[JEM]

The thread on that board is annoying the hell outta me. What the "F" is with the "Spec-V" crap?! It's not a damn Nissan F'ing Sentra! I signed up - WAITED A DAMN DAY to get my account activation email - activated and NOW I have to wait to be approved by somebody before I can post. What a damn hassle! How do they have ANY members?! I wanna get in there and let it be known that it's not a Spec-V for Christ's sake..

With all due respect, my response would be that when the car is on the road, and can legitimately claim to be quicker than either of the two aforementioned Nissans, then perhaps one can afford to be somewhat anal about what it's called.

The CAR article used the term 'V-spec'. I believe the official GM PR nomenclature right now is 'V-series', which isn't a whole long way off from 'V-spec', particularly for a car that isn't in public hands yet.

For my part, GM could call it a Cimarron, and if it's fast enough and doesn't fall apart or have hard plastic all over the door panels, I'd be fine with that.

Wasn't aware that Gustav was moderating board signups over there now. That must be new, must have too many Honda-types trying to poop on the boards.

 

[Katshot]

The speculation is OVER guys!!!
Next gen. M5 to have 500HP V10
That shoots the CTSv in the ass. Sorry Cadillac.

 

[Brett]

The speculation is OVER guys!!!
Next gen. M5 to have 500HP V10
That shoots the CTSv in the ass. Sorry Cadillac.

Im surprised at you KAT, thats old news. Thats why Cadillac is planning on upping the CTSV to 500 in the future as well.

 

[Katshot]

If it's "old news", then why hasn't anyone mentioned it in this thread already? And Why is it "news" in the June 2 Auto Week?

 

[Brett]

Not sure why it hasnt been mentioned, but heres a link that mentions the v10. Its from 06/02.

http://www.pistonheads.com/roadtests/index.asp?storyId=4712


Heres a little more reputable site, this link is from 11/02

http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/whatsnew/articles/43735/page004.html

I wanna say I've been hearing about the v10 for over a year now, though im not positive when the story originally "broke"

 

[Katshot]

Those articles "hint" at "rumors". The info I quoted from was more substantial I think.
And you mentioned that Cadillac already stated they were planning to up the HP to 500 also but I never heard anything about that. Where was that? I remember hearing some speculation about what the final HP figure would be on the CTSv but I don't remember anyone saying anything about that Cadillac was going to up the 400hp to 500hp to match BMW.

 

[Brett]

"I've put my name down for the next generation M5, with rack and pinion steering. More importantly, the new M5 will boast an even more powerful and headier sounding V10."

You call that hinting at a rumor? Notice the use of the word "will", when they talk about the next M5. And regardless of how good my source is compared to yours, mine was right, and a year earlier as well. I'm sorry Kat, I cant link you to every article, but the V10 M5 has been known for a long time, and mentioned in several articles. If you get C&D check back a month or two at the E55/M5/RS6 comparo, they mention it there also.

"And you mentioned that Cadillac already stated they were planning to up the HP to 500 also but I never heard anything about that"

You did post on this thread right?

http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1320

TCC is hardly a solid news source, but you just said you never heard anything about that, yet you posted a reply to that thread.

Maybe, as usual, i'm taking you reply the wrong way, but the v10 is old news, you can go on Bimmer boards and check the archives, people have been talking about it for a long time.

The CTSV 500hp is definitely rumor:banana:

 

[ljklaiber]

All this car vs car stuff, gets LOL at times. Cars are tools for the driver. Many times, the race is won by the driver,,,NOT the car. With motorcycles , it is even more apparent that the man is more than the machine. When you get ..really hard into the wind..It's you Bro!

 

[Brett]

yeah, your right there. Kat and I just need to argue every couple months, even though we usually AGREE with each other on the merits of the particular question at hand.

I have no doubt that any manual car would be made considerably slower by me driving it. And this topic was talking not about dragging but about going around a very LONG racetrack, the variables are countless. Either way I think its great that we can even be talking about the M5 and a cadillac in the same discussion. This was not the case a year ago, or make that, this was not the case EVER.

