In the run-up to this month’s official unveiling of the Cadillac CT6, General Motors has now detailed what’s going to help make their newest luxury sedan so light on its feet.
“The structure of the CT6 is one of the most-advanced body systems we’ve ever produced,” CT6 Executive Chief Engineer Travis Hester said in the news release. “The innovation surrounding our joining techniques have enabled us to create a vehicle structure with the highest torsional rigidity of any Cadillac while achieving one of the most mass-efficient vehicles in the segment.”
Cadillac says the CT6 uses 13 different materials, and almost two-thirds of the structure is aluminum, to give an almost 200-pound weight savings over a steel structure of this size. So-called “steel close-out panels” on the underbody are supposed to lend a “bank-vault quiet cabin,” according to the company. That sounds like a German move right there.
Despite all of the reinforcements and measures to make the CT6 feel solid and keep it quiet, it’s expected to be significantly lighter than any luxury car its size. Engines are tipped to primarily consist of V6s, but a turbo four and twin-turbo V8 are also expected at some point.
Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen boldly calls this, “the rocket science of automobile construction and manufacturing today.”
OK, Johan. We’ll see how rocket science-y the rest of the CT6 is when it’s fully revealed on March 31 in New York.
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