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Cadillac CTS wins 2014 Motor Trend Car of the Year [w/video]

For the second time, the Cadillac CTS has been named Motor Trend's Car of the Year. After winning the COTY crown for 2008, the new-for-2014 CTS outdid the other two finalists for Car of the Year honors, the Mazda3 and its corporate cousin, the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.
What's notable about the Caddy's victory, though, is how it simply brushed off its competition. Both the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series failed to make the finalist's bracket, leaving the CTS to claim victory. "It had to beat [Mercedes and BMW] on style, on performance, on comfort, and on quality. It has," Motor Trend said in its COTY recap for the CTS.
The team at Motor Trend praised the CTS chassis, calling it "fantastic," and citing weight advantage the Caddy has over the competition. There was also praise heaped on the car's engines, with the 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder getting nods of approval from the MT team. The team also raved about the VSport model and its twin-turbocharged V6, magnetic shocks and other performance accoutrements.

Want to beat LA traffic? Chargers QB Philip Rivers has found a way

Slogging through traffic in Southern California is about as pleasurable as being slowly eaten by bears or being the awkward third wheel on a bad first date. It feels like it's never going to end. After the team relocated to Los Angeles from San Diego, Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers decided that three hours wasted each day in a car was too much. As The San Diego Union-Tribune reports, Rivers' rolling office makes his days more productive than ever. After deciding that he wasn't going to relocate his family to Orange County, Rivers was stuck with the prospect of either spending considerably less time with his children or skipping out on much-needed film work at the team's training facility (not really an option given his profession). Instead, he began investigating a number of options to make his lengthened commute slightly more viable and productive. First, he considered carpooling with a teammate. That was still too much of a pain. He looked at flying a helicopter, but unless it could land close to both his home and the practice field, it too was useless. A quick online search eventually led to the rolling footage review room you see here. Becker Automotive Design in Oxnard, Calif., builds these rolling offices for a wide range of customers. It sells modified Mercedes-Benz Sprinters, Ford Transits, and, in Rivers' case, a Cadillac Escalade with a raised roof. His needs were simple: a television and an HDMI input so he can hook up his computer. No fancy armor or recumbent exercise bicycle. His goal was to review game footage on his commute rather than slowly waste away behind the wheel of a car. Photos show a sea of leather and wood and a mini fridge, so it's not totally without niceties. Column | Philip Rivers' new ride allows him to stay home https://t.co/btwCEgIsFq pic.twitter.com/DHud3ho5UF — The Union-Tribune (@sdut) September 5, 2017 The Union-Tribune lists the price of the Escalade at about $200,000. That's not including the driver's salary. In 2015, Rivers signed a four-year deal with the Chargers worth $84 million, so he's not hurting for cash. If it increases productivity and saves the headache of being behind the wheel in traffic, we can imagine more people with means (and not just quarterbacks) will be opting for such daily transport. Related Video:

Cadillac's 4.2-liter Blackwing V8 to die with the CT6?

Cadillac's 4.2-liter twin-turbo Blackwing V8 debuted only last year, popping up in the CT6 V-Sport — now the CT6-V — with 550 horsepower and 627 pound-feet of torque. The engine's been stymied in every attempt to power a different Cadillac model since then. Its only two use cases have been a first and second run of the original, limited-edition super sedan and the CT6 Platinum V8 trim at a slightly detuned 500 hp and 553 lb-ft. Motor Trend cites "a highly placed source at GM" as saying that the Blackwing won't go into the coming high-performance version of the CT5-V nor in the next-gen Escalade. Left without options, there's a chance the Blackwing will die with the CT6, itself a sedan with its grille on the executioner's block just waiting for the bite of an ax that might or might not shortly fall. Cost-cutting has been tagged as the reason for this misfortune; Cadillac's sales malaise and lack of clarity as to how to turn sales around led GM to downsize the brand's allowance. The parent company chose to build the new CT5 on the Alpha platform used for the erstwhile ATS and CTS instead of the Omega platform underpinning the CT6. Along with that choice, the MT report says expense reasons nixed fitting the Blacking V8. We know the lower-tier V series CT5 will work with a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6 making 355 hp and 400 lb-ft. When we heard spy video of the upper-tier V series CT5 out testing, the engine sounded like the 6.2-liter supercharged V8 that would be a carryover from the last model.  The XT6, also rumored to get some V sauce, simply can't fit the V8. Instead of sitting on the Omega platform as once planned, the XT6 rides on the C1XX architecture under other GM products like the Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Traverse. The C1XX engine bay doesn't have room for a stouter V6, much less a hi-po V8. The next-gen Escalade ruled itself out due to price issues in back, not in front. MT writes that the independent rear suspension supporting GM's next-gen full-sized SUV quartet has burned through cash in development, putting engineers a few direct deposits short of the funds needed to massage Blackwing installation. Earlier this year at least one report said the twin-turbo DOHC V8 could serve the top-spec next-gen Escalade. More recent reports of a performance-heavy next-gen Escalade have predicted the 6.2-liter supercharged LT4 V8 from the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and Corvette Z06.