’16 Cadillac ATS-V: What You See Is What You Get

CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS, TX – Think of it as a wolf in wolf’s clothing, because the '16 Cadillac ATS-V is as frighteningly fast and shifty as its rakishly debonair exterior suggests.

A twin-turbo 3.6L V-6 sends the ATS-V from 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in a gut-dropping 3.8 seconds and a top speed of 189 mph (304 km/h). Thanks to a chassis dripping with technology and gummy summer tires, it takes the corners of this race course like it’s running down a deer.

And howling up and down the polished ranch-to-market roads around Austin, the ATS-V is quite frankly a one-way ticket to a Texas chain gang.

In fact, the ATS-V is so thoroughly monstrous we’re half-tempted to tell leadership at the General Motors luxury division to stop here. But the even-more-ridiculously fast CTS-V comes in a few months, so they’ll have to keep working. Besides, if the ATS-V serves as just a modicum of evidence of what Cadillac plans to cook up on the performance front going forward, keep the Vs coming, folks.

Our first taste of the ATS-V comes on an afternoon run from Austin’s trendy South Congress neighborhood out to sleepy Driftwood, a one-stop-sign town where an all-world smoky burnout in an ATS-V sedan draws the ire of some local porch sitters. Or perhaps it is our maniacal laughter they find so objectionable, but either way the ATS-V proves under a heavy foot it quickly could wear out its welcome.

Sweeping through the switchbacks of RM 1826, the ATS-V steering, a ZF/Bosch-sourced setup exclusive to V line, feels perfectly heavy and responds lickety-split to the slightest input. Telepathic steering, as much as anything, made the BMW brand. It now resides at Cadillac.

Tip into the throttle and the twin turbos of the ATS-V charge up without delay, delivering a deliciously torquey boost of power to the rear wheels.

The Mitsubishi-made turbos are as lag-free as there is, helped by a short running length to the combustion chamber. There’s no lurch to redline, either, just a continuously smooth delivery of seemingly endless torque.

’16 Cadillac ATS-V exhibits civil road manners.

But the afternoon sprint leaves one overriding impression: The ATS-V is a sublime daily driver. Its leather, 16-way adjustable Recaro seats are snug to the hips and shoulders without the suffocating bear hug of some performance cars. There’s some cushion for your bottom, too. Our tester includes a ribbon of suede to keep us pasted to the seats. Bolster adjustments show on the CUE infotainment touchscreen, a small detail but another indication Cadillac wants to match its German rivals at every turn.

Ergonomics are exceptional. The gearshift sits at a proper angle; the armrest simply feels like it is where it belongs; the pedals are well spaced; sight lines are excellent; and the Bose audio system is flawless. The airtight cabin’s styling is best described as high-tech luxury, featuring the same Performance Data Recorder from the new Chevy Corvette for filming hot laps and epic drives to share on social media.

If Jordan Belfort were still storming Wall Street, he’d be behind the wheel of an ATS-V.

Taming COTA

The ATS-V, however, was designed and engineered for the track and a few high-speed loops around this brand-spanking-new, 3.4-mile (5.5 km) Formula 1 course confirms as much.

With the car’s five selectable driving modes set to Track and the traction control switched off, the ATS-V roars out of pit row with its exhaust flaps fully open and immediately decimates the 133-ft. (40.5 m) hill of turn one.

Then it’s a sharp, downhill-left into a little sweeper before no fewer than seven high-speed esses. The ATS-V gobbles up each one, its electronic limited-slip differential letting us chop off big pieces of the red-and-white rumble strip without losing traction so our exits are clean and at maximum power.

The esses also reveal just how tightly GM engineers buttoned up the car. The chassis feels rock-solid, a full 25% stiffer than the base car, the automaker says, with new braces for the shock towers, rear cradle, engine bay and a big aluminum shear panel under the front of the chassis. GM says it will handle 1.25 lateral gs. We can attest.

’16 Cadillac ATS-V track-inspired monster.

And if the specially made Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires weren’t sticky enough on their own, GM engineers added a taller rear spoiler off the base car that creates 500 lbs. (227 kg) of additional downforce compared with the previous-generation CTS-V, a car that is 550 lbs. (250 kg) heavier than the 3,700-lb. (1,678 kg) ATS-V.

Add to that a near-perfect 50/50 weight distribution, as well as GM’s latest-generation Magnetic Ride Control, which now reads the road surface an uncanny 1,000 times per second and adjusts the suspension accordingly, and the car’s handling feels boundless.

A brief shift to fourth gear precedes turn 11, where the 6-piston calipers of the ATS-V’s high-performance Brembo brakes bite hard into the rotors so we scrape off speed as late as possible into the apex before rousing every ounce of the car’s 464 hp back to life for the 0.75-mile (1.2 km) back straightway.

If the straightaway reveals anything about the ATS-V beyond its bat-out-of-hell acceleration, it is this: The 8-speed automatic transmission, a high-torque variant of GM’s newest gearbox, is vastly superior to the 6-speed manual.

It isn’t that the manual lacks tight throws or the clutch is sub-optimized, it’s just that the automatic can rip more cleanly and quickly through the gears than the stick, even with a feature that allows drivers to keep the pedal mashed while rowing.

But the performance capabilities of the ATS-V shouldn’t be surprising given its overtly suggestive styling. The bulging hood extractor, part of nearly 25 cooling elements on the car, looks like bared fangs, and the 18-in., 10-spoke forged aluminum wheels almost certainly resemble claws.

And each character line implies swiftness, such as the elongated taper of the headlamp housing into the beltline. At the same time, the lines are as crisp as the folds of a Louis Vuitton dinner jacket. The styling suggests the ATS-V was put here to do very bad things, and will do those things exceptionally well.

That’s a coup d’état by Cadillac against the reigning state of performance luxury. In the past, V-Series models could outmuscle the BMW M-Series and Mercedes-Benz AMG lines, and the last CTS-V Coupe looked like it was driven straight out of GM advanced design. The fastest Cadillacs also were aided by being several thousand dollars cheaper than the German rocket ships. But with the ATS-V, what you see is what you get. And what you get is an American-bred compact performance luxury car finally on par with the best Germany offers. 

[email protected]