Street legal CTS-V supplies performance blueprint for high output race car

Continuing to demonstrate its technical capabilities and high-performance credentials, Cadillac took a standard CTS-V model and produced a race-going version, which competes in the SCCA Speed World Challenge, a highly competitive North American race series for production based cars.

The Cadillac CTS-V race car is 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 CTS-V, first introduced as a 2004 model, signaled Cadillac's entry into the low-volume, high-performance luxury car niche, and was the first vehicle to wear the division's high-performance V-series badge.

"The CTS-V and the CTS-V race car are very significant models for Cadillac as they are further evidence of the dramatic changes that have been taking place within the brand," said Fadi Ghosn, Marketing Manager for Premium Brands, General Motors. "The CTS-V race car will improve Cadillac's credibility with luxury performance enthusiasts."

Unlike many other production based race cars, Cadillac owners can experience the power and driving dynamics of the race car in the standard CTS-V because the engineers who conceived the CTS-V for street use were also directly involved in the creation of the race car.

By weight, the CTS-V race car is 73 per cent 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 half shafts.

Both cars feature a 5.7 liter V8 engine. The CTS-V race car produces more than 500 horsepower giving it a top speed estimated to be in excess of 165 mph. By comparison the standard CTS-V produces 400 horsepower, pushing the car from a standstill to 100km/h in an estimated 4.6 seconds.

The CTS-V is the most powerful production car in the Cadillac lineup - and one that is engineered to more than hold its own with some of the industry's most renowned high-performance luxury sport vehicles, including entries from the BMW M-series, Audi S-series and Mercedes-Benz AMG series.

"The CTS-V race car starts from a great set of blueprints," added Ghosn. "The outstanding performance characteristics of the rear-drive CTS and CTS-V lend perfectly to a race-car application. We were able to maintain a significant amount of shared parts, technologies and processes in developing the CTS-V race car."