Vs performance advantage,
are roughly equal — until the
ultimate price reckoning, of
course.

The Cadiliac will be priced
about the same as BMW's new
VS-powered M3, which means
there will be a significant amount
of change back from $80,000.
The M5 retails for $113,300.
Put in perspective, for the same
price as an MS, a prospective
Cadillac owner could buy a CTS-
V plus a JCW Mini for the kid or
a 128 Cabriolet for the spouse and
still have money left over for a
family dinner out on the town.

Canwest News Service