The minute-long clip asks what you can do in 7 minutes, 59 seconds, and 32 one-hundredths. Of course, that’s the amount of time it took the mighty CTS-V sedan to lap the legendary Nürburgring, bestowing on the LSA-powered Caddy the title of the fastest production sedan on the planet.

The ad also gives credit where credit is due, mentioning the BMW M5 and Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG as vehicles that inspired Cadillac to engineer the CTS-V. The commercial closes with Caddy’s all-new tagline – The New Standard Of The World.

Coincidentally, the most recent GM Authority Weekly podcast delivered a very interesting discussion about GM’s various platforms, including the Lambda, Theta, and Epsilon (be sure to listen to the show here). But one of the more intriguing parts of the conversation centered around the Lambda architecture, with Autoblog’s Sam Abuelsamid explaining that a V8 engine is a definite “no-no” for Lambda-based vehicles.

As it turns out, the engine compartment of the Lambda platform is exceptionally narrow and a GM pushrod V8 simply wouldn’t fit.

What’s more, Sam was also told that GM’s two-mode hybrid system won’t become available in Lambda-based crossovers any time soon: the engineers cited transmission-related space constraints of the Lambda platform. Interestingly, the gearbox in question would fit into a Theta-based Saturn Vue… but not a larger Lambda vehicle.

The GM Authority Take

Needless to say, we find this news to be somewhat disheartening. Not only is the Lambda architecture not very flexible, but the next-gen Cadillac Escalade will most likely ride on the Lambda platform as well. And given the addiction of Escalade owners to their burly V8s, we’re not sure that the move to a six cylinder mill will satisfy the customers in the long haul.

The "Mark Of Leadership" slogan is on its way out, but what will replace it?

Joel Ewanick is proving to be quite the mover and shaker. Since his recruitment at GM this past May, he has been working on hitting the restart button on the entire marketing strategy for each General Motors brand. For example, when Ewanick shifted Cadillac’s $270 million account from the esteemed British ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty to Minnesota-based Fallon in July, he made a statement of the change that would certainly not stop there. Currently, Fallon is busy with launching an all-new campaign for Cadillac. But it already has the new slogan in place: “The New Standard For The World”.

The new slogan pays direct homage to the classic Cadillac “Standard Of The World” tagline that the brand has become accustomed to.  Ewanick would not mention just how different the new Cadillac ads will be from the clips created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty. If you’re wondering on just what makes Fallon the ideal advertising agency, consider the following quote from Ewanick:

“We picked an agency like Fallon because Fallon has 17 years of luxury-car experience. There’s not an agency in America that has 17 years of luxury-car experience in the United States. Look it up. They had 10 years with BMW and six-and-a-half, seven years with Porsche — some of that with me… so I know what they’re good at, I know what they’re strengths and weaknesses are, and Pat Fallon is a great advertising person.”

[Source: Automotive News]

The 90s

In the late 90s, Cadillac’s newest model – the Catera – was being criticized left and right for not living up to standards consumers (and the automotive press) expected from Cadillac. It wasn’t enough that the Catera didn’t meet sales targets; reliability, quality, and other issues were also plaguing the rebadged Opel sedan. GM knew that something needed to be done to repair Cadillac’s sullied image. And, as if things weren’t bad enough, the brand’s market share was on the decline and its customer base was getting older: the average age of a Cadillac buyer in 2000 was 67 years old.

1997 Cadillac Catera was a rebadged Opel Omega

The Meeting That Started It All

In late late 2000/early 2001, GM executives held an informal meeting to discuss Cadillac’s future. The brand’s image, products, dealers, and service experiences were all on the table. In less than two months after the initial meeting, managers realized that what Caddy needed most was a fresh start: a fresh image, a revised product portfolio, and a younger customer. In less than six months after that, senior managers agreed on a strategy. It’s this grand plan that became known as Art & Science – and it cost GM $4.3 billion.

Art & Science

The investment paid for new, more powerful engines, a new flexible rear-wheel drive platform (Sigma) that delivered sportier handling, the edgy design that’s prevalent on every Cadillac today (except for the Escalade), and a marketing budget.

The 2003 CTS was the first Cadillac to employ the Art & Science philosophy

The first Cadillac that delivered the Art & Science theme was the 2003 Cadillac CTS. It was built on an all-new platform (Sigma) and took Cadillac in an entirely new direction. From there came the STS sedan and first-generation SRX crossover, which were also based on the new Sigma platform and transformed Cadillac from that floaty-boaty vehicle your grandpa drives to a luxury brand that could jockey with the best from Germany and Japan.

