Straightline

Let's be clear about something here: The CTS-V Challenge was not, strictly a fair race. It was a publicity stunt. Cadillac acknowledges this. Still, as a publicity stunt, it was a hell of a lot more fun than basically every other car-maker publicity stunt we've attended.

And it's a stunt that a young guy, who claimed to be a Skip Barber school graduate but not a racer, won in his BMW M3. His fast lap of 2:50:424 was the fastest single lap of any driver that wasn't a ringer (Heinricy, Link and Redman). No other CTS-V could touch him.

Here, for the record, are the final lap times of the day:

Mystery Driver (Johnny O'Connell), CTS-V, ringer, 2:45:537

John Heinricy, CTS-V, ringer, 2:46:560

Aaron Link, CTS-V, ringer, 2:48:902

Brian Redman, CTS-V, ringer, 2:49:596

Michael Cooper, BMW M3, private owner, 2:50:424

Jack Baruth, CTS-V, journalist, 2:51:153

Lawrence Ulrich, CTS-V, journalist, 2:53:157

Bob Lutz, CTS-V, The Bob, 2:56:321

Michael Mainwald, BMW M5, private owner, 3:05:398

Wes Siler, Mitsubishi Evo, journalist, 3:08:126

Chris Fairman, CTS-V, private owner, 3:14:292

Archan Basu, Jaguar XF, private owner, 3:15:670

Tom Loder, Audi RS4, private owner, 3:15:702

Categories: Audi,BMW,Cadillac,Jaguar,Mitsubishi

So after the official event was over, a silver CTS-V circled the track stupid fast and occasionally sideways. He was listed on the timing and scoring screen as "Mystery Driver." Very intriguing, no?

Who was this man who posted a fastest lap of 2:45:537? Was it Cadillac's Stig? Well, sort of.

Speed TV was out filming the day's event for an upcoming program with a full crew. Yes, there was a helicopter involved. Seems the folks at Speed wanted to have a little extra angle on this event since it's been blogged to death already (trust us, we know). So they brought their own driver and refused to say who it might be. But to beat Heinricy, he'd have to be a pro.

That cover was a bit blown when we saw Corvette racer Johnny O'Connell walking out of Monitcello in a 'Speed" racing suit.

"Nice driving, Johnny," we say.

"Oh thanks, that was fun."

Categories: Cadillac,Chevrolet

No surprise here: Professional racer and retired GM engineer, John Heinricy posted the day's fastest lap at 2:46:560.

This knowledge is useful mostly for getting an idea of how fast a CTS-V is capable of running here at Monticello. Do not, however, compare that lap time (nor that of the other GM ringer), to the laps posted by the privately owned BMWs, Jag and Audi. Those were more-or-less average guys that happen to own fast cars, not professional drivers.

Categories: Audi,BMW,Cadillac,General Motors,Jaguar

Well, the put-up or shut-up moment has now passed for 77-year-old Lutz and, well, he didn't win. He posted a quite respectable 2:56:321. That was enough to blow away the privately owned BMW M5 (3:05:395) but the range of track-driving experience here today is huge. So we hesitate to read too much into those relative times.

Lutz was about 7 seconds behind GM development engineer and Nurburgring veteran, Aaron Link. He was about 5 seconds slower than the one earlier CTS-V driven by journalist Jack Baruth. Lutz also trailed the BMW M3 by about 5.5 seconds.

Lutz was driving a CTS-V with an automatic. Link drove a CTS-V with a manual transmission.

Categories: BMW,Cadillac

You didn't actually think that General Motors was going to allow some kid from Long Island embarrass them at their own party did you? You were right to think that way.

The company's first real ringer, engineer Aaron Link, took the track in a CTS-V manual in group 3 and ran a 2:48:902, nipping the M3 by about 2 seconds. The privately owned M5 wasn't really in the hunt with a 3:05:395.