 

[ljklaiber]

Good point my friend. Long ago I rode the 'ring'. It is awesome. I raced a Ducati Diana 250 cc MC in Berlin at the 'AVUS' a high bank killer of a double dragstrip. Nurburgring is all about the man...less about machine. AVUS is all about 'balls'..lol

Course this was back in 1964..lol....Guess I just got old man memories.

Enjoy your posts...carry on !

 

[Katshot]

Sorry Brett
Was THAT a BRAIN- FART of epic proportions or what? That even made WES look smart

 

[Brett]

Confused the hell out of me...I was beginning to think you werent the only person who used your screen name.

 

[Ralph]

Off topic, but I would not be suprised if the new Mustang Cobra will be 500 hp to compete with the 500 hp Ram V10 or the new Lightning 500. I don't worry too much about the fancy foreign cars, I just know they probably cost more to fix in the long run than any Caddy.

 

[JEM]

Cars of similar complexity will cost similar amounts of money to fix. In my experience BMW's parts pricing generally isn't any higher than GM's for comparable stuff (though don't even THINK about pricing an M5's S62 engine, complete...) and parts for some Fords are ridiculous ($1000 Taurus C-pillar window, anyone?) if you can even get them (they're starting to obsolete stuff 5-7 years out of production.)

The LS6 in the CTS-V isn't too costly (LS6 crate motors are, what, $7500?) and the T56 transmission is becoming a commodity but those Brembo calipers certainly aren't cheap.

 

[Ralph]

Cars of similar complexity will cost similar amounts of money to fix. In my experience BMW's parts pricing generally isn't any higher than GM's for comparable stuff (though don't even THINK about pricing an M5's S62 engine, complete...) and parts for some Fords are ridiculous ($1000 Taurus C-pillar window, anyone?) if you can even get them (they're starting to obsolete stuff 5-7 years out of production.)

The LS6 in the CTS-V isn't too costly (LS6 crate motors are, what, $7500?) and the T56 transmission is becoming a commodity but those Brembo calipers certainly aren't cheap.

Wow, thats a bit much allright! I felt fortunate that for our 1980 Pontiac we can still get parts (GM is very good at producing parts long after production) except for a new Rad, which off the production line would cost 800 dollars new. (I was told at the dealership.) So we went to a rad shop, problem solved. The cost of labour (sorry thats spelled "labor" for you south of the border) at a car dealership here is presently 65.00 per hour. With prices like that we may as well all drive Ferraris!

 

[Katshot]

Import car parts (and the cars themselves) should be on the climb these days considering the soft dollar in the rest of the world. Anything not made here, will be costing more.

 

[JEM]

Case study - 1991 Ford Taurus, Atlanta-build. All the plastic moldings are Canadian, all the upholstery and all the Ford-branded electronics are from Mexico (the German-branded ABS electronics are made in the US.)

Now for the rest. The window track assemblies are French (the Chicago-build cars used different window tracks which I believe were US-sourced), the steering intermediate shaft comes from Luxembourg, the window motors and their drivetrains are Japanese. The wheels came from Italy. The brake calipers are Brazilian. And this goes on and on.

The moral to this story is that you can't assume your 'American' car is all that 'American'. We know the CTS is similar in its sourcing (the two biggest chunks, engine and transmission, are Euro-sourced right now, the 3.6 will be built in North America - and Australia, though maybe not for CTS use) while the CTS-V powertrain is North American but I'd expect stuff like the brakes are Euro hardware and wouldn't be surprised if the diff were Australian.

I'd love to see a shop labor rate of CDN$65 around here, in the SF Bay Area dealer shops start at about US$85 and go up from there. The local BMW dealer gets US$99 and they're nowhere near the most expensive.

I was driving around in a BMW service loaner yesterday, in fact. A nice base-model 325i. The 325i's sold in the US are assembled in South Africa now. Looked, smelled, felt, and drove just like a German 325i.