My take on the Cadillac CTS-V challenge

I’m sorry: I mistook what Cadillac was trying to do here in what became known as the “#JalopnikVsGM Challenge.”

Apparently, it was “May the Best Car Win.” I was under the impression that Bob Lutz, as an amateur, would be racing against other amateurs to find the best time among the amateurs.

By that metric, Michael Cooper, driving a BMW M3, won.

But, since the best overall time was set by a CTS-V — by General Motors test driver and Nürburgring Nordschleife lapper John Heinricy — the CTS-V “won.” Oh, and the top three times were set by ringers. Right.

If it’s only to find out which car is fastest, the challenge is simple:

• An independent party assembles the challengers
• You get three professional drivers from different disciplines
• Each driver does ten laps in each car, over two days
• The lap times are averaged

Until that happens — and I’d be more than happy to (try and) set a test like that up — I’d say kudos to Cadillac for even suggesting a challenge. It’s clearly gotten them a lot of attention on Twitter, and surely they’ll use the results in their next marketing push.

While I feel that the CTS-V is certainly the fastest — or at least in the top two — of its vehicle class, the challenge and subsequent assertions that a lap time by a professional driver “won” sour my opinion of the car. Cadillac clearly has the machine — why not offer it to an independent third-party (IE, not a magazine or website that accepts ads) — and see if it’s fastest?

As for “fair” challenges (OK, so somehow the Honda NSX still wins every supercar challenge), I’m still a big fan of what Best Motoring does. Based on that video, a BMW M5 is at least as fast as a Lamborghini…right?