Cadillac CTS-V-Series

Chassis refinements

Based on Cadillac’s performance-oriented rear-drive Sigma architecture, CTS-V is a highly refined high-performance luxury sedan designed for performance enthusiast drivers. Like the original CTS, CTS-V was refined and validated at Germany's famed Nürburgring racetrack to meet the expectations of the world's most avid driving enthusiasts.

GM Performance Division engineers implemented a series of high-performance refinements to the vehicle’s chassis system. The CTS-V’s front and rear suspension and cradles are revised and tuned to handle the high horsepower and torque delivered by the LS6 engine. The cradles are hydroformed with a thicker gauge steel. In addition, high-stress areas - located using math-based finite element analysis (FEA) - are reinforced with a series of surgically located, welded-in-place steel gussets and a tower-to-tower cross car brace brings enhanced cross-vehicle stability.

The front and rear stabilizer bars are increased in size and spring rates were increased approximately 27% for the V-Series. The diameter of the monotube shocks was increased from 36 to 46 mm and valving refined to the vehicle’s high-performance characteristics, while the rear suspension uses Nivomat shock absorbers, which adapt automatically to different loads and road conditions. The incorporation of a nine-land steering gear (lands are the tuning elements/valves within the steering gear – a six-land steering gear is used on the mainstream CTS) enables more precise steering tuning. The result is more accurate on-center feel and responsiveness.

The CTS-V is equipped with a Nürburgring-tuned Brembo brake system that is considered world-class and unmatched in the high-performance luxury vehicle niche. The vented, cast-iron rotors measuring 355 x 32 mm at the front and 365 x 28 mm at the rear, feature huge four-piston calipers at all four corners.

Recalibrated StabiliTrak chassis control system

The four-channel StabiliTrak chassis control system has been recalibrated for the vehicle’s increase in horsepower and torque and provides enhanced stability control. In addition, the system enables the driver to select from four modes ranging from full traction and stability control, to traction control off and stability control on, and both features switched off. The system also offers the option of a competition mode, which provides a “less governed�' level of stability control, when it will only engage the stability control in situations of extreme oversteer or extreme acceleration.

Adding to a prestigious racing heritage

The Cadillac CTS-V has been playing a highly successful role in adding to Cadillac’s prestigious motor sports heritage. In its debut season in the closely-fought SCCA Speed World Challenge, the highly competitive North American road racing series for production based cars, Team Cadillac scored five podium finishes, four pole positions and three victories and only missed out on winning the manufacturers’ title by the narrowest of margins at the tenth and final round.

Cadillac’s racing heritage dates back to 1909 when a Cadillac won the first race held in the United States National Championship series. Cadillac cars and engines have since raced in NASCAR, NHRA, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. When in 1949, Cadillac introduced the first modern mass-produced overhead-valve V-8, it was rated at an astounding 160 horsepower and featured a short stroke and lightweight construction. It weighed 200 pounds less than the sidevalve ‘flathead’ V-8 it replaced.

Racers quickly recognized the advantages of the new Cadillac powerplant. Famed Indy driver Paul Russo won the 1949 Milwaukee 100 stock car race in a Cadillac, and Red Byron finished third in the 1950 NASCAR Southern 500 in Darlington, S.C. Gober Sosebee took the pole position and finished second in a 100-mile NASCAR Grand National race on a half-mile dirt track in Columbus, Ga., in June 1951, while Cadillac engines powered Briggs Cunningham's limited-production sports cars and made the English-built Allard J-2 the car to beat on road courses from Watkins Glen, N.Y., to Pebble Beach, California and even at Le Mans.

First race car developed by GM Racing

In 2004, the Cadillac CTS-V made its mark in its debut season in the closely-fought SCCA Speed World Challenge, the highly competitive North American road racing series for production based cars. The CTS-V race car was the first race car developed by GM Racing in conjunction with the new GM Performance Division, an in-house center designed to explore potential enthusiast-oriented versions of production models.

The outstanding performance characteristics of the rear-drive Sigma-based CTS and CTS-V road cars lent perfectly to a race-car application. The engineers were able to maintain a significant amount of shared parts, technologies and processes in developing the CTS-V race car.

By weight, the CTS-V race car was 73 percent stock-derived. The production CTS-V and CTS-V race car share common technology in the form of the all-aluminum V-8 engine, front and rear suspension, steering system, differential and halfshafts – and talent, as the engineers who conceived the CTS-V for street use were directly involved in the creation of the race car.

Team Cadillac scored five podium finishes, four pole positions and three victories and only missed out on winning the manufacturers’ title by the narrowest of margins at the tenth and final round.

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