Now, of all the American cars, let's say they go after the
Germans and teach them a thing or two, I have to say the Cadillac CTS has the best claim to actually doing that.
And so, when General Motors, the Cadillac Division, redoes the CTS, a lot's at stake.
Let's see what the 2014 looks like.
It's right here behind me.
Start with the face.
A more
pronounced sort of a large grill nose that comes out more and is less flushed with the car.
Easy to spot at 2014, as this interesting LED detail on the corner, running up the front and along the strakes at the top of the fender.
Again, easy spotter's trick there.
Also notice how low the hood presents as it comes to the windshield.
That's something you see a lot in modern cars that tend to be very high and thick at the cowl.
This car is about 4, somewhat, inches longer overall.
2-1/2 of that is in the wheel base, little bit longer, bulkier rear overhang as
well, but the car presents wider even though it's actually a little narrower because it's come down and gotten longer.
And underneath all these styling cues I'm showing you is a big weight loss story.
They pulled some 300 pounds out of the weight of this guy from 2013, using mostly some aluminum structural components.
That's a big weight loss for a vehicle that is, actually, gotten longer, but stays in the same size class.
Now, what's more fun after you take out 300 pounds in the car's weight than to add a whole mass of power to move that around?
That's a good formula.
Here's another part of the story.
This is the new top-end engine for the CTS.
This is before the CTS-V comes up.
There'll be a new one of those coming, but right now, you can get this twin-turbo V6, 420 horse, 430 foot-pounds of torque.
Those are great numbers.
Also going out to an 8-speed, very advanced, automatic transmission that has programming lodge that will let it jump a gear as it goes up and down through the gears, if that's more efficient because, if the gears get so close, sometimes, it doesn't need to go 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. It can hop one or two.
Interesting logic there.
Enough this design feature.
This car's got a cast in exhaust port, not a separate exhaust manifold here where the turbo attaches.
That means that, as soon as the exhaust valves open and expanding gases are coming out, they're driving the turbo almost immediately, not having to wait to pass it down through an exhaust manifold and then get there.
This should lead to much reduced turbo lag.
And, of course, that's one of the key things in a motor like this.
Inside the new CTS following another Cadillac trend, going all LCD in the cabin.
That means not just a big unit where Cadillac
Q lives, but also, over here, the instrument panel becomes fully virtual.
And those gauges and indications can do a presto change or change what they're showing you as well as the look of how they're doing it.
Now, still coming after this vehicle hits the road a little bit later in 2013 will be a Coupe version, a new CTS-V version.
And, of course, Cadillac is still working on electrification.
The ELR, we saw, rolled out recently.
So, a lot of things are happening that have significant engineering changes for Cadillac and, as you can see, big changes in the skin as well.
