Cadillac Is Stalking V-Series Owners Who Track Their Cars

Jun. 25, 2021 4:23 PM ET by Sebastian Cenizo Industry News / 11 Comments

But not for the reason you might think.

Cadillac may be better known for its luxury offerings than those that offer high performance, but the American automaker is serious about going fast. We've seen the CT4-V Blackwing sedan embarrass a Nissan GT-R at the track, so it's not like its cars are slow. Along with the CT5-V Blackwing, which is the most powerful Caddy ever, it's clear that although there are only two serious performance models in the Cadillac stable, the carmaker means for its cars to be used properly. To that end, the marque keeps an eye on how many of its V-series cars are used at the track and where, but fear not, this isn't some sort of Big Brother program that will later be used to void your warranty.

According to Cadillac's chief engineer, Brandon Vivian, this is reported on every month: "We keep tabs on that once a month in my staff meeting. We have a report of who's been using their cars at which track days. So we watch you very closely. People don't maybe realize that's what we're doing, but we do get reports out of some of our clubs around the country, our V-Club, what track events they were at, and who was there. And we also have a network of passionate enthusiasts that will give us input on how many ATS-Vs or CTS-Vs were at a particular track event." Okay, but why?

Simply put, Cadillac wants to see if its high-performance cars are being used as intended or if they're a waste of money and engineering time. So although Cadillac may be a luxury brand, it is definitely taking the pursuit of speed seriously and wants to satisfy its fans. That's also why the CT4-V and CT5-V are both offered with a manual gearbox. We'll get to experience these cars soon enough, and we hope that they're all they're promised to be, but with Cadillac clearly spending a lot of time watching what goes on at various road courses around the country, we have little doubt that they will impress.