Celebration of Cadillac’s Dewar Trophy 9/21/2008 at Brooklands

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The Classicrallies.com blog notes that

Cadillac fans and owners will congregate on 21 September at the Brooklands Museum in Surrey to celebrate the legendary American brand’s first Dewar Trophy win, which took place at the site a hundred years ago. Over forty UK-based vintage Cadillacs from the brand’s 106-year history will be on display and will be joined by the latest generation of cars on sale in the UK.

That would be Surrey, England at the Brooklands Museum.

Cadillac won the Dewar trophy after an amazing — especially for the time — feat. Back in 1908, three Model K Cadillacs were taken completely apart, and the parts mixed together. Then 3 cars were assembled from the random parts, all resulting in complete cars. In fact, the parts were interchangeable, which meant that Cadillacs were being manufactured to a VERY high standard. This is the origin of the Cadillac slogan “Standard of the World”.

Courtesy wheels.blogs.nytimes.com

Courtesy wheels.blogs.nytimes.com

The Dewar Trophy was a cup donated in the early twentieth century by Sir Thomas R. Dewar, to be awarded each year by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) of England “to the motor car which should successfully complete the most meritorious performance or test furthering the interests and advancement of the [automobile] industry”. (wikipedia).

In 1908, Cadillac certainly merited this praise.  In my opinion the new supercharged V8 engine in the CTS-V at 556 hp furthers the interest and advancement of the automobile; it certainly piques my interest.

Cars.com Expert CTS-V Review notes

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blogs.cars.com notes Joe Weisenfelder at Cars.com got to take a 2009 CTS-V out on the course at New York’s private Monticello Motor Club and wrote about it here.

CTS-V grill

CTS-V grill

A few notable notes:

  • The CTS-V supercharger sound level is very subdued
  • Reasonable mpg during the test drive
  • Because the hardware can handle the torque, Cadillac uses no artificial torque management like low-gear throttle dialback
  • Overall, you really feel like you’re driving the CTS-V, and that’s not necessarily true of some extremely capable performance cars

The CTS-V continues a pattern of positive reviews.  Cadillac has not formally announced pricing, but the whispered starting price of just under $60K seems to fit well within most people’s model for bang for the buck. 

The press is still in the honeymoon phase with the new CTS-V, so we’ll see how it fares once the head-to-head comparisons are ready.   I have little doubt in the new Cadillac’s abilities, but little faith that it will always be judged on a fair playing field.

Why are Everyone’s B-pillars black?

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This shot shows a stock CTS.  The B-pillar is the part between the front door and the back door.  Looking through parking lots, on almost every car and most trucks, this is black.  Doesn’t matter brand, color, they are almost all black.  I think the reason for this is to give the impression that the B-pillar is not there at all.

The second shot shows the CTS with a body-colored B-pillar, in this case Platinum.  The point I am trying to make is that I think this may actually look better, and more honest / true to the sedan design.  What do you think?