2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe front view

Cadillac introduced the CTS to the world in 2003, and since then the standard sedan and its V variant have been completely reworked, while the Art and Science design language have carried over to a pair new body styles: the CTS Coupe and CTS Sport Wagon.

2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe front view 2

While the wagon adds an excellent dose of utility, the 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe represents the purest expression of Art and Science to date.While the anger has dissipated, the Coupe’s crisp exterior elements still form some very hard edges.

2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe side view

Tight angles, vast open plains and a handful of parallel and perpendicular lines all contribute to the sexy wedge shape. There you’ll find gorgeous dual, center-mounted exhaust outlets that anchor a tall vertical line cutting the rear in two.

2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe rear view

The result is a raised rear end that seems to have the car leaning forward in anticipation.Perhaps these are minor issues, especially for a luxury sport coupe that starts at a base price of $38,165. However, our tester is anything but base.

2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe interior

The $51,030 Premium Collection version, which adds high-intensity discharge headlamps, 10-way power adjustable heated-and-cooled leather front seats, an upgraded Bose sound system, Bluetooth, interior ambient lighting, a heated steering wheel and a glide-up touchscreen navigation system with rear-view camera display are all welcome features.

2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe engine

The view out the windshield is clean and unobstructed thanks to the massive slab of glass, and while we expected the view to the sides to be as minimalist as the Chevrolet Camaro, the Cadillac somehow managed to trick our senses.

2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe steering wheel

The exterior styling certainly helps the CTS Coupe stand out against a sea of Mercedes-Benz E350 coupes, Audi A5s and BMW 335i coupes.

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe front view

Cadillac has never made anything like the CTS-V Coupe, a $63,000 monster that’s half hedonist and half hot-rod. The following year the CTS was released, a shovel that the brand would use to pick up the pieces of its history.

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe front view 2

With the CTS-V Coupe, though, Cadillac has built a crowbar with the sole aim of prying open your minds.Not that there’ll be much chance to get a side-on view, mainly due to two things

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe side view

General Motors’ ionized handling innovations have been well tested and sorted in gunners like the Corvette, and even with the extra weight they lose nothing in the performance here.

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe rear view

Let your eyes lead the way and turn the Alcantara-shod steering wheel to follow. That’s how every turn is handled, an additional testament to steering that is plenty precise enough to be turned and set, not sawed at, at the same time as it still feels like a Cadillac around town.

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe interior

The only quibbles are found inside, and we will only harp on one of them. The interior materials, one of the quibbles, we’ll let slide for now because we’ve already been told by Cadillac that in two years there’ll be a revolution on the inside. However, the automatic transmission needs to be replaced as soon as possible.

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe interior 2

Though the beauty queen we’ve photographed for this review features the standard six-speed manual transmission, the car we actually lived with for a week came with the optional six-speed automatic.

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe engine

Come to 2011 and the most expensive Cadillac doesn’t cost as much as a base Range Rover, and the car leading the crest-and-wreath charge isn’t fighting in the top segment, but in the trenches with the 3 Series and 5 Series.

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe front seats

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe rear seats

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon front

You know the Cadillac V-Series well, and what we think of the 2011 CTS-V Coupe. The V Wagon is simply the coupe with better visibility and room for water skis, snowboards, mountain bikes and more.

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon side view

Plus, the V Wagon is a sleeper in comparison to the V Coupe. The unexpected nature of a supercharged 556-horsepower 6.2-liter V8 wagon with the top speed of a Porsche 911 is stupendously brilliant. The irony of the four-second 0-60 mph time ain’t bad, either.The balance of the wagon’s styling makes up for the grille.

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon rear view

The dramatic profile is like nothing else on the road. Few vehicles honestly enjoy that exclusivity. Taken in whole, the CTS is an exuberant American design. No European or Asian manufacturer would dare make a car that looks like this.

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon front view 2

Inside, the look also mimics the V Coupe. Even more appropriately than on the standard CTS models, the repeated V motif makes sense in this car. The look is bold. One could imagine a Bentley Supersports owner having the V Wagon as his daily driver and not feeling like he was slumming.

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon interior

Once in motion, the CTS-V Sport Wagon proves that it is every bit as capable as the Coupe and Sedan V-Series. Blessedly, our loaner was fitted with three pedals and a Tremec TR-6060 manual gearbox. This powertrain combination makes the car even more unexpected and ironic.

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon engine

When Cadillac VP and marketing manager Don Butler spoke to us about the CTS-V line at the recent Detroit Auto Show he said that, “The CTS-V Coupe is our most popular V-Series model. It sells at nearly a 2:1 margin over the CTS-V Sedan. It’s too early to tell how popular the V-Series wagon might be, but right now, we’re building them to order.

This “downsizing” no SRX V-8, had no third row of seats, no spare weight of 4505 kg. This is harder than one of its main competitors, namely the aforementioned Lexus and Audi and Mercedes-Benz GLK350 4MATIC, the xDrive30i BMW X3 and the Volvo XC60 T6 AWD. The Cadillac V-6, as our test figures was crazy. All five of the strongest competitors, the SRX is clear that the quarter-mile in the middle of the low 15-second range for 90-some mph. The SRX completes the same task in 16.7 seconds at 85 mph to 60 km / h, in fact, the Audi and Volvo are both 1.9 seconds quicker than the Cadillac.

Step-off is not only comfortable, it is painful. The first time we nailed the throttle, we thought the parking was. The “almost five” up to 30 mph in the low range two seconds. The SRX takes 3.1 seconds. That extra wait, especially in the city where you go and try to lighten spray holes in the traffic-irritating. They are also annoying to two lanes lanes, where a 50-to-pass 70-mph 6.4 seconds compared to the needs, say the Audi 4.2. That is a lot of scary hanging-out-to-dry time.

This latest SRX is now driven through the front wheels rather than the rears. Length is down by 4.6 inches, height by 2.1 inches, and wheelbase by 5.9 inches. No longer are seven passengers welcome; five’s the limit. In either front- or all-wheel-drive iterations, three trim levels are available: Luxury, Performance, and Premium.

The 320-hp, Northstar V-8 has been broomed; a 265-hp, direct-injection V-6 is the base engine. An optional, 300-horse turbo V-6, built in Australia for Saab and Holden, will arrive this fall. With either engine, a six-speed automatic is attached. Cadillac insists vehemently that this new SRX shares only its powertrain with the Chevy Equinox and the Saturn Vue