Categories: BMW,Cadillac

The privately owned BMW M3 is still the fastest car on the track after the second group of cars took their five laps.

The Mitsubishi Evo, driven by Jalopnik.com staffer Wes Siler, posted a 3:08:126. The privately owned CTS-V trailed him, posting a 3:14:292. And the Audi RS4, also a privately owned car, turned in a 3:15:702. None are close to the 2:50:424 posted by the young M3 driver.

But the fast guys, including at least three GM ringers, as well as Bob Lutz, are still to come.

Categories: Cadillac

The timed laps have begun here at Monticello and the fastest lap of the first session of three cars goes to not the journalist-driven CTS-V or, predictably, the Jaguar XF, but to the BMW M3 driven by owner Michael Cooper of Long Island.

Cooper, who has had all of five years with a driver's license laid down an impressive 2:50:424. The CTS-V automatic driven by Jack Baruth of thetruthaboutcars.com recorded a best lap of 2:51:153. The Jag pulled up the rear at 3:15:670.

Nice work by the young Mr. Cooper. Three more heats to go, including the heavy-hitter fourth heat.

Categories: BMW,Cadillac,Jaguar

Cadillac has broken the drivers into four groups for this afternoon's timed laps. So let's have a look. Lutz? Right. The dude who owns the M3 (Michael Cooper of Long Island)? Right.

Link? Who's that? He's one of GM's resident hot-shoe engineers. Heinricy? That's right Cadillac's ultimate ringer is in -- no surprise -- the last group, just in case. And who is this Redman. Oh, that would be Brian Redman, legendary road racer and Grand Marshall of Monticello. He'll also be in a CTS-V.

Good to have the home-field advantage, eh? If you put away the competition portion of this challenge, something that's easy to do in this convivial atmosphere, it will be nice to see how quickly a pro driver gets around the course in the V.

Categories: BMW,Cadillac

After brief introductions of the drivers and a few bites of Mahi Mahi, Bob Lutz took the mike to, well, to be Bob Lutz.

Here are some of his choicest quotes (the first of which is clearly a lie in every way):

"The lap times are almost irrelevant. This event is all about fun."

"If my lap times prove to be inadequate which they likely will be given my practice laps, we have a number of development engineers here to insure that we have the fastest lap at the end of the day."

"This whole idea started because I was very frustrated with our CTS-V advertising. I told the agency, 'Why don't we just say we're the fastest four-door sedan in the world?' So they came up with an idea to do an event at the Bonneville Salt Flats and do a sort-of drag race. I said, 'No, American cars have always been able to go fast in a straight line. What they haven't always been able to do is turn.' So that's how we ended up here."

"I think I should get an age-based handicap of one second per lap for every year of age over 70."

"I've seen the comments on the Internet saying, "I can't wait to see Lutz get his comeuppance.' And I probably will today."

Categories: Cadillac

It's usually true that when boys race cars, boys cheat. Women probably do too. And when nobody is found to be cheating, it's usually because they haven't yet been caught.

That's especially true when the vehicles to be raced are "stock" vehicles. To try to weed out any cheaters, General Motors has brought a Hungarian-American man by the name of Csaba Csere. Sound familiar? That's right. He's the long-time Editor in Chief of a little car magazine called Car and Driver, now retired.

As the guest of General Motors (although not a paid one, Csere hastens to point out), he's here to crawl around the competitor cars to see if something is totally amiss. It's a pretty relaxed inspection though as Csere points out there's no way if he can tell whether someone has changed their brake pads to more track-worthy pieces. Note to competitors: You should swap out your brake pads now.

So far, no cheaters have been identified.

Categories: Cadillac

If you absolutely have to have every last detail as soon as possible on the Cadillac CTS-V challenge, tune in to Inside Line's twitter feed for up to the minute updates from Dan Pund, our editor on the scene.
 

