The Corvette may be the quintessential American sports car, but it’s not the only one to challenge established European brands.
Over the past few years, GM’s Cadillac division has also churned out some pretty interesting proposals targeting Germany’s finest, namely the products made by Audi Quattro GmbH, BMW M and Mercedes-Benz AMG.
The CTS-V in all three body styles is one them. A 6.2-liter V8 engine aided by an Eaton supercharger helps the CTS-V produce 556-horses and 551 lb-ft (746.2 Nm) of torque, matching or even beating its German opponents.
Did you ever wonder how much of that power actually reaches the rear wheels? Edmund’s Insidline did so it strapped a 2012 CTS-V Wagon to MD Automotive’s Dynojet dyno to find out.
According to the results, the CTS-V reaches a maximum output of 492HP at the 6,200-rpm rev-limiter. The people at Edmund’s reckon that this figure could have been better if only Cadillac let the engine rev a bit higher.
The V8 also pushes out 440 lb-ft (595.9 Nm) of torque available at just 2,350 rpm and peaks at 502 lb-ft (679.8 Nm) a little under 4,000 rpm.
Note that both the maximum output and peak torque were measured at the wheels.
A European performance estate would make for a nice comparison but since one wasn’t available, Insideline decided to use the data from the Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG, which is powered by the same engine as the E63 AMG Estate.
On paper, the Merc has a similar output despite its V8 having a smaller displacement of 5.5 liters. The twin turbochargers certainly even out the playing field especially when the AMG Development package is fitted: with 550HP and 590 lb-ft (799Nm) of torque it ain’t no slouch.
We won’t spoil the fun by revealing the outcome of the comparison. You can watch the video and see the dyno graph that follow after the jump.
It’s good to keep in mind that the two cars’ price tags are separated by a gap almost as wide as the Atlantic…
PHOTO GALLERY
VIDEO