Motortrend
It sure is. The new Cadillac CTS might’ve been born and bred in Detroit, but you can tell it has spent time on the Nurburgring Nordschleife during its development. This is an American car with a German chassis: not exactly like a Mercedes or a BMW, but taut, tied down, nicely balanced, and stable at high speeds. It’s not just the best-handling Caddy in history, but probably the best-handling American sedan ever.
It starts with the fundamentals: sophisticated suspension and a rigid platform. The new CTS, codenamed GMX322, is an evolution of the Sigma-based original, via the STS. Basically the engineering team kept the old CTS’s wheelbase, but used the wider track from the larger STS—the floorpan structure, front of dash, lower A-pillar and rear chassis rails are all basically STS—to fundamentally transform the car’s proportions.
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Although there’s a lot that looks familiar under the new car, there’s a lot that’s brand new, and, crucially, expensive. The short/long-arm front suspension features lots of lightweight aluminum and is bolted to an all-new aluminum front cradle. A large aluminum brace across the engine compartment ties the top mounts together. The steering gear is a premium ZF Servotronic II system, with the rack mounted forward of the front-axle centerline to improve precision.
Probably barely two percent of American CTS customers will opt for the six-speed manual. Even so, Caddy engineers have put considerable time and effort into optimizing it for the car. The second, third, and fourth gear ratios were changed late in the program as a direct result of testing on the Nordschleife, says Rob Kotarak. (Good news for manual Camaro buyers: Your cars will get this gear set, too.) Though there’s no difference-according to Cadillac’s figures-between the straight-line performance of manual or automatic cars equipped with the top of the range 3.6-liter DI engine, the manual car clearly feels quicker around the ‘Ring, punching harder out of corners and with less of a gap between the second and third ratios. In fact, says Sigma products development manager Rick Kewley, the manual is five to eight seconds a lap faster.
It’s a technically impressive engine, but in truth, it’s the CTS’s weakest link. Performance isn’t the issue-proving ground tests in Germany suggest Cadillac’s claimed 0-to-60-mph time of 5.9 seconds for both auto and manual DI cars is right on the money, and we saw 7000 rpm in fifth-an indicated 153 mph-in a manual on the autobahn south of Mainz. The problem is noise and vibration; there’s a granular quality to the 3.6’s soundtrack that can be heard and felt, especially in the upper rev band where the DI V-6 loves to play. You hear it in the gargling induction note and feel it back through the pedals and the shifter, especially in the manual cars. It’s not overbearing, but you notice it because the rest of the car is so quiet.
More important, the CTS drives like a proper BMW rival. It’s light and agile on its feet, with quick steering response yet impressive straight-line stability at speed, and a StabiliTrak system that’s beautifully tuned to be almost unobtrusive in its interventions. The sporty FE3 suspension with the Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tires is probably a bit too firm for most people-the ride can get jittery over broken pavement-but if you value handling above all else, that’s the one to go for. The midlevel FE2 setup, which comes with the 18-inch-wheel package and all-season Michelin MXV4 tires, is probably the best compromise for most people, offering a good balance between ride and handling.
The new CTS isn’t quite the Standard of the World. But it’s certainly world class. The best damn Cadillac sedan in 50 years? Easily.
