Ann Arbor- Push the starter button to the right of the Cadillac STS-V's steering wheel, and the supercharged V-8 leaps to life while the driver-information LED display briefly illuminates the greeting, "Ready for STS-V?" After spending a week with the most powerful Cadillac ever produced, we'd like to throw that question back at Cadillac, and at GM: Are you ready for STS-V? Is Cadillac, which has been scratching and clawing its way back to respectability, really prepared to go head-to-head with AMG-tuned Mercedes-Benzes and M-badged BMWs? Or is the STS-V, like the CTS-V, a noble, competent, and entertaining effort that ultimately is compromised by unattended details?
If it is, it's certainly not for a lack of V-series enthusiasm among GM engineers, who giddily describe the modifications they've made to the base STS to arrive at the STS-V. The most important of these changes, of course, is the new, supercharged, 4.4-liter version of the Northstar V-8, which produces 469 hp and 439 lb-ft of torque, increases of 149 hp and 124 lb-ft over the normally aspirated 4.6-liter V-8.
Development of Cadillac's first supercharged production engine extended beyond simply nestling the Roots-type blower between the V-8's 90-degree cylinder banks.... Read full article