Page 21 - Victory Driven: Cadillac V-Series sample pages

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As was true for Germany’s race-bred, ultra-high performance
marques, Level 6-certification has become a prerequisite for those
taking-up engineering and development duties on the V-Series.
The logic being, if you are going to develop and engineer ultra-
high performance cars, then you need to have an intimate and
operational understanding from the race driver’s seat. Roma and
his team would combine this knowledge, with their passion and
enthusiasm, applying it all to the ATS-V. The end result being two
Fine Books © Dalton Watson Fi finely tuned, track-capable machines with uncompromising power
and precision.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER: ENEMY FORCES
The extensive development and engineering input netted the ATS-V sedan
The primary reason for developing three Alpha variants was to more
and coupe a reputation for track-specification handling.
directly target and engage Cadillac’s adversaries in their separate
segments. The V2s were brilliant cars, but they always straddled
the line between small- and mid-size, especially in sedan guise.
Although the V2s’ natural antagonists were the larger E63 AMG and
Throughout his illustrious career it has definitely not been all work
M5, benchmarking and comparisons to the smaller M3 and C63
and no play. In his spare time, Roma sharpens his driving skills
were prevalent. With the Alpha platform, Cadillac was able to focus
in SCCA competition and has achieved a “Level 6” certification
its concepts and efforts more precisely, fine-tuning each V-car for
from GM. What does that mean? In a nutshell, it means that his lap
the fight against its intended rivals.
times around a certified track are only tenths-off a professional’s.
Roma also holds Nürburgring-certification, a self-explanatory and
Once again, the CTS-V3 was built to combat the E63/M5. For the
© Dalton Watson Fine Books © Dalton Watson Fine Books highly esteemed accolade. His abilities are shared by ATS-V Ride
new ATS-V sedan and coupe, the archrivals were their opposite
and Handling Engineer Nate Sumner, who also races SCCA and
numbers from BMW, the (F80) M3 sedan and (F82) M4 coupe, the
wears GM’s Level 6 badge.
Mercedes (W/C205) C63 AMG and Audi’s RS5.
Cadillac was like a fight
promoter when it came
to the ATS-Vs. Each was
specifically developed and
trained to take on BMW’s
title holders, the F80 M3
sedan and F82 M4 coupe.
© Dalton Watson Fine Books © Dalton Watson Fine Books VaUNTED // ThE V3 CTS-V SEDaN aND aTS-V SEDaN aND COUPE (2016-2019)
alton Watson Fine Books © Dalton Watson ine Books ©