Road and Track 2012 Cadilalac Cts Coupe
Road test: 2012 Cadillac CTS-V coupe
The professionals tell us that, for maximum safety, we should always drive with two hands on the wheel. Two hands on the wheel is vastly superior, one alone simply offering neither the leverage nor the stability required for fail-safe motoring.
The professionals tell us that, for maximum safety, we should always drive with two hands on the wheel. Two hands on the wheel is vastly superior, one alone simply offering neither the leverage nor the stability required for fail-safe motoring.
That means, of course, no left arm out the window, trucker-tanning it. Fiddling with the radio should be minimized. Hell, the Europeans even frown on drinking coffee while behind the wheel, something we North Americans view as a birthright/vital necessity.
Whatever the case, two is demonstrably better than one, even if we don't mind our driving instructors as often as we should.
But what to do when one arm is out of commission? Or, more specifically in my case, what does one do when some nasty evildoer knocks you off a motorcycle (when you're leading the race no less) rendering one's shoulder separated and decommissioned? And the car has a manual transmission? Or, perhaps more poignantly, it has a manual transmission and 556 rootin' tootin' horsepower?
Yes, I know what you're thinking: This autojornalism thing can be tough. I know you feel my pain. Indeed, I can feel your sympathy. So you'll know how deep I had to dig to find a way to drive this absolutely glorious luxury sports coupe even though I was mortally wounded and sling-bound.
My injuries do mean, however, that this will be a significantly different CTS-V test. For instance, I performed no feats of derring-do during my week of supercharged motoring.
No rubber was scorched, no corners carved. Indeed, in deference to my one-handedness, I did stick to the most basic of errands and, even then, at the most sedate of speeds. In other words, I drove like a regular person, making this again, a rather unusual test of a car so hedonistically designed for speed. Nonetheless, some distinct observations were made readily apparent even if I only tapped a quarter of the big Caddy's potential.
First off, I really like the looks of this car. I have not always liked Cadillac's Art and Science look; the discontinued XLR always looked a little off-kilter to me and even the CTS-V sedan is not truly beauteous. But all these sharp creases and right angles seem to come together in the coupe. Paint it black, monochrome it with similarly hued wheels, tint the windows for a little more intimidation and you've got a car that would do any Terminator movie proud.
Inside, there's more goodness, though not as uniform. The seats, for instance, are quite well bolstered and an attractive two-tone (the bases tanned yellow to match the giant six-piston Brembo front calipers) leather. The steering wheel is fetishly soft, with the kind of alcantara that you'd like to, well, do some naughty things on. And the infotainment system, although not yet upgraded to the new Cadillac User Experience system, is fairly user friendly (the voice activation, for instance, works like a charm, if you know the magic key words).
On the other hand, the dashboard layout/décor just doesn't cut it. This is a car that is the flagship for the brand that wants again to be the "standard of the world" and there is simply nothing outstanding about one of its most visual aspects. Oh, there's a little classy piano black, but there are no gee-whiz gadgets, no whiz-bang clock or bespoke diamond-encrusted pompadour that reminds the owner of the uniqueness of the ride. It's been Cadillac's weakness since its recent rejuvenation, and though the aforementioned CUE system in the new XTS partially addresses the problem of the infotainment system, the company still needs to work far harder on its dashboard designs if it really is serious about becoming the "standard of the world."
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They won't have much trouble making that argument for the CTS-V's engine compartment. Denigrate it all you want for still having pushrods and but two valves in every cylinder, but thanks to that great, honking four-lobe Eaton supercharger, this is one of the truly great sporting engines of all time. The big 6.2-litre pumps out 556 horsepower, almost as many pound-feet of torque and feels like it could pull a Mac truck up a mineshaft into a headwind.
Cadillac claims a zero-to-100-kilometres-an-hour time of just four seconds.
Even so, its maximum output isn't what impresses but rather how effortlessly all this torque flows from the big V8. Again, one can denigrate the pushrod V8 as archaic, but nothing beats them — especially supercharged versions — for low-speed pulling power. Indeed, when I got tired of my steering-wheel-to-gear-shift-lever pas de deux, I'd often start the big Caddy in third gear, thereby negating the need to take my good right hand off the steering wheel. The CTS-V minded not a bit; indeed, methinks it could do with just two or three of its six gears and not notice the difference. And, having driven the automatic version (in a sedan), I can affirm that the CTS-V suffers not a bit for the automatic selection of gears.
All that power does have a price, of course, and it should come as no surprise that the penalty is fuel consumption. The CTS-V is the first vehicle that I can truthfully claim to have watched the gas gauge's needle recede as I drove, its 18.8-litres-per-100-kilometres average consumption enough for me to notice a difference in my remaining fuel every time I glanced at it. Just getting downtown from my suburban townhouse used more than a quarter-tank, indeed, I used roughly a half-tank every day just commuting and, again, that's with a diminished mobility reducing my errands. The CTS-V may be relatively cheap; keeping it in hi-test will not be.
Like the engine's monstrous power, my wonky wing prevents me from waxing lyrical about this particular CTS-V's road holding, though I have done exactly that in previous tests of the sedan and even the wagon versions. Besides, the CTS-V is still one of the fastest sedans around the serpentine Nürburgring and horsepower alone is not a guarantee of rapidity around its 127 turns. What I can say is that for a car with such a glorious turn of speed the CTS-V rides very well indeed, even coddling busted-up motorcycle racers whose bruised ribs turn them into the princess who hates peas. Credit the Magnetic Ride Control system's magneto-rheological damping fluid, which changes viscosity, or thickness, in the blink of an eye, to either firm or soften the suspension according to conditions. Unlike some other high-performance coupes, the CTS-V accommodated my slow-poking just dandily.
Indeed, other than the limitations imposed on it by my one-arm banditing a job normally requiring two, the fast Caddy coddled my broken self fine for a week. That may not be the adrenalin rush you all might want to read about, but it is probably good that potential owners know that the CTS-V is as civilized as it is fast. After all, one can't always have the pedal to the metal.
THE SPECS
Type of vehicle: All-wheel-drive sports coupe
Engine: 6.2L OHV supercharged V8
Power: 556 hp @ 6,100 rpm; 551 lb-ft of torque @ 3,800 rpm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Brakes: Four-wheel disc with ABS
Tires: 255/40R19 front, 285/35R19 rear
Price: base/as tested: $72,230, $80,140
Destination charge: $1,595
Transport Canada fuel economy L/100 km: 14.5 city, 10.5 hwy.
Standard features: Power door locks, windows and mirrors, front and rear air conditioning with micron air filter, Bose 5.1 Cabin Surround System, AM/FM/CD/MP3 player, XM satellite radio, steering wheel-mounted audio controls, HDD-based navigation system, cruise control, power glass sunroof, driver information display, tilt and telescopic steering wheel, leather seats with suede inserts, six-way power driver's seat, heated front seats, auto headlights, dual front air bags, front seat-mounted side air bags, side curtain air bags, power trunk release, tire pressure monitor
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Road and Track 2012 Cadilalac Cts Coupe
Source: https://driving.ca/cadillac/cts/reviews/road-test/road-test-2012-cadillac-cts-v-coupe-2