Get A Great Look At The 2016 Cadillac CTS-V Gauges At Work: Video

We’ve heard how the new 2016 Cadillac CTS-V will herald a new era of performance for the brand. Cadillac hasn’t exactly spelled it out in those exact terms, but a quick look at the spec sheet– supercharged 6.2L LT4 V8 with 640 hp – reveals its the most powerful production Cadillac ever made and will reach 60 mph in 3.7 seconds. Acceleration time results may vary, as we see in the video below.

Unless you’re fixated behind the steering wheel and driving a CTS-V, it’s hard to get a feel for what the 12.3-inch TFT (thin-film transistor) gauge cluster looks like in its various drive modes (Sport, Track and Race). No so, in this case.

The driver proceeds to launch the car in each mode with the traction control system switched on, and achieves a slightly faster time each pass: first a 4.2-second run in Sport, then a 4.1 in Track, and finally, the fabled 3.9-second pass in Race. No surprises here.

As the laws of physics state, 640 hp and 630 lb–ft of torque is a lot of power to put down through just the rear wheels alone. As such, the 2016 Cadillac CTS-V sedan is equipped with a launch control algorithm. The mode is engaged when the car is in the Performance Traction Management (PTM) mode. This is done by engaging the “Track” suspension setting, pushing the traction control button twice, where the PTM is then activated. PTM has settings ranging from “Wet” to “Race” and a few modes in between.

From there, the Hydra-Matic 8L90 eight-speed automatic transmission does all the grunt work in the CTS-V. All the driver has to do is put a foot on the brake, let the revs rise to 1,400rpm, release the brake, and let the 295/30ZR19 Michelin Pilot Sport tires out back do the rest, while keeping things in automatic mode negates the need to fiddle with the steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters. As we can attest, it does the job well.