Cadillac XLR-V

And we wouldn’t do the Art & Science program justice without at least mentioning the audacious XLR hardtop convertible that was as awesome to drive as it was to look at as well as Caddy’s performance models that wear the V badge, including the CTS, STS, and XLR.

The 2004 SRX was the first-ever Cadillac crossover

Today

Fast forward nearly ten years and Cadillac – to this day – is still undergoing a noteworthy renaissance. The brand just launched the CTS Coupe, arguably the most attractive Cadillac ever made, and has seen enormous demand for the all-new Theta-based SRX. At least four game-changing models are coming over the next five years, including a compact sedan (ATS) to take on the BMW 3 series, the next-generation CTS that will go head-to-head against the 5 series, a Lambda-based Escalade, as well as a flagship sedan. Whether the latter will be the Super Epsilon-based XTS or a model based on a premium version of GM’s Zeta platform is still up in the air.

The 2011 CTS-V Coupe is the newest addition to the Cadillac lineup

But Caddy is also trimming down: it will phase out two vehicles, including the the DTS and STS sedans, at the end of 2010. The discontinuation of the DTS, in particular, may upset owners of the antiquarian sedan who have come to appreciate the couch-on-wheels personality of that vehicle. However, it appears that Cadillac is positioning itself to compete directly with the sport-luxury marques from Germany, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi. And the new model range should assist Cadillac’s nearly non-existent presence in Europe.

The RWD Sigma-based STS will be discontinued within the year

What’s more, GM’s vice president of global vehicle engineering, Karl Stracke, vowed to make Cadillac vehicles lighter than those of BMW in unsprung mass. Seeing that BMW is often the most popular luxury brand in the United States (it swaps with Lexus for the number one spot every few months), the strategy seems solid and will surely pay off. Perhaps the “soft luxury” segment is best left for Buick, but that’s a different box of bolts (you can listen to our conversation on the GM Authority Debate podcast about Buick and Cadillac brands here).

Do you think GM’s $4.3 billion investment in Art & Science at the turn of the century was worth it? Are you satisfied with the vehicles (and results) it has produced? Talk to us in the comments below.

The DTS, which uses GM's old K platform, will be discontinued this year when full-scale production of the Chevrolet Volt begins at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant

Check out the behind the scenes trailer of the ad, which definitely got our gearhead blood pumping. Needless to say, this is the good stuff.

Lambdas

New Lambda crossovers will make their way to dealer showrooms in 2013 as 2014 model year vehicles. The Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia are rumored to be the first Lamdas to receive a redesign, with the Chevrolet Traverse to follow shortly after. They will also be the first duo of GM’s full size crossovers to be powered by the new LF3 engine.

Given that current Lambda CUVs use GM’s (excellent) high-feature (HF) 3.6 liter direct injected V6 that makes nearly 290 horsepower and 270 pounds-feet of torque, we should expect the LF3 to at least match that power output, if not beat it outright.

At this point, we simply don’t know whether GM plans to offer another engine in the Lambda-based vehicles. Many current owners of Lambda CUVs have been begging for more power and revised gearing ratios, so we could image a scenario where the base engine is the HF 3.6 and the optional up-level mill is the boosted 3.0 LF3.

SRX

The new Cadillac SRX is expected to get a midcycle refresh sometime in 2013 and – in the process – also get the LF3. Currently, Caddy’s only crossover is offered with a choice of two engines – a naturally-aspirated 3.0 liter V6 (LF1) and an optional 2.8 liter turbo V6 (LP9). The LF3 will most likely replace the 2.8 turbo to become the up-level engine.

That said, the GM Authority crew believes that despite being direct injected, the 3.0 liter LF1 is too weak (read: lethargic and unrefined) to be present in the rather heavy SRX. As such, perhaps it would be best to keep the 2.8 turbo (LP9) as the base powerplant and offer the LF3 twin turbo as the optional engine. That’s what yours truly would do… in a perfect scenario.

Impala And XTS

It’s also entirely possible for the new LF3 motor to make its way to other GM vehicles, including the next-generation Chevy Impala and forthcoming Cadillac XTS (even though the latter may end up not coming to market). Both vehicles will ride on the Super Epsilon platform, a beefed up version of GM’s global Epsilon II architecture.

GM expects the CTS Coupe to attract “a new generation of luxury sports car enthusiasts to Cadillac.” GM’s luxury marque hopes that the CTS coupe will compete with the BMW 335i Coupe, Mercedes-Benz E350 Coupe, as well as the Audi A5.

