Column: GM builds new generation of V-6 engines
The Detroit News 04/01/03
John McCormick

The car that is helping to put Cadillac back on the map is receiving some help of its own. Later this summer, the CTS sedan will be the first General Motors Corp. product to feature one of a new family of V-6 engines. The move is doubly significant. It gives the CTS a useful boost in power and refinement but it also heralds a promising new era for GM powertrains. The new CTS engine is a big deal, says Jim Taylor, vehicle line executive for GM's prestige cars. Its arrival almost amounts to a new launch for the car. Starting in June, a 3.6 litre V-6 replaces the existing 3.2 litre V-6 in the CTS and will, GM believes, compete head to head with the best engines in its class, including Acura's 3.2 litre V-6 and the Toyota 3.0 litre V-6. With 255 bhp at 6200 rpm and 252 lb. ft. of torque, the new GM double overhead cam engine is 35 bhp more powerful than the motor it replaces and gives the CTS a claimed 0-60mph time of 6.7 seconds, versus 7.3 seconds in the current model. According to GM, the CTS fuel economy ratings of 18mpg in the city and 26mpg on the highway are unchanged. Initially the new engine will be offered in the CTS with a five-speed automatic transmission only. The five-speed manual gearbox currently available will continue as an option, but only with the old engine. By 2005, however, a new six-speed manual transmission will be available with the 3.6-litre V-6. As well as the CTS, the new V-6 will be used in Cadillac's new mid-sized sport utility, the SRX, which competes with the BMW X5 and Acura MDX SUVs among others. The engine will also appear in the Buick Rendezvous. The importance of this engine goes beyond just the 3.6 litre version, however, as it is part of a new family of high feature V-6s from GM that will be used in vehicles in other major markets, not just North America. This global engine will come in displacements ranging from 2.8 to 3.6 litres and be both naturally aspirated and turbocharged. Applications will include front-, rear- and all-wheel-drive, as well as hybrid vehicles. One key to the new engine family's success, maintains GM, is that it will be competitive with the best in the V-6 class, yet be built at a lower cost. All of GM's global V-6 engines will use aluminum construction, dual overhead camshafts, four-valve-per-cylinder valvetrain, continuously variable cam phasing and electronic throttle control. GM says the output of the most powerful variant of the new engine family will exceed 370bhp, with torque in excess of 350lb ft. Two engine plants, one in Canada and one in Australia, will produce the new V-6s for all global applications. Meanwhile, the CTS has performed well for Cadillac, even without the new engine. Sales in 2002 were close to 38,000 and the average age of buyers is 53, well below Cadillac's overall median buyer age of 60. Another encouraging sign is that 44 percent of CTS sales are conquests from other brands. Although the CTS suffered a recall for a steering problem last week, Cadillac points to a J.D. Power survey that reflects well on the car's early quality. Only Lexus can match us, says Jim Federico, chief engineer for GM prestige vehicles. For the 2004 model year Cadillac is polishing up aspects of the CTS other than the engine, with new 17-inch wheels, improvements to the instrument cluster and new exterior colors. The general public will see more of the CTS in May when the car plays a leading role in a dramatic car chase, featured in the
highly anticipated movie sequel to the Matrix.

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I know that the Commodore is getting the engine.

 

370 hp and 350lb ft V6! COOL!

 

I think the first cars to recieve this turbo HFV6 will be some high end sporty Alfa romeos or maybe Saabs, with local GM products to follow.

 

370 hp and 350lb ft V6! WOW now all they have to do is put it in an affordable car

 

That V6 engine sounds good...but I hope they are still going to put the LS6 400 hp V8 in the CTS..and the LS6 doesnt need a turbo to get its power Come on GM...dont let us V8 people down!!

 

The new OHV V6s are all headed to FWD cars or trucks, so I'm guessing most of the OHCs are headed to RWD & AWD vehicles.


As a side note, they were filming the matrix sequel back in 2000 when I was working up in San Fran, over at the old Alameda Navy base, and they had a couple of CTS prototypes they were using in the movie. The actual car's been out for well over a year, but the movie hasn't gotten to theatres yet.

 

This information was printed in Automotive Engineering International a couple months ago. I took the article and showed it to RP when we met in Richmond, because i was VERY high on the concept of a turbo'd version of this global engine (to paraphrase, he said that hypothetically speaking, the unnamed-probable-future-version-of-the-car-we-all-know-and-love would go in a different direction). If i tell you what he really said, he'd probably track me down...

I think something like this would be VERY successful if put in the right car and at the right price. Get it in a really lightweight car, and make it handle and you have something that could shame 350Z/BMW/etc. Heat, cost, and lag issues aside, I've always been a big fan of Turbo 6's and the crazy amounts of boost you can run if properly built. Look at this V6 and the ls6, and you see GM builds real engines, while ford only DREAMS of building real engines (no offense to local ford fans or the Ford GT.)
Unfortunately, for broke pieces of **** like myself, by the time GM puts this in a desirable car i can afford, I'll either be on social security or in the insane asylum

 

I remember the first decent spy shots of the CTS were from the film locations. It's hard to believe it took longer for the film to come out than to finish up the final phases of production for the car.

 

Put it in a sporty two door Buick coupe, but not the Bengal.

 

Put the motor in the "WS6" version of the SOlstice... Can you tell I like the car a little?

 

We're talking about the V6 Turbo motor that Lutz ditched for the LS6 V8 in the CTSv. Now that its original home is gone, the propects are more limited. The RWD Opel Omega is effectively gone, and the CTS was originally supposed to replace that car. That leave us with the Opel Vectra, the next generation Saab
9-5 and future Alfa Romeos. Saab is a loser brand, and Alfa Romeo has been dying in terms of European market share for a decade. (Alfa was actually healthier in terms of sales when it was bankrupt and owned by the Italian government.)

It wouldn't surprise me if this engine made it into any -or all- three of the possible European alternatives. It also wouldn't surprise me if it was shelved permanently. In the current automotive environment, GM's OHV V8s are cheaper and more powerful performance powerplants. It's a great pity that GM isn't working on a mid-engined car that would be a perfect home for a blown DOHC V6. Forget the Fiero, how about a Pontiac "NSX?"

 

More on the version going into the Buick Rendezvous Ultra...

http://www.autoweek.com/cat_content...._code=03193536

 

The real question to be asking is.. Which V8 will go the way of the dodo? Technological leaps bounds are awesome, but with stuff like this, eventually there will be no room / no need for a V8, except maybe in trucks. That's a scary proposition.

 

GMs N/a pushrod V8s make the same or more power than power added 6 cyl for much less money and in most cases a smaller package. Thats why you havnt seen many turbo V6 Gm products in a RWD aplacation.