Cadillac has made it clear that it is aiming to be the American BMW, a combination of luxury car opulence and unbeatable performance. As such, Cadillac has launched an assault directly on the Fatherland, focusing almost obsessively on dominating Germany’s famous Nurburgring. In fact, Cadillac released a whole series of videos leading up to the ATS unveiling about how they tested and tuned the 3-series fighter on the Green Hell.
Next up on the ‘Ring is the 2014 Cadillac CTS Vsport, boasting the luxury brand’s new 3.6 liter twin-turbo V6. With 420 horsepower on tap, this even more powerful Cadillac was unleashed on Germany’s premiere race track. So how did it do?
Damn well, if we do say so ourselves. The 2014 Cadillac CTS Vsport lapped the 12.9 mile North Loop in 8 minutes and 14 seconds, six seconds faster than the 2010 Camaro SS, and only about 15 seconds slower than the 556 horsepower 2013 Cadillac CTS-V. It’s a quick car, and it’s only the first taste of performance Cadillac plans to offer customers.
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The new Vsport badge is already being applied to the larger Cadillac XTS, and the twin-turbo V6 engine will make its way into the ATS-V [3] as well. Cadillac hopes that the Vsport models will account for as much as 15% of Cadillac sales [4], offering a step up in performance without committing to the borderline race cars of the V-series.