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Last time around, the Cadillac CTS-V won the match-up but with the all-new BMW M5, this Road & Track comparison review is won by BMW. Here is an excerpt of the review:
We wrangled up the first manual-transmission BMW M5 in the U.S. and took it to Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, Nevada, where the CTS-V—now in its fourth year—stoically waited to get its clock cleaned. Turnabout is fair play, and the boys at Cadillac know it; it’s put up or shut up with these two. As icing on the cake, we did some back-road driving and then performed acceleration testing on the 7-speed MDCT-equipped M5 for good measure. On track, it’s all about the 6-speed manuals and an apples-to-apples comparison brawl that left these two blacker and bluer than when they arrived.
2013 BMW M5
After the initial hot laps in the M5, we were unimpressed. It feels ponderous in tight corners and the chassis only provides a modicum of communication, but surprise, the very first lap time in the M5 demolished the CTS-V’s. Feeling fast is truly not the same as being fast. The best example of exactly how isolated the driver is from the road are the brakes. Massive calipers clamp on floating rotors when decelerating from 110 mph down the back straight, the ABS is fully invoked and there is nothing felt. No pulsations in the brake pedal, no yaw resistance in the superbly thick steering wheel, and only a hint at the tires’ grip limit coming through the seat of the pants. To drive the M5 fast requires trust in the electronics and being sensitive to the gentlest of feedback in the steering wheel and chassis. Where the CTS-V does little to hide its performance-car roots, the M5 buries them under a mound of opulent isolation. We didn’t know it was possible to do that!
Outside of the track, the M5 was heavenly. Its 560-bhp twin-turbo V-8 packs a walloping 500 lb.-ft. of torque that starts at an amazingly low 1500 rpm. It dices traffic better than a Ginsu at work on a boiled carrot. The numbers don’t show it, but the CTS-V simply can’t compete with that broad torque curve.
Source: Road & Track
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