Inside Line on Twitter

Categories: Cadillac

If you've been obsessively following the run-up to this little shin-dig, you'll know that late in the going -- in fact only a couple days ago -- Jaguar public relations pulled the 510-hp XFR it had promised to a couple of media types, leaving the journos scrambling to find something to, you know, challenge Bob Lutz in this challenge.

Well, there's been a late addition to the list of competitors: A Jaguar XF. You'll notice that we left off the "R" suffix. That's because the Jag in question is not an R; it's a supercharged XF. Nice car, but hardly in the league of heavy-hitters like the M5 and CTS-V. As with the M5, M3 and RS4, the Jag is a private owner's car chosen by Cadillac to compete.

We wish him luck, but we ain't putting our money on the guy.

Categories: Cadillac,Jaguar

After weeks of breathless promotion, a bit of gnashing of teeth and the random cat-fight among various blogs, the Cadillac CTS-V Challenge has now begun and we'll be here at Monticello Motor Club all day.

Practice is underway and so far nobody has gone off-course...yet. There will be plenty of time for that though. Lutz, being the head cheese of the company that conceived of this compelling publicity stunt, grabbed a few laps earlier this morning. Hey, when you are renting the track, you get to do those sort of things. Now, the civilians and blogger/media types are on the course. Oh, and it's a wet course, after a healthy rain this morning.

This could get interesting.

And, yes, that is a Mitsubishi Evo you see in the above picture. Why would an Evo run against the big, luxury/sport sedans? Well, because Mitsubishi was the only car maker to loan one of its cars to a media outlet for the event.

Categories: Cadillac

There's been a change of plans for the Cadillac CTS-V challenge scheduled for Thursday. Jaguar originally said it would provide a XFR for journalists to drive, but has now backed out over safety concerns according to company spokesman Stuart Schorr. That leaves a field of just two challengers for now -- an Audi RS4 and a BMW M5.

In response to the sudden departure of the XFR, Bob Lutz told a GM fan site the following:

"I think it means that the European high-performance sedans are excellent, even superb cars, but quite possibly not ready for racing laps right out of the show-room. The CTS-V is not only quicker, but will, in totally untweaked, stock form, run hot laps at any race track until it runs out of fuel. Transmission oil and diff oil temps are stable, engine oil temp doesn't go up, brakes get a bit more pedal travel, but don't fade. The street tires get a tad greasy, but handling and control remain excellent. "May the best car win"! (It wins automatically if the competitors won't show up!)"

The GMSource

Categories: Audi,Auto Industry,BMW,Cadillac,Consumer Track Events,Jaguar,Luxury Cars,Sedans

Inside Line tests hundreds of vehicles a year, but not every vehicle gets a full write-up. The numbers still tell a story, though, so we present "IL Track Tested." It's a quick rundown of all the data we collected at the track, along with comments direct from the test drivers. Enjoy.

Don't ask why the 2010 Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon exists, just be glad that it does. Cadillac could have directed some funds into building the Escalade EAT, but instead it built this far more sensible, and better-looking, wagon instead. 

Actually, Cadillac refers to this CTS as a sport wagon, which is typcially a euphemism for a wagon that's not actually useful. In this case, however, the CTS offers a solid 25 cubic feet of space behind the second-row seats. Not exactly huge, but more than your average trunk and it expands to over 53 cubic feet with the seats folded down.

More importantly, this wagon is actually sporty. It gets all the same equipment as the sedan so there's a 304-horsepower V6 under the hood and a well-tuned suspension holding it up. On our scales, the wagon adds about 200 pounds compared to the sedan, but the added weight in back actually evens out the wagon's weight distribution to nearly 50/50.

For 2010, Cadillac also introduced a new 19-inch wheel and tire package, so this CTS wore big 245/45ZR19 tires. Did it help? Can it outrun the sedan? Will anybody care? See for yourself in our latest notes from the test track.

Continue reading IL Track Tested: 2010 Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon.

Categories: Cadillac