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Driving the 2016 Cadillac CTS-V at the old Elkhart Lake road course

The placid community around Elkart Lake, WI, looks about as far removed from a glorious motorsport venue as you can imagine. A turn of the century downtown gives way to old-school resorts, beaches, and boat launches around the picturesque lake, with farms framing the rolling hills all around. But it was those very same meandering country lanes that gave birth to one of America's greatest racing circuits, some 65 years ago. Between the first race in 1950 and the opening of the dedicated Road America track in 1956, the roads around Elkhart Lake provided the setting for some great post-war racing. Competing on public streets was ultimately outlawed across the country, but not before drivers risked life and limb in the name of glory in the Wisconsin summer. Cadillac asked us out to the area recently, not to talk racing history, but to look forward at one of the most track capable cars the company has ever offered: the 2016 CTS-V. We got to drive the 640-horsepower beastie for an entire morning of hot laps at Road America, but unfortunately, we're not allowed to tell you about all of that right now. You'll have to wait until the embargo lifts on August 3, at which point we promise a full recounting of our adventure. Having the CTS-V for a full two days though, and in the spirit of the motorsport that imbues the air in Elkhart Lake, we took the Cadillac on a drive around the old 6.5-mile road course. Come for the new Caddy, but stick around to find out what the hell Wacker's Wend is. Cadillac Luxury Performance Videos

Cadillac CTS-V gets Stealth Blue and Silver Frost limited edition models

A little more than a year and a half ago, former weekend editor Alex Nunez and I were talking about how sweet it would be for Cadillac to offer a CTS-V in the Corvette's Supersonic Blue paint, and as if General Motors eavesdropped on our conversation, this showed up. And while the Stealth Blue car you see here isn't an exact duplicate of the hot-looking sedan GM showed off in prototype form, it's really close. And really sweet.
New for 2013, the Cadillac CTS range gets two new colorful editions, starting with the Stealth Blue package available on the CTS-V (in sedan, coupe and wagon bodystyles) as well as the naturally aspirated CTS coupe. In addition to the unique paint, blacked-out grille and dark satin wheels, Stealth Blue cars can also be done up with an optional Twilight Blue leather interior. (And you thought blue-on-blue color schemes died in the '90s.)
Cadillac is also offering a new Silver Frost package, but it's a bit more exclusive. Only 100 examples will be built, all in CTS-V Coupe form. The Silver Frost paint is a low-gloss matte finish, in that while it technically has a clearcoat covering, it's reduced in a way that the surface still appears flatter than standard paint. Even so, Cadillac states that the car should be hand-washed only.

Cadillac toned down ATS Coupe design due to customer feedback [w/poll]

Automakers always face a difficult decision when it comes to styling their cars. Design them too blandly and nobody will get excited about them. But style them too aggressively and they'll often end up turning off potential buyers.
Cadillac, for its part, is no stranger to aggressive design, but when it came to the new ATS Coupe, it elected to tone things down a bit. Speaking with The Detroit News in a wide-ranging interview, Cadillac design director Bob Boniface revealed that the original design for its compact coupe was edgier - closer to that of the CTS Coupe - with a wedgier profile, a more steeply raked beltline and a more severe grille. But potential customers surveyed in clinics apparently didn't like it. They found it looked heavy, inefficient and not fun to drive. So Boniface and his team literally went back to the drawing board and "took as much visual mass out of the car as [they] could." The resulting coupe, while handsome, looks far more similar to its four-door companion than did Cadillac's CTS.
What do you think, does the new ATS Coupe look just right, or is it too conservative? Voice your opinion in our quick online poll.