Anobody watch the Cadillac CTS-V Challenge Sham on SPEEDTV? Bob Lutz, a vice-chairman at GM, sets a challenge that Cadillac will take on all comers at the Monticello Motor Club. The cars in the challenge include: Mitsu Evo X, Audi RS4, Jag XF, E92 M3, E60 M5, of course pro road racers John Heinricy and Johnny O' Connell are driving the CTS-V. It bacically pitted professional road racers John Heinricy and Johnny O'Connell and retired racer Brian Redman against Joe Shmoes and Journalists. We have all seen those videos of stock MINI Coopers S getting the wave-bye from Vettes and Porsches at the local track day, but know its all about seat time. Basically that is what this challenge was, intermediate drivers in the greatest cars against pro road racers in a great car. To me it was like taking Bill Auberlen, Dirk Müller in a M3, putting them against journalists and track day junkies in a Cadillac and add salt to injury getting a older retired bmw racer like Hans-Joachim Stuck to set faster laps than pen pushers and track junkies in the Cadillac. Not much of a Challenge.
It's all about perception. The unfortunate part is they made it so bleeping obvious they ended up making a fool of themselves. The CTS is a great car and it's markedly better than the current BMW 3-er as a drivers' saloon, I just wish they did a better job making this "challenge" at least look authentic.
Maybe Max Angelelli, Andy Pilgrim and Ron Fellows in a stock Caddy CTS-V vs. Bill Auberlen, Dirk Müller and Joey Hand in a stock E90 M3. Time Attack style, and as a bonus some AARP card carrying retirees Hans-Joachim Stuck vs. Brian Redman.
I think it's only a sham if one thought it would be objective to start... But it was never held up to be an race set up by an independant oversight group, and that's probably why BMW and Mercedes didn't step up. If they won, it would just say "Caddi is getting better but the Germans are still the king" just like everyone expected, and if they lost it would have been "The Germans suck" or "the deck was stacked cause it was a GM event". Either way the other car makers had nothing to gain from stepping up to enter. If one expected it to be good ol' Bob and his GM buddies slapping some journalists around and showing off some pretty competent cars, it was a good show for what it was. so I guess it depends on what you expected out of it. There was someother mag/Ford sposored stacked deck that was worse. The Licoln with the 3.5 Ecoboost up in the mountains against some NA v8s. The Lincoln didn't win, I think, but was really close to first, maybe it did. But the turbo at high altitude against the NA v8s was much more of a stacked deck. At least in that one they had the same driver doing it. If you saw the vids, it was justification to never let Jean Jennings in front of a video camera again. Matt
I followed the whole thing when it was gearing up over at jalopnik and a lot of people were crying foul in the commenting boxes over one thing or another. I found the idea of "put your car where you mouth is" appealing but I agree that the execution could have been better. Doc said it best though, the competition had nothing to gain from it.
Yeah Your Right I seen that one too, seemed a bit more honest, since the EcoBoost got 2nd, behind the BMW 550, the driver mentioned the Benz was fastest on the straights. Guess I was expecting more, due to the language in the Cadillac press releases. Comments like, "Bob Lutz challenges all to see if anything with four doors can outrun a Cadillac CTS-V", "Bob Lutz Officially Challenges Anyone to Race Against the CTS-V" and my favorite in response to Benz and Jag pulling out, "May the best car win"! It wins automatically if the competitors won't show up!"