June 1, 2023
#466
Gentle reader,
Way back in 2014, after a prolonged search and test driving many different types of cars, I finally found THE ONE! I wrote about it here:
The Robb Collections: Bought the ultimate SLEEPER car: Volvo V50 T5. Yes, a station wagon! Don't be fooled by the red Dodge wagon in the picture.
That car, a 2005 Volvo V50 T5 / M66 is fairly rare, especially with a manual transmission. Nine years later, I am still in love with it! In the various Volvo forums on Facebook to which I belong, new owners of Volvos, regardless of how old or new their car is, invariably, the owner states that they are "In love with this car!"
I have been a car guy all my life, I turn 67 this year. Mom, still alive and well at 90, tells me that I "could name any car I saw, year, make and model, by age three." Methinks she exaggerates. But, I did know from an early age what I wanted to do when I grew up: be a Car Mechanic. And I did, for nine years, starting at 16. A recession came along in 1981 and people were not bringing their cars in to the dealership to get them worked on. We had a kid and I was the sole breadwinner. We could not live off of Minimum Wage. So, I took a job working on Washington, D.C.'s Subway cars, for 35 years. I retired at age 60. My love of cars has never ceased. That first wife is gone, thank goodness! The kids are all in their 30's and 40's now and I have a much better wife and life now. Going on 28 years of bliss. She too is a car lover.
Since I had subscribed to a bunch of car magazines before the Internet was a thing, and after it became readily available. I still get digital Road & Track and Autoweek. I prefer REAL, physical, books and magazines. Thus, I was well aware of Cadillac wanting to change their image with the introduction of the original CTS and of the later production of the V performance models. I have lusted after the CTS-V Wagon with a manual transmission ever since! And here is one I found in the wild:
These are actual FILM photographs from when I took my youngest son, Daniel, to the ALMS races at VIR* in 2012. That is a bonafide Cadillac CTS-V, with a 6-speed manual transmission! And it is black in real life. The other stuff is in full color in real life. *Virginia International Raceway.
I mean, come on, a Cadillac Station Wagon, with a Supercharged Corvette engine and a six-speed MANUAL transmission! What WERE they thinking? Cadillac's trend of making world class performance cars continues to this day with the CT4 V and CT5 V models. Just no wagons anymore.
This year, I joined an international Prison Ministry, which is named KAIROS. As a result, I have to travel all the way down to almost very southern Virginia to minister to the prisoners in a maximum security prison there. I'm not bragging, it is the reason I wanted a newer car. My old Volvo, of course well cared for, is very rare. And I don't want anything negative to happen to it. Especially that far from home. It would break my heart.
Speaking of my V50, here it is, besides ANOTHER CTS-V wagon! This one, sadly, has an automatic transmission.
Cadillac is not a company to rest on it's laurels. At least, not anymore. They saw how well the automotive press and anxious buyers loved the CTS V series of cars. They REALLY wanted to build a car which could honestly compete with the BMW 3 Series. So, they turned the engineers loose and they created the Alpha Platform. These are official Cadillac images. And those engineers did succeed in their quest! The 2013 Cadillac ATS won Motorweek's "Best Driver's Choice" award, AND Car of The Year from the Automotive Press as well!
Enough background, already. So, we were looking at small-to-midsize sedans that are reliable and preferably Japanese. We found a pretty red Mazda Mazda6, yes, that's it's name, which has a 6-speed manual transmission. Just over 100,000 miles. But, the hole-in-the-wall dealership bothered us for some reason. So, we looked further.
Our daughter, aware of our search, and also a car lover, texted me, "There's a Cadillac with a 6-speed manual for sale in Colonial Beach!" We found it online, and sure enough there it was! A true UNICORN! We drove down to check it out.
They only wanted $7,995 for it! It is the Performance model with the 2.0 liter Turbo engine and seemingly every option! "Why so cheap?" you may be wondering. 1, It's a manual, 2, the dealer's way out in farm country, and 3, the CUE screen was warped and inoperative. They had it for a LONG time with zero interest and were anxious to find a buyer.We put $4,000 down on it and promised to buy it, IF they replaced the CUE assembly. Which they did! At NO cost to us. It still didn't work! Oh, the icons were there, but no amount of pressing, tapping or moving of fingers did anything. But that was OK, because by then, I had learned a LOT about those screens. Plus, Nancy had fallen hard for this car. BTW, that photo above is also an official Cadillac photograph.The RAREST of RARE, Morello Red interior with real carbon fiber accents.
These photos are of our car's interior. And there it is, super-rare 6-speed manual transmission shifter.
These are the first official photos of our ATS with the new DRAG DR-80 wheels mounted on it!These photos do not really show that the ATS, truly, is a compact car. The Mazda6 is actually classed as a mid-size car, as are the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. Which means all of them are larger than this car.The third brake light doubles as a trunk spoiler.
Do you ever wonder why they are called Spoilers? First, have you ever noticed that EVERY Crossover is shaped the exactly the same, no matter maker or the price? The very same reason that car makers use spoilers: Aerodynamics. The larger hole a vehicle has to punch through in the air, the more DRAG the air is going to put on the vehicle's body. If a vehicle has a low Coefficient of Drag, it will get better fuel mileage.
