Chevy SS Production Ends

In some sad news, General Motors has just disbanded its High Performance Vehicle Operations, putting all high-performance projects on an indefinite hold. This means no more new “SS” Chevy’s, V8 Colorado’s and even V-series Cadillacs.

According to a report from Automotive News, there are absolutely no plans for high-performance versions of any of the company’s upcoming cars. The bright spot out of all this is it doesn’t stop current vehicles from getting high-performance variants — so all of you out there looking to buy a Cobalt SS or CTS-V are safe for the moment.
This is, of course, due to the world’s bad economy and GM’s viability plan to keep alive. But who wants to buy cars if they aren’t fun to drive? As a caddy commercial asked, When you turn on your car, does it return the favor?

Ford managed to be nice and save money by wishing GM a happy 100th birthday not by cake and card, but by spelling it out in lights on the side of their world headquarters in Dearborn, MI. Whether the act was that of penny-pinching or creativity, one thing’s for sure — it was a well done. We managed to get the memo sent around reminding Ford’s world headquarters staff to keep their blinds open below the jump.

    Subject: WHQ Illumination for GM’s 100th Anniversary

A few years back we celebrated our 100th year in business…and what a great 100 years it was. On Tuesday, September 16th General Motors will be celebrating its 100th year anniversary.

As a sign of goodwill and to offer our congratulations, WHQ will be illuminating the south side of the building Monday night commemorating their 100th Birthday.

This will be accomplished by strategically opening and closing specific blinds on the south side of the building. On Monday, September 15 please do not change the position or direction of your blinds to ensure that WHQ is brightly illuminated for the 100th Anniversary of General Motors. We ask your cooperation and thank you for helping us make Ford Motor Company shine.

Happy Birthday General Motors, congrats Ford.

Introducing the new Cadillac 2009 CTS-V, officially rated at 556 horsepower. It will hit 60 mph in 3.5 seconds and run the quarter mile in 12 seconds flat. For the record, the Edmunds’ Straightline Blog reports that the sport sedan’s 6.2L supercharged V8 will produce 556 hp at 6,100 rpm and 551 pound-feet of torque at 3,800 rpm. That kind of power is courtesy of the LSA engine, derived from the new Corvette ZR1’s LS9 motor and detuned for duty in the CTS-V. Fortunately, the LSA wasn’t detuned too much and the ‘09 CTS-V should be darn good competition for its German competition, specifically with BMW’s M5 relatively meager 500-hp 5.0L V10.

Official press release added after jump.

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Official Press Release

2009 CTS-V Performance Reaches The Stratosphere

Certified at 556 horsepower, acceleration times are top among V-8 sedans

MILFORD, Mich. – As final testing of the limited-edition 2009 CTS-V nears completion, the results suggest that Cadillac’s upcoming sports sedan is entering the stratosphere of the world’s highest-performing cars. Cadillac announces the following performance specifications for all-new 2009 CTS-V:

CTS-V, with its supercharged 6.2-liter LSA engine, has achieved SAE-certified peak output of 556 horsepower (415 kW) at 6100 rpm and 551 lb.-ft. (747 Nm) of torque at 3800 rpm.
CTS-V accelerates from 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds. CTS-V covers the quarter-mile in 12 seconds at 118 mph. These acceleration times are believed to be the fastest for any V-8-powered sedan currently in production.
More than just power, CTS-V also includes a comprehensive suite of technical and design enhancements, including Magnetic Ride Control and a new automatic transmission with paddle-shift control. Cadillac pioneered Magnetic Ride Control, the world’s fastest-acting suspension, in 2004. The new CTS-V employs a new version of this technology, enabling it to achieve a remarkably wide bandwidth of capability that ranges from extreme high-performance agility to the smooth road manners of a prestigious luxury sedan.

CTS-V also manages power via an extremely robust driveline. The car’s limited-slip differential is made of cast iron for extreme strength. Its limited-slip tuning enables excellent high-speed stability along with comfortable low-speed maneuverability. The prop shaft is heavy-duty and wheel hub bearings are stiffened and bolstered to manage the car’s remarkable energy. Axle half-shafts are asymmetrical, a design that ensures smooth performance.

“CTS-V represents the full extension of our design, technology and performance capabilities,” said Jim Taylor, Cadillac general manager. “The V-Series takes the award-winning CTS sport sedan and elevates it to a position within the club of the world’s most exclusive and capable cars.”

In testing May 8 at Germany’s famed Nürburgring track, the new 2009 CTS-V completed a lap of the legendary Nordschleife in 7:59.32. This blistering time appears to be the fastest ever publicly documented for a production sedan on factory-spec street tires.

One of the realistic objectives of the Cadillac team is to make the CTS-V the world’s fastest production sedan, as a part of the overall goal to make the V-Series Cadillac’s ultimate expression of performance and technology. A video of the car’s breakthrough Nürburgring performance is online in many locations, including Cadillac’s home on the Internet (Cadillac.com/09ctsv), and at the blog documenting Cadillac performance development (http://Cadillac.gmblogs.com).

Like a family crest, most Automotive emblems actually represent something important to their maker. Whether it be something historically important for the founder, ideals the brand strives towards, or a testament to someone’s ego, the symbol of each company has a history.

We stumbled across this encyclopedia of sorts that has cataloged the origins and meanings for almost every one of the worlds major automakers, and we must say, it’s pretty darn interesting. For instance Chevy’s logo has come about from…

…Popular legend has it that the Chevrolet logo was inspired by wallpaper in a French hotel where William C. Durant was staying (the legend says he saw the pattern marching off into infinity as a design on the wallpaper and tore a piece of it off to keep to show to friends and later turn into the company logo). However, his wife says that the bowtie emblem was first seen by her husband in a Virginia newspaper on a vacation around 1912, upon which he told her that the thought it’d be a very good emblem for the Chevrolet (per Chevrolet Pro Management Magazine, October 1986).

Or, Smart’s logo…..Apart from the Smart name (all lowercase), the Smart logo features a ‘C’ for ‘Compact’, and an arrow for ‘forward thinking’.

Cool Stuff, I Swear!

Take a look at the full list here.

With the supercharged LS9 V8 reportedly making around 567 HP, we know that the Cadillac CTS-V is one quick sedan. But we had no idea just how fast it would be until it recently set a lap time of 7:59.32 on the Nurburgring Nordschleife. That makes it the fastest production sedan to ever be officially recorded on the German race track. And just in case you thought GM was just pulling your leg, the Cadillac has released this video showing the world what’s a sub 8 minute Nurburgring lap looks like.

As the old saying goes, the king is dead, long live the king…Maybe meant with as much conviction as histocailly too…

In testing at Germany’s famous Nurburgring, Cadillac’s brand new 2009 CTS-V completed a lap of the legendary Nordschleife in 7:59.32. This blistering time appears to be the fastest ever publicly documented for a production sedan.

With an estimated 567 HP, tightened suspension, magnetic ride control, super-spiffy electro-mechanical rear end and a killer six speed in the Cadillac’s arsenal, John Heinricy, an executive with GM Performance Division piloted The CTS-V to it’s sub-eight-minute bragging rights. With pretty much everybody testing anything with wheels, duking it out for Nordschleife glory, we can’t help but wonder how the Germans feel about all this…

You can read all about the news on GM’s very own blog on the Cadillac CTS-V