It’s fair to say General Motors dominated at Car and Driver’s Lightning Lap competition. The 2016 C7 Corvette Z06 took top honors, but the 2016 Cadillac CTS-V wasn’t too far behind, placing among some very competitive vehicles. With a time of 2:56.8, the gen-3 CTS-V Lightning Lap time was just 0.9 seconds behind the 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, and 0.6 seconds quicker than the 2006 Dodge Viper SRT10. The CTS-V’s immediate rival, the BMW M5, managed a relatively piggish 3:05.2.
C&DÂ hands the title of four-door Corvette (once reserved for the Pontiac G8 GXP) rightfully over to the 2016 CTS-V. And we’re okay with that because, as we experienced in our first drive of Cadillac’s super saloon, it earns every single letter comprising its nickname.
The only places where the publication thought the 2016 CTS-V showed weakness was in its Michelin Pilot Super Sports, which lost grip when pushed to the limits. The sedan also felt, well, sedan-y in the corners, especially around the Horse Shoe corner, according to experience.
With its rivals poised for more power and redesigns, Cadillac won’t be caught standing still. It’s rumored the CTS-V is up for a sizable power increase, and we can’t wait to see what a little more finesse can do to an already-super super sedan.
Comments
Anybody know what the power increase will be?
A lighter coupe would be highly desirable.
Cadillac apparently have enjoyed using twin-turbocharging for boosting engine output as shown with their LGW 400 horsepower twin-turbo 3.0L V6 and LF4 464 horsepower twin-turbo 3.6L V6; thus, Cadillac may have decided to abandoned their usage of the LT4 640 horsepower supercharged 6.2L V8 and decided to develop a twin-turbo variant of the LT1 6.2L V8 perhaps with cooperation with Hennesey Performance who developed the VR1200 twin-turbocharged 6.2L V8 a couple of years ago that developed 1,226 horsepower @ 6400 rpm.
While it is unlikely that Cadillac would want 1,226 horsepower because of reliability issues, it would be easily to imagine that Cadillac could consider 725-800 horsepower as this would represent a major upgrade over the LT4 and even more power than Dodge’s Hellcat V8 and give Cadillac the clear title of most powerful domestic production car.