NEW CARS The Last Waltz: 2014 Cadillac CTS-V Wagon compare cars

compare cars My original title for the story you're reading was "Steal This Car." The tagline was going to be "I Don't Think Cadillac is Going to Prosecute." However, there's always a gulf between expectations and reality, and sometimes the chasm is much larger than you could have imagined. This particular tale begins with an invitation from Cadillac. The 2014 model marks the last year of the current, aka second-generation, CTS-V. To celebrate five years of producing the 556-horsepower beast, Caddy decided to throw a last hurrah bash in Austin, Texas, at -- you guessed it -- the local F1 track, better known as the Circuit of the Americas, or COTA. On top of that, Cadillac's winning World Challenge drivers Andy Pilgrim and (my buddy -- keep reading) Johnny O'Connell would both be on hand to show participants the fast way around the 3.4-mile, 20-turn track, as well as freak 'em out with a few laps in last season's winning CTS-V.R race car. That all certainly sounds fun, no?

Oh yeah, one more little thing was tacked on at the end of the invitation. If we wanted, Cadillac would allow us to drive away from COTA with a V. I've rarely replied to an email as quickly. "Is there a CTS-V Wagon with a manual that I can drive back to Los Angeles and hang on to for awhile?" After the four longest minutes of my life, Cadillac PR (finally) replied, "Yep." Hot dog!!! It's a long story, but I love station wagons, I love massively powerful cars, and I love row-your-own transmissions. All three together? Perfect. And I basically hit the lottery when I got to steward our long-term CTS-V Wagon with a manual around for a year. When I close my eyes and meditate on my favorite driving moments, two pop into my head. One is when I was chasing down Scott Evans and the Corvette Z06 Z07 with a Porsche 997 GT3 RS on California's incomparable Highway 198. The other is simply shifting from sixth to third in that old CTS-V Wagon and burying the throttle. The eruption of power, the forward thrust, the unadulterated, chaotic evilness of the bass boat black paint, matching wheels, and yellow calipers, the incongruous mix of demon-throated speed and wagon practicality -- I loved every moment I spent in that car. I maintain a list of cars I must own before I leave planet Earth. The CTS-V wagon is top three. All that said, I was obviously thrilled with the chance to have one more fling with my old flame.

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I arrived at the hotel in Austin, checked in, and realized I'd left my wallet in the drug trap of the Escalade I'd driven out from L.A. I hurried down to valet, and they weren't quite sure where it got parked. I started running around various parking lots trying to find the big black 'Slade when I stumbled upon two CTS-V Wagons parked side by side. Cool, as obviously one of 'em was mine. The first car was black with silver wheels and gray calipers; the other plum/periwinkle with black wheels and yellow calipers. I'm not sure which one I liked best. Then I peeked through the glass and learned that both were automatics. Hmmm. Maybe my car was at the track.

The next morning we headed off to COTA. I snagged the black CTS-V Wagon because I'm a greedy jerk, or at least that's the vibe I'm getting off the Canadian writer who wanted to drive it. First come, first serve, eh? After an uneventful 25-minute drive through urban and exurban Austin we reached COTA, and I was excited to go find the wagon with the manual. Only I never found it. Because it wasn't there. I ran and grabbed the Cadillac PR guy. "I thought you said I was getting a manual wagon?" He smiled, shrugged, and walked away. I'd been tricked! Lied to! How dare they!? In fact, there was only one manual CTS-V at the track -- a coupe -- and it was being sequestered for someone to drive it back to Portland. I was not thrilled. Curious note about CTS-Vs and manual transmissions. Approximately 15 percent of the sedans and coupes sold have three pedals. However, 30 percent of the wagons -- around 450 out of about 1,400 -- are manuals. Makes perfect sense to me. I just wonder what's wrong with the 70 percent who went for the auto.

I'll be quick about the cars on the track. I drove all three -- the sedan, coupe, and wagon. To reiterate, all three had Cadillac's six-speed automatic transmission, which when you put it in Sport mode is pretty much OK. In terms of on-track performance and fun, the sedan was definitely a distant third, the wagon was second, and just ahead was the coupe. You might think that weight had something to do with my ranking of the three V's, but remember the coupe with the slushbox weighs 4,254 pounds, and the wagon is "only" 196 pounds more (4,450 pounds). On the track, the sedan is honestly a bit of a mess because of how the suspension is set up, specifically the rearend. Things are much looser out back than with the others, and the four-door also seems to have more understeer. Also, the only sedan I drove had the standard seats, not the optional Recaros like all the coupe and wagon Vs present. The wagon and the coupe are much better track weapons, and they look worlds better, too. The coupe is slightly easier to hustle. Especially after Johnny Red showed me around the track. There were only about a dozen journalists at COTA, and as typically happens after a lapping session or two, half the pack had had their fun and started in on a long lunch. The result of this entropy is that the track becomes essentially wide open, offering up nearly unlimited lapping until the tires give out/fuel runs out. I'd only driven COTA once before -- in the BMW M6 Gran Coupe -- and although 75 percent of it made sense, I was having a hard time with the esses after Turn 1. Enter Johnny O'Connell. I met Johnny in Germany when we brought our long term CTS-V Wagon to the Nurburgring for him to set a fast lap. We've remained friends every since. Aside from his other racing accomplishments, Johnny Red (as he's known) is the 2012, 2013, and 2014 World Challenge champion driving -- yup -- Cadillacs. Johnny's method of dealing with the esses is just to turn them into straights. Turns out that smashing over the red curbing is the faster way around the Texan F1 circuit. Makes sense. Luckily the CTS-V's magnetic shocks are well-suited to dealing with such violent impacts. Mini sidebar: Johnny gave a fast lap in the 2014 season-winning CTS-V.R. All I can say is: concussive. Promptly at 3 p.m. Caddy and crew cleared out of COTA like rats fleeing a sinking ship. Suddenly there was nothing but me, a CTS-V Wagon, and 1,400 miles back to Los Angeles. Thing is, I decided to go to Houston.

source: http://www.motortrend.com/

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