Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Cadillac  I have an account there.. What would you like me to post up? |
From the GM Blog:
This is Kevin from Cadillac writing to provide clarification on the questions regarding the harness bar and racing seats in the 2009 CTS-V that set the new stock production sedan lap record on the Nordschleife.
This 2009 CTS-V that John Heinricy drove to set the record was an absolutely stock, right down to the
production-spec Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tires, 2009 CTS-V with a few minor changes to add safety that wouldn't in any way positively impact the result. As Chris already posted, the item that people see in the car and refer to as a "roll bar" or "role cage" isn't either. This is simply a harness bar that mounts to the floor and B-pillars to enable the use of a six-point racing harness for added safety. This harness bar is intentionally installed in the car so that it DOES NOT increase the torsional rigidity of the chassis or in any way change the way the chassis will function so their testing and development work will be of value for the production car.
The racing seats are installed for added safety as well and don't positively impact the performance of this production-spec CTS-V because the lighter weight of the racing seats is a little more than offset by the added weight of the steel harness bar.
In all, this production CTS-V weighs a few pounds MORE than the production car because of the weight of the harness bar and the few bits of test equipment onboard.