Video: 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe

This car packs more power than you can use on the street, the edgy design you're familiar with from the sedan, and also a luxurious cabin. The one thing holding it back though is it's automatic transmission. The main thing that separates the CTS-V coupe stylistically upfront from the base coupe is its grill. While the base coupe has a egg crate design, this one has more of a mesh look for the upper and lower grill, and I think it looks pretty good on this car. I like the overall look of the CTS coupe, the edginess really helps set it apart in this luxury coupe segment. But one thing that I don't really like is the rear end. It's just really tall. It results in this nearly horizontal rear window, that limits rear visibility to the point that the backup camera and rear parking sensors are really essential to have a good view of what's behind you when you're backing this car up. The heart of the CTS-V is it's supercharged 6.2 liter V8 engine that makes 556 horsepower and 551 pounds feet of torque. Now, even though it's supercharged, you don't really hear the supercharger. It's a four-lobe design that's designed to be quieter, and it's pretty quiet in everyday driving. The engine teams with a standard six speed manual transmission. But the model we have has a six speed automatic, and while it is a smooth shifting automatic, it seems to be robbing the engine of its power. This car feels quick in everyday driving, but not necessarily 556 horsepower quick. Now, if you are willing to stand on the gas and have a space to do so, this car can accelerate from zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds, according to Cadillac, so it's pretty quick. Not only does a CTS-V have impressive performance, it also has a really impressive interior. It's similar to the one you've seen in the regular CTS sedan, but there are some specific cues in this model, like these saffron seat inserts and stitching, but overall it's a really a world class cabin, that's competitive with the other models in the segment. This model's equipped with optional seats. They're Recaro high-performance seats that cost $3,400 on top of the base price. And even though they may be good for track driving, they're really stiff and firm, they're not the greatest for everyday driving. The backrest feels really hard and didn't really have a great contour to my back, so you may want to take a look at the base seats, if you're looking at this car too. The coupe has a pretty decently sized trunk. It's big enough to fit a couple of smaller sized golf bags. There are though these long arms though, when you shut the trunk, they intrude quite a bit on cargo space. Overall, I think the CTS form is going to appeal to a lot of high performance luxury coupe buyers, because it gives you big time horsepower, really nice interior, and also a lot of style. (upbeat music) <v Male Narrator>For more car related news, go to Cars.com or our blog Kicking tires.net.