Spoilers are designed to break the airs grip at the rear of vehicles, thus "Spoiling it's hold on the vehicle." Notice how vertically flat the back of the car is? That too is to break the air's desire to hold on to the car. There IS an optional body colored spoiler that covers over the top of the third brake light, but, we are happy without it.
Now, let's talk about the color of this car. Looks grey, right? It's official name is "THUNDER GREY CHROMAFLAIR". First introduced as an extra-cost option on the CTS a few years earlier, it is the FIRST factory use of what is now called "chameleon paint" in the car manufacturing world. In some light, it looks blue, others grey or green. Pretty cool.I chose these wheels specifically because they resemble the optional "Staggered" 18 wheels which our car came with. 18 by 8 inches on the front, 18 by 9 inches on the rear.This is an actual 18" wheel. As I said, they "resemble" these. We could have gone for staggered 18" wheels/tires, but the sidewalls of these 17" tires are low enough already. Plus, the cost of larger wheels tires and not being able to rotate them ruled 18s out.See that brake caliper? Made by BREMBO for Cadillac. Four-piston "fixed" calipers which provide much more clamping force than the standard brakes. They are part of the Performance Package. As are GM's Magnetorheological damper struts and shock absorbers, which were once ONLY available on the most advanced Corvettes. It also has the limited-slip rear differential and independent rear suspension. Several more things make up the performance package. Just about every option one could want to create the ultimate ATS was ordered for this car in 2013.
Because I have some OCD tendencies, and am a car-nerd, I created these tables to compare our two "sleeper" performance cars. Despite their many differences, they are alike in several ways. While we have not done a drag race against each other, I know my V50 intimately, and it's turbo spools up quicker than the ATS' and it gives much quicker off-the-line acceleration than the ATS. Note the "Torque Ratio" specification. Torque provides acceleration, horsepower provides top speed. On a road course, the ATS would leave the V50 way behind. Yet, in total, they both succeed in providing a unique, comfortable and fun driving experience in their own way.
I have ordered a new CUE screen from CUESCREENS.com, it is on the way. Having that fully working will be nice, especially for Nancy, since the ATS is her daily driver, and in Virginia having one's phone in their hand is illegal. Thus, no one can reach her when she's on the road like we can when she drives her 2107 Ford Escape.
Next up, after the CUE screen swap will be a thorough detailing, including under the hood. We want that CHROMAFLAIR paint to shine!
Also, the black VOXX wheels will be available for sale once I get their tires off and get the rims cleaned up. The ATS will NOT be driven in the snow! It and the V50 are just to rare and unique to put them in that kind of potential danger of bad drivers running into them. Her Escape has served her well in that role.
In case you did not know this, Cadillac has been racing, quite successfully in IMSA's Weathertech Racing series here in the US, as well as worldwide in WEC (World Endurance Challenge) which includes the upcoming 100th Anniversary 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Cadillac's race cars are in THE top hybrid prototype class in both series. WEC calls them HYPERCAR and IMSA calls them GTP. Both are eligible to race at Le Mans.
THESE photos are from the Inaugural Cadillac Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. in 2002, of which I was fortunate to attend. This car was the first effort by Cadillac to build and race in Le Mans Prototype class endurance racing. They ran race-built NorthStar V8 engines, but never did very well against the formidable Audi prototypes.
The circuit was purpose built on one of the parking lots of the RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. (white ring). It was 40 feet wide all the way round and the drivers loved it. The event was well run and it was supposed to be a 10-year event. Sadly, the neighbors complained of the noise and the D.C. mayor caved to their complaints, cancelling the contract. I bought the program and an official I-was-there, golf-style collared shirt. I shot a lot of film that hot summer day. All these photos were found online back in the day.
Catch Can Install, 2.0T | Cadillac Owners Forum
8 Common Cadillac ATS Problems - The Driver Adviser
2013 Cadillac ATS Full-Line First Drive
Dissected: 2013 Cadillac ATS - Feature - Car and Driver
2013 Cadillac ATS 2.0 Turbo - Driving Report, Car Review
2013 Cadillac ATS 2.0L Turbo review notes
2013 Cadillac ATS Prices, Reviews, and Photos - MotorTrend
2013 – 2017 Cadillac CUE Touch Screen Repair Service – ISS Automotive Solutions
Cadillac Cue Upgraded Screen Replacement | Cuescreens | United States
GM 2.0 Liter Turbo I4 LTG Engine Info, Power, Specs, Wiki | GM Authority
2013 Cadillac ATS Info, Pictures, Power, Specs, Wiki | GM Authority
Thank you SO much for taking the time to read my humble blog. I have been writing and photographing for it for many years. I have several readers who have reached out to me and we are now at least Facebook friends, and in some cases, real friends. I do this for fun and entertainment for you. So, again, thank you.
Feel free to leave a comment below, or via Facebook.
Scott Robb
June 1, 2023
#466
