Opinions on the Caddy CTS-V Coupe??
Discussion
What are peoples opinions on the CTS-V Coupe? Supercharhed Corvette V8 engine, 556bhp - but what about the styling, too challenging?? And price, $70,000 with options so about £43k - would this be a good alternative to an M3, or overpriced American tat?
There's some interesting car choices living over here, I can never quite make the mental jump away from European brands though...
http://www.cadillac.com/ctsVCoupe/2011/
There's some interesting car choices living over here, I can never quite make the mental jump away from European brands though...
http://www.cadillac.com/ctsVCoupe/2011/
It's an interesting car! I was lucky enough to do some test work on one early last year, and it was pretty impressive in a lot of areas. It's not, however, really an M3 competitor, more M5, or even more AMG Merc. It doesn't quite have the decisive "shrink around you" feel of an M3. The engine's a belter, but in typical large capacity fashion it doesn't actually immediately feel that fast, till you look at the speedo! (certainly a lot happier between 100 and 160, rather than 0 to 60 !).
3 things let it down wrt the best germans;
1) transmission, the autobox is terribly slow and clunky (and really really crap in "manual override mode"), and the manual is quite ponderous too (it's got big bits in to handly all those torques)
2) the interior styling quality, although probably the best american car i have driven, it's still at least 25% behind the levels of fit and finish,material spec that a similarly priced european car would deliver.
3) brake progression: i guess becuase it has been developed at the Nurburgring, the brake system uses very "hard compound" pads. when cold, the braking force is actually so poor you think you're going to drive into the car ahead! Then they warm up, and they are fine (in fact, excellent).
(If you have cold brakes, and say apply a 20kg pedal effort at say 100mph, the first 5sec of deccel is only about 0.1g, then as the pads warm, you suddenly get about 1g, without any change in pedal effort)
It falls into a difficult area really, as a "sports car" an M3 or M5 are better, and as a "cruiser" and XFR is a much better daily drive (and much nicer to sit in). I guess if you really want high bhp per £, then it's probably unbeatable.
Also, although it really shouldn't really make any difference on this type of car, by European stds in 2011, the fuel economy would be rated as "Catastrophic" ;-)
3 things let it down wrt the best germans;
1) transmission, the autobox is terribly slow and clunky (and really really crap in "manual override mode"), and the manual is quite ponderous too (it's got big bits in to handly all those torques)
2) the interior styling quality, although probably the best american car i have driven, it's still at least 25% behind the levels of fit and finish,material spec that a similarly priced european car would deliver.
3) brake progression: i guess becuase it has been developed at the Nurburgring, the brake system uses very "hard compound" pads. when cold, the braking force is actually so poor you think you're going to drive into the car ahead! Then they warm up, and they are fine (in fact, excellent).
(If you have cold brakes, and say apply a 20kg pedal effort at say 100mph, the first 5sec of deccel is only about 0.1g, then as the pads warm, you suddenly get about 1g, without any change in pedal effort)
It falls into a difficult area really, as a "sports car" an M3 or M5 are better, and as a "cruiser" and XFR is a much better daily drive (and much nicer to sit in). I guess if you really want high bhp per £, then it's probably unbeatable.
Also, although it really shouldn't really make any difference on this type of car, by European stds in 2011, the fuel economy would be rated as "Catastrophic" ;-)
Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 12th January 15:17
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff