Does The Cadillac V Actually Stand For Anything?

There are plenty of internet theories about why Cadillac chose “V” for its performance division. Just as people insist on believing the Jeep’s seven-slot grille represents seven continents or is the result of Ford trademarking the Army Jeep’s nine-slot grille (Ford didn’t trademark that grille — I looked through over five years of copyright/trademark/patent paperwork to prove it). People on forums claim Cadillac’s “V” officially stands for “Velocity.” Others claim it refers to the shape of the engine, like a V8 and V6, which is a problem because the CT4-V non-Blackwing has an inline-4 and the Lyriq-V has electric motors. Go to Wikipedia, and you’ll read that the “V” was chosen because it resembles the old shapes under the crowned wreath logos on post-WWII Cadillacs.

Here’s the real reason Cadillac settled on “V.” In an interview with LSX magazine, Bob Lutz, former chairman of GM North America and all-around automotive legend, explained the letter choice. The interviewer asked, “Finally and not to put to fine a point on it, but what does the ‘V’ stand for?” Lutz responded: “They hired people for this and did research and such. We, of course, wanted to stay away from M, A, G, R or S and felt that ‘V’ was a unique and elegant letter. There’s definitely a credible claim to say that it stands for velocity, with the later models being described as visceral.” In other words, “V” was chosen because it looked nice, and obviously Cadillac couldn’t use a letter already claimed by other manufacturers. But if people want to say it stands for something, more power to them.

Really, the “V” could stand for “vendetta” (hey, that would be a catchy movie title). In the late ’90s and early 2000s, Cadillac had a reputation of making cars for people so old they remembered the woolly mammoth. The reality wasn’t so dramatic, of course, as in 2002, an Escalade spokesperson said the average Cadillac purchaser was 62. Still, the brand knew it had to course correct or it would go the way of the dodo. Since at least the early ’80s, Cadillac wanted to appeal to younger demographics and stop hemorrhaging sales to BMW and Mercedes. After failing with the Pininfarina-designed Allante, Cadillac hit gold with the Escalade in 1999. While average Caddy buyers were 62 in 2002, Escalade buyers were 50.

So, in 2004, Cadillac began its vendetta against BMW’s M-series in earnest with the CTS-V. “Top Gear” host Jeremy Clarkson said its styling was “done by someone who only had a ruler.” And while that’s fair, who cared when under the hood was the 400-hp LS6 V8 from the Corvette Z06 routing through a mandatory Tremec six-speed manual? I daily a red ’05 CTS-V, and I can tell you that it’s impossible to care about design choices when the gas pedal is firmly planted to the floor. Cadillac tuned the handling on the legendarily challenging Nürburgring in Germany and made sure it would stop thanks to four-wheel Brembo disc brakes.

Cadillac followed up the CTS-V with the less successful Cadillac STS-V, which battled the Mercedes-AMG cars, and the XLR-V, which existed for some reason. Cadillac XLR-Vs command new sports car money these days, though, so time’s been kind to them.

Over its tenure, the CTS-V was the main V-series mantle carrier, using naturally aspirated LS6 and LS2 power during ’04-’07. In 2009, it was equipped with a 556-hp supercharged LSA V8 (based on the C6 Corvette ZR1’s LS9), which was replaced by a 640-hp LT4 in 2016. Unfortunately, along the way, it seems GM misplaced its manual transmissions, as the CTS-V was automatic only from 2016 until its discontinuation in 2019. 

The V-series logo spread through the brand’s lineup, including the “middle-tier” Vsport. Still, though that 2014 Cadillac CTS Vsport wasn’t a full V, it rocked a 420-hp twin-turbo V6. Then came the ATS-V, which also used a twin-turbo V6 but upped the grunt to 464 hp. The CT6-V arrived in 2019 with a new double-overhead cam twin-turbo V8 that looked like the second coming of the Northstar (or the proper first arrival, since Cadillac didn’t exactly perfect the Northstar out of the gate), but it only lasted two years. Then there’s the Escalade-V, which uses a 682-hp supercharged V8 that can propel the cruise ship-sized vehicle with the haste of a cruise missile. The most exciting modern Cadillac V-series, however, have got to be the CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing. Powered by a 472-hp twin-turbo V6 and a 682-hp supercharged V8, respectively, both are offered with either a 10-speed automatic or, the correct choice, a six-speed manual. 

In 2023, Cadillac Vice President Rory Harvey claimed that CT4-V and CT5-V Blackwing buyers are, on average, 54 and 56 years old, respectively. Non-performance Cadillac buyers are 10 years older. For the past 21 years, Cadillac has chipped away at the perception that its brand is for people who were around during the Civil War, and we can squarely thank the V-series for that.