MORE of The Aftermath / CTS-V Challenge

NYTimes- Wheels Blog/Oct.30, 2009::::

Cadillac V-Series Challenge: The Cup Runneth Over

The V-Series Challenge may have ended Thursday afternoon, but the discussion seems to have only begun. And what started off as an off-the-cuff remark by General Motors’ vice chairman, Robert A. Lutz, and became a casual competition has evolved into viral monster — the publicity gift that keeps on giving, as it were — providing fodder for countless forum threads, video sites and blog posts.

Much of the debate has been about who won the competition. The timesheet shows that John Heinricy, G.M.’s test driver, recorded the fastest lap time at 2 minutes and 46 seconds. But Web sites, such as Edmunds Inside Line, point out that Michael Cooper, a competitor in a BMW M3, actually won the competition because, he beat Mr. Lutz with the best time posted by the civilian (non-G.M., nonprofessional)

drivers.

On the G.M. Fastlane blog, Mr. Lutz, who at age 77 is considerably older than his challengers, wrote, “There were no winners or losers today — the point was to have fun with great cars because that’s what they’re all about, and to show that G.M. vehicles can compete with the best in the world, in every class.”

David Caldwell, a spokesman for Cadillac, had the same message, emphasizing the fun quotient. “This is not proper motorsports,” he said in an interview. “There were no trophies. This would be analogous to a magazine comparison test.”

One thing is for certain, G.M. squeezed quite a bit of mileage out of its CTS-V promotional stunt. The event was also good for Jalopnik, which played up its involvement in a series of posts, and even for The Times. A regular freelance contributor to the Automobiles section, Lawrence Ulrich, posted a very respectable (and Lutz-beating) time of 2 minutes 53 seconds in a CTS-V.

But the V-Series Challenge was especially good for Mr. Cooper of Long Island, whose Lutz-shattering performance has made him an overnight hero in cyberspace.

And if you haven’t gotten enough of the V-Series Challenge, Mr. Caldwell said Speed TV was at the event and would broadcast its coverage on Dec. 5.

The Truth About Cars / By Jack Baruth-October 30, 2009

.......----I am grateful to Cadillac for helping me out, in the spirit of  racing, when I needed a hand. I’m grateful to Monticello for letting a poverty-stricken club racer enjoy their zillion-dollar facility. And I left the event with plenty of respect for the CTS-V. Don’t get me wrong: I’d still rather have an MKS Ecoboost as a daily driver. But if you don’t think the CTS is capable of running against the fastest sedans in the world on an equal footing, you’re crazy. Whether that means anything in this economy, in this environment, in this era… that’s up to someone else to decide. I came, I saw, I conquered nearly everybody. Good enough for me.

INSIDELINE / Published Oct 30, 2009 ::::

MONTICELLO, New York — As part of GM's new "May the Best Car Win" marketing campaign, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz recently challenged any journalist or private citizen to a duel with the Cadillac CTS-V and its competition. In a posting on the GM FastLane blog on Thursday following that race here, Lutz declared, "There were no winners or losers today." Manufacturers including Audi , BMW, Jaguar and

Mitsubishi apparently went home with their self-esteem intact following the GM-sponsored event.

GM News:
The Bob Lutz/Cadillac V-Series Challenge
October 29, 2009
What started as a typically unscripted remark from Bob Lutz during a phone conference with journalists turned into something quite unusual -- Cadillac and Bob bringing some fun back into the car business.
The Lutz/V-Series Challenge was a simple premise -- Bob challenged some motoring journalists, and a private car owners, to a time-trial duel. "Run what you brung," was the format, a competition among the world's best high-performance sedans, including the remarkable Cadillac CTS-V.   It happened Oct. 29 at the new Monticello Motor Club in New York, with 3 top auto journalists, 5 private car owners, a few sports car legends and some incredible machines, in front of a crowd of VIP spectators, camera crews and countless enthusiasts following on the web.
Sources:  NYTimes-Wheels Blog     TheTruthAboutCars     Insideline       News