2011 Cadillac Srx Luxury Collection on 2040-cars

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Cadillac CTS Vsport laps the N"urburgring in 8:14.10 [w/video]

You don't have to be German to test your car at the Nürburging. You just have to be serious about beating the Germans on their own home turf. That's why Nissan tests its GT-R at the Nordschleife to challenge the Porsche 911, and why Cadillac - which is no less serious about putting up a fight to German performance sedans - has returned to the 'Ring once again with its latest.
This time it's the turn of the new CTS Vsport, the sportier version of Cadillac's new mid-range sedan that aims to bridge the gap until the arrival of the next CTS-V. So how'd it fare? At the end of what we're sure was an exhaustive test session, the new CTS Vsport clocked a time of 8:14.10.
To put that into context, General Motors points out that the time places the new sedan six seconds ahead of the first-gen CTS-V, whose 400-horsepower V8 engine was actually less potent than the Vsport's new 410hp 3.6-liter twin-turbo V6. That's still a good fifteen seconds slower than the outgoing CTS-V that clocked a 7:59 in 2009 with its 556hp supercharged V8, but only a second behind the E60-generation BMW M5 with its high-revving 500hp V10.

Autoblog Podcast #318

Toyota back on top, Barrett Jackson, Crowdsourcing your Dodge Dart payments, Nissan and Toyota double down on pickups
Episode #318 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Zach Bowman and Michael Harley talk about Toyota regaining the No. 1 sales crown, getting your friends and family to buy you a Dodge Dart, Barrett-Jackson, and Toyota and Nissan remaining committed to their pickup trucs. We wrap with your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Keep reading for our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #318:

Cadillac CTS-V spotted with big exhaust, new grille?

If you thought Cadillac was content to leave its twin-turbocharged Vsport as the range-topping CTS, think again. Behold, our first good glimpse at the next-generation Cadillac CTS-V sedan, sporting more aggressive styling (somewhere under there), meaty quad-exhaust pipes, and what very well could be a new face for the V-badged Caddies.
Creating an all-new grille design seems like an awful lot of work just for a prototype, so it's very possible that the vertical-bar treatment you see here could make its way into production. Our spy photographers have pointed out that they've seen this same sort of grille treatment on prototypes for the smaller ATS-V sedan, and we've heard V-series models may soon have greater differentiation from the standard vehicles that sired them - that seems especially necessary if Cadillac insists on expanding this whole Vsport range.
Regardless of how its front end looks, the CTS-V ought to be a real monster. Industry sources say we can expect to see a supercharged version of General Motors' 6.2-liter V8 under the Caddy's hood, and considering the current car already makes 556 horsepower and 551 pound-feet of torque, we wouldn't be surprised to see a decent increase in both of those numbers. After all, one of the CTS-V's main competitors, the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, is currently putting out 550 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque. Could this mean a 600-hp Cadillac is on the horizon?