Cadillac ATS and Tesla Model S – the are our two most anticipated launches of 2012. Early last month the ATS was launched at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, just ahead of the North American International Auto Show. With the ATS, the freshly-redesigned F30 3-Series will get some of its stiffest competition ever. With the CTS and particularly CTS-V, Cadillac has proven it can compete in the performance arena.
The CTS-V is consistently ranked right up there with the best German sports sedans. We’ll take a CTS-V Coupe Black Diamond Edition, please. The ATS will follow in these footsteps; next for the car is a V-Series variant. Hopefully a coupe isn’t far after, but that is a whole other story.
To give us an idea of what the ATS-V will look like when it arrives, Edmunds Inside Line commissioned a rendering. We think the final version is going to come out looking a bit more aggressive than this, but still this is a good preview of the ATS in a more aggressive form.
Little about the car is known yet, as Cadillac wants the focus to be on the standard car, but the rumor mill is churning. The car will likely get a V-8 engine dropped in, as the capability is there given Alpha is scalable and designed for V-8 duty.
The GM solution for performance is dropping in a LS V-8 and who are we to argue with that? The ATS-V would be bucking a tend with this though; the competition is moving from V-8s to twin-turbocharged six-cylinders.
Power will likely come in at around 470 horsepower, which would make for some jaw-dropping performance figures given the ATS’ low curb weight. ATS-V versus M3 is going to be an interesting fight to watch. First round of the battle begins when the standard ATS goes on sale this summer.
