The Cadillac CTS-V is one of the most iconic cars on the collector performant car market right now. Launched in 2004 as a legitimate European-style performance sedan from Cadillac, it has gone on to see three generations and available in three different body styles at one point. It’s successor currently lives on, as the CT5-V Blacking.
The Germans took the car as little more than a one-off experimental oddity, that would be around for a few years, and never return. But Cadillac wasn’t playing — at all. Not only did they add two other V-series Cadillacs on their roster, the XLR-V and the STS-V, they brought the CTS-V back in bigger and better for 2009, and again for even more power for 2016.
For 2004-07, the horsepower levels were far more modest, per the standards of the day. With a rating of 400hp and 400-lb ft from a naturally-aspirated LS6 for 2004 and 2005, and a 6-liter LS2 for 2006 and 2007, it was able to hold its own against just about anything at the time.
While the latter cars were more fined, more elevated and available with an automatic transmission, the first-generation CTS-V was more raw, more analog, and more mechanical. In fact it was the first Cadillac offered with a manual transmission since 1948. It was so unorthodox, that it was only offered with a manual. It was not the car for senior citizens that were used to the Northstar, FWD, cushmobiles of the time. It was basically a Cadillac muscle car, with four doors, that cold also handle and brake with its counterparts from BMW M-series and the Mercedes-Benz AMG cars.
Jay Leno takes a closer look at a 2007 example, while also spotlighting his own 2012 CTS-V coupe in the same video, as a sort of side-by-side comparison. If this video had a third-generation V’ sitting next to the other two, it would have been perfect. But like the car itself, nothing ever is.
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of GMEFI Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isn’t tuning, testing, or competing with the brand’s current crop of project vehicles, he’s busy tinkering and planning the next modifications for his own cars.
