2003 Cadillac CTS

"In order to make rear suspension changes," he says, "we used temporary gas tanks in the back-seat area. I've probably taken a year off my life inhaling the fumes," he confesses. "There's just so much you can do statically and on a computer where suspension design is concerned. You have to drive the car at the limit, over and over, to know what it needs to be competitive."

Standard amenities include Nuance leather upholstery and OnStar. Upgrades include a navigation system and an 8-speaker Bose sound setup.

Morris's efforts were well worth it. Underway in the CTS, those deep front buckets, with their snug side bolsters, feel just right. Says Morris, "A couple of seat engineers and I worked over and over, adding and subtracting foam, to achieve the perfect 'butt pocket.' When I first began driving in Germany, I found I was holding onto the wheel to stay in the car. When we'd finished, we had very supportive seats for high-performance driving." Structurally, the unit-body CTS feels like a German sedan (it's actually about the size of a BMW 5 Series); there's no creaking or cowl shake. On uneven surfaces outside of Charlottesville, Virginia, where we tested the CTS, there were plenty of narrow, high-crowned, off-camber turns to test this hypothesis.


The CTS comes as a base model or with a Luxury Sport package. Interestingly, the base car handles remarkably well; predictably, the Sport version is noticeably stiffer. Ken Morris says, "We didn't want the base car to be a letdown." It isn't. After several hundred test miles, I can even attest that the Sport version rides and handles precisely and doesn't rattle out your back teeth. Steering is delightfully crisp, with just the right amount of boost. The brakes (ventilated 11.9-inch discs in front, 11.7-incher in the rear) are powerful and progressive and the lining upgrade isn't offensive. Sport versions get stiffer springs, as noted, automatic load-leveling, 17x7.5-inch wheels and Goodyear Eagle P225/50VR17 all-season tires, but the base car's 225/55R16 Eagles on 16x6 alloys are up to the task as well.

Based on the previous-generation Cadillac 3.0-liter V-6, the 3.2 is basically an all-new engine. Cylinder banks are at 54 degrees for packaging purposes.

At 220-bhp, the four-cam V-6 isn't the most powerful engine in its class, but it's torquey where it needs to be. The engine's lower end is structurally braced with a crankcase girdle and meatier webs; it revs cheerfully and the Getrag, rod-actuated five-speed is just the way you'd like it in a BMW: crisp, direct and easy-to-use.


Built in Lansing, Michigan, the CTS packs a lot of neat features: tungsten halogen lighting, a fast-acting neon CHMSL, integrated headlamp washers, Nuance leather and a standard Delphi-Delco 200-watt audio system. All North American CTSs have the OnStar system as standard. The long list of safety features includes six "next-generation" airbags, energy-management retractors in the front, and seatbelt pretensioners all around. Upgrades include an eight-speaker, 212-watt Bose sound system. The optional navigation system is easy to use; the map is in a horizontal plane that neatly simulates what you'd see if you were literally driving across a map.