Just off the truck - 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe at Sawicki Rochelle

Just off the truck - 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe at Sawicki Rochelle.

Although most Cadillac vehicles still have a way to go to satisfy as drivers’ machines, the second-generation CTS has appeared on our past three 10Best lists. In awarding its 2010 trophy, we called it “maybe the best American car ever made.” High praise, and its combination of unapologetically brash styling, modern luxury, and strong performance credentials—especially in high-po V spec—backs it up. For 2011, the new CTS coupe joins the sedan and wagon, adding more style and a higher concentration of performance to the CTS’s winning formula.

The CTS coupe is one of those cars that love the camera, and it’s no less stunning in the flesh. Walking around the car, one notices several aspects of the design easily missed in photographs, such as the parallel “light catcher” lines helping to break up the tall body sides, the tastefully glitzy twin center-mounted tailpipes, the remarkably seamless-looking joint between the body-side stamping and the roof, and the center spine that travels all the way back over the car’s huge rump. The windshield is two degrees “faster” up front than the sedan’s, and the razor-sharp taillamps and the CHMSL spoiler also have aerodynamic-enhancing properties. The only unfortunate bits are credit-card-sized spacer panels above the recessed, solenoid-actuated door releases; they mar an otherwise perfect waistline. In any case, there is visual drama from every angle, and it works.

Sawicki Motors

Just off the truck - 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe at Sawicki Rochelle