Cadillac beats all challengers
American muscle overpowers the rest of the world in super sedan showdownRecently we brought you the story of General Motors marketing guru Bob Lutz and his challenge to find a faster sedan than the Cadillac CTS-V. It was all part of GM's new 'May the Best Car Win' advertising campaign.
Lutz claimed the CTS-V was capable of beating any of its competitors and threw down the challenge to anyone willing to take him on at the Monticello Motor Club in New York last week (Thursday October 29).
Despite competition from a BMW M3 and M5, Audi RS4, Jaguar XF and Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X the CTS-V did indeed come out on top.
But it wasn't 77-year-old Lutz who took the top time, instead that honour went to GM test driver and former pro racer John Heinricy.
As you can see from the times below the closest competitor to the Cadillac was a BMW M3 driven its owner, 21-year-old amateur racer Michael Cooper. He was one of four members of the general public who were invited to participate.
The publicity stunt was a major victory for Cadillac and proved another masterstroke for Lutz. Even before the cars took to the track Cadillac was on top with both Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar pulling out.
They had initially agreed to provide cars to Wes Siler, a journalist from website Jalopnik and the first driver to take up the challenge, but decided not to go head-to-head with the CTS-V.
Aside from being a highly entertaining and providing great publicity for Cadillac the challenge is a reminder about the disappointment of the brand's failure to launch locally.
Maybe the suits at Port Melbourne should reconsider introducing Cadillac in Australia...
CTS-V Challenge final times
John Heinricy CTS-V 2:46:560
Aaron Link CTS-V 2:48:902
Brian Redman CTS-V 2:49:596
Michael Cooper BMW M3 2:50:424
Jack Baruth CTS-V 2:51:153
Lawrence Ulrich CTS-V 2:53:157
Bob Lutz CTS-V 2:56:321
Michael Mainwald BMW M5 3:05:398
Wes Siler Mitsubishi EVO 3:08:126
Chris Fairman CTS-V 3:14:292
Archan Basu Jaguar XF 3:15:670
Tom Loder Audi RS4 3:15:702
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