However, certain members of the GM Authority crew believe that BMW’s 3 series coupe does not belong on that list and should be replaced with the 6 series instead. Just take a look at the proportions of the CTS compared with the 6er. What do you think? Sound off in the comments after the jump.

[Show as slideshow]

Against the likes of the highly comparative Ford and Ram three-quarter and full-ton trucks, The General’s 2500 and 3500 HD models, equipped with the Herculean 6.6 liter Duramax diesel engine, emerged as clear winners.

The shootout was incredibly thorough and rigorous, tallying scores on subjects such as fuel economy, performance, quality, value, and even hill climbs. While the Vortec-powered GM trucks didn’t do as well, and Fords trucks – as tested – only featured the “Job 1″ 6.7 liter PowerStroke diesel engine rather the upgraded “Job 2″ variant that will deliver 800 lbs.-ft. of torque – credit still has to be given to all the engineers involved in taking 2 out of 3 titles in the biggest PickupTrucks.com shootout ever.

Click here to read Pickuptrucks.com’s full comparison test.

As GM made its way through bankruptcy, Hummer was one of the brands that was deemed to not have a role in the new company. Along with Saab and Saturn, Hummer was put up for sale to any and all interested parties. It was also the first wind-down brand to score a bite. Unfortunately, nothing came of the offer. When the Chinese government pulled the plug on GM’s Hummer sale to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd., it killed the brand’s best chance of seeing the 2012 model year and beyond. And though reports by sources such as CNN and the Wall Street Journal about Hummer having other bidders were true, none of these suitors were capable of purchasing or operating the brand.

“We had lots of phone calls, and lots of letters and lots of meetings with guys alleging they had the financial where-with-all to purchase Hummer…buyers would come in and we would ask: ‘do you have a billion dollars?’, that would stop them pretty quick. That process and the people involved that thought they could just buy it have really no idea what it takes to buy and run a car company,” explained Taylor.

He also described just how crazy some of the interested parties were in the Hummer brand by saying:

“we had, like, hand written notes from some guys in a cabin saying ‘I wanna buy Hummer, and I have a lot of money’… yeah, sure. “

That whole money thing aside, there was also another factor that played a key role on the deal, and was probably an even bigger reason on why a deal never happened after Sichuan Tengzhong left the table. That factor was time.

“GM was in a big hurry. There was a lot of impatience to get [the deal] done. And when you look at the Saab-Spyker deal, that was really lucky. Those guys were just able to move so fast to close a deal… so what it came down to was the ability to move super fast with somebody super rich but we didn’t get lucky enough to find that combination, unfortunately.”

Unfortunate, indeed. We could have seen the best lineup from Hummer yet: a more compact, utilitarian lineup for the off-road-venturing crowd was in order, and not so much the purposely overweight, space-inefficient extreme of an SUV that has given the brand such a negative perception in many circles. In fact, Mr. Taylor was fixing the brand to focus directly at Jeep and its lone dominance in the affordable off-road SUV market with an entirely new product plan.

“We had a whole product plan to lure in buyers. We had an H4 that would have been a lot smaller [than current models] and was to be the new focus for our relaunch… we wanted to take a bite out of Jeep and their segment.”

2008 Hummer HX Concept. Could this have been the H4?

For those picturing the awesome-looking Hummer Hx Concept that made its debut a few years ago, you’re in the right ballpark. Hopefully, something such as the Hx has a future somewhere else, maybe as a GMC in the coming years (but that’s just this writer’s fantasy). So, what’s Mr. Taylor up to these days? He seems to be enjoying his time off:

“This industry beats you up pretty good and when you’re boiled in it for so long, it takes a while to dry out from all the speed, and stress and everything. So I have taken a couple of months off to fix everything in my house that’s been neglected for the past five years.”

If we were in his shoes, we would probably do the same.

As you can tell by the trailer (available below), the show looks to be as exciting as the “Top Gear” name implies, bringing cool tests and eccentric challenges (along with some very beautiful videography) to the car fanatic in you. And it looks like the actual show won’t let us down, as the series will include a new challenge as its centerpiece. Here’s the gist on how it works: the three hosts each pick the best $1,000 car and proceed to put it through a punishing “moonshine run” dirt course.

The ride that got the wrath of the course in the preview was Ferrara’s 1976 Cadillac Deville Calais, which handles dirt landings as agreeably and effortlessly as you’d imagine… that’s to say – not at all.

What’s (who’s?) still under wraps, however, is the Stig. Who in the world will it be?

Check out the trailer below. We think the show will be a hit, especially given the chemistry and rapport between the three hosts.