The first generation Cadillac CTS-V might look a bit on a garish side, but it is pure American muscle, with the moves and speed of an E39 M5. It isn't the fastest sedan ever built, but it comes close and is available with a 6 speed manual gearbox. Find this 2005 Cadillac CTS-V here on eBay
currently bidding for $8,700 reserve-not-met with $15,100 buy-it-now located in Gibbstown, NJ.
If you say to yourself -- man, 100k miles on that CTS-V, how much longer will it last? Here is the answer: at least another 100k miles and then it will only drop a few $k in price. This other CTS-V
has 200k miles on the odometer and although its had considerably maintenance (transmission parts, wheel bearings, clutch cylinder, etc) in the 180k mile range, it seems to have survived the miles remarkably well. 
The CTS-V was a standard Cadillac CTS sedan on steroids. The pedestrian V6 was swapped for tire melting LS6 taken from the Corvette Z06, the 5.7 liter all-aluminum push-rod V8 putting out 400 horsepower and 400 ft-lbs of torque. Power is put through a six-speed manual transmission (no sissy slushbox in the 1st gen CTS-V, so no need to sort through the junk to find what you are looking for) and into a limited slip differential in the rear. Performance is nothing short of fast - unless the axles have been twisted into pretzel shapes -which these are notorious for doing.
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Cheap-ass interior full of weird materials, but if you can get past that they're fabulous drivers, the trans/clutch isn't as smooth as BMW'S Getrag box but the chassis and brakes are better than the M5.
ReplyDeleteThe big dynamic failure was the diff killing wheel hop. Interesting to note the fix GM implemented on the next one - and on some Vettes
...to finish that thought - was something Ford had done on stick Thunderbird SCs almost two decades earlier - a tubular axle on one side with a different torsional stiffness.
ReplyDeleteJaguar in typical dont-raise-the-bridge-lower-the-river style redesigned the S-Type/XJR different to be asymmetric in 2003.
IMO, this and the ATS are the best Cadillacs in years. They also pretty much saved the brand. The CTS in particular has benefited from steady improvements (obviously, as the ATS isn't all that old yet), especially issues with the differential. There. Now are you happy you know what I think? Oh, you didn't care in the first place? It's an outrage! Wouldn't you have rather had a cool movie featuring a CTS in it that you didn't know about? Surely that would have been more entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI would like to agree with you on this K2, but I think they lost their "Cadillacness" when they tried to compete with the germans. Caddy's are supposed to float and lean not carve and burn. I don't hate or even dislike either car, but they are trying to hard to be something they are not
DeleteAs much as I love the newest CTS-V (and hope they take the typical GM depreciation curve hit sooner than later), this model was just a little too gold-chainy for me.
ReplyDeleteThis is the one I wish I had bought... Mine was an 03 cts with 3.6 Auto. I bought it cheap cheap and found out the rear suspension was a bit twisted. After my brother spun it sideways from a standstill and realized that if he kept his foot in it he wasn't going to get it back. after spending all day Christmas day heating bending and measuring we had it within stock spec. It was a blast to drive until said brother tried it again and spun it up over a curb and bent the front subframe. We straightened it out but it was never quite as good. I got six months before the engine crapped out and it went to the shredder. But again it was cheap.
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