Cadillac’s CT6 wants to beat its German rivals with lightness and clever tech

GM was on a roll at the New York International Auto Show last week, debuting not one but three new cars. In addition to new Chevrolet Malibus and Sparks, the company also unveiled the Cadillac CT6, a range-topping sedan packed with interesting innovations. After seeing it up close, we think the CT6 may well be the company’s most convincing home-grown rival to the mighty German super-sedans like Audi’s A8, BMW’s 7-Series, and Mercedes-Benz’s S-Class.

Luxury sedans are important cars even if their often-weighty price tags mean few of us will ever own them. Car makers use these four-wheel flagships to introduce new technology to the marketplace, and buyers become automotive early adopters. Airbags, anti-lock brakes, and other safety features like electronic stability control that we now take for granted first showed up in things like Mercedes-Benz S-Classes before they trickled down to the masses (actually, the first two arguably showed up several years earlier on American cars, but that’s another story). The CT6 hews to this trend, mating clever lightweight construction techniques with new engines and a few other tricks.

The CT’s monocoque chassis is a mix of aluminum (both extruded and cast) as well as steel, cutting weight by more than 200 lbs (90 kg) compared to a conventional steel chassis. This design required new ways of bonding the chassis together in order to avoid the possibility of galvanic corrosion. GM has some experience in this area, having developed (along with engineering firm Pratt and Miller) a technique of doing just that for the Corvette racing car several years ago. Although this isn’t exactly the same method, CT6 chief engineer Travis Hester told us that it is yet another example of technology transfer from a racing program that’s improving road cars.

The CT6 also features a brand new 3 L twin-turbo V6, which puts out 400 hp and 400 lb/ft. The new twin-turbo V6 also features cylinder deactivation (cutting cylinders 2 and 5) and start-stop technology to boost fuel efficiency both on the highway and in town. In addition to the new engine, there’s a 2.0 L turbo and a 3.6 L normally aspirated V6 on offer, all of which send their power to all four wheels through GM’s new eight-speed automatic transmission (also available on trucks and Corvettes near you, although Cadillac have tuned it for their use). A plug-in hybrid is expected soon, most likely to be announced at the upcoming Shanghai auto show later this month.

Other cool features of the CT6 include rear-wheel steering where the rear wheels can turn up to 3.5˚ in either direction. This system boosts low-speed maneuverability (in effect shortening the wheelbase) and high-speed stability (by lengthening it). The idea, which Honda has been a big proponent of in the past, disappeared from showrooms until Porsche equipped its new 911 GT3 with rear-wheel steering last year (you can see the rear-wheel steering in action in one of our video reports from the auto show).

Further, electronic gadgets abound in the CT6. Cameras give the car a 360˚ view of the world around it and include a new night vision system. In motion, the cameras alert the driver for possible hazards in blind spots and so on, and they’ll also record video if someone tries to break in and activates the security system.

The CT6’s styling carries on Cadillac’s 'Art and Science' design philosophy. It’s a large, imposing car, and it photographs better in dark colors despite being more handsome in white to in-person onlookers. The interior (which Cadillac says has class-leading space in the rear) is pleasant enough on first glance, although we’ll reserve any real judgements until getting some proper seat time with a CT6 on the road. The car goes into production at the end of this year with no word on pricing yet, although we expect it to undercut its German rivals (so, between $60,000 and $90,000). When it does finally hit the streets, we’ll be curious to see if Detroit has what it takes to compete in this end of the market.