Autoblog

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The new issue of Motor Trend arrived in the mail and our eyes were instantly attracted to this story that just went live on motortrend.com. The MT crew has learned that the supercharged V8 slated for use in the next-gen Cadillac CTS-V will be none other than a "detuned" version of the 7.0L LS7 powerplant debuting in the Corvette Blue Devil, or rather, Corvette Z07. The MT editors expect the version used in the CTS-V to produce about 600 horsepower, or around 100 horses short of what the Z07 will produce.

Pick any possible competitor for the next CTS-V and it's obvious that all will come up short to Caddy's new mega muscle sedan. The BMW M3 and Audi RS4 both produce only 420 horsepower, while the horsepower happy AMG team stuffed only 503 in the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG. Even the BMW M5, which is larger than the CTS, will come up short with an upcoming horsepower bump into the low-500 horsepower range. In short, the CTS-V will offer the same amount of horsepower as the 2008 Dodge Viper, which is pure insanity. GM's got stones, folks, and Cadillac is clearly the prime beneficiary of its newfound fortitude.

Much thanks to Motor Trend editor-in-chief Angus Mackenzie for allowing Autoblog to republish the rendering above. The July issue (you can subscribe here) is thicker than a Thesaurus and our fave in a string of recent good issues from the MT team.

[Source: Motor Trend - pic used with permission, do not reproduce]

Motor Trend has gone and named the 2007 Mercedes-Benz GL450 its SUV of the Year. We apologize if you were waiting with baited breath for the December issue of MT to arrive because you like to find these things out for yourself, but if that's the case then we can't help you. The GL450 beat out 22 other SUVs including such contenders as the new Acura RDX and MDX, four variants of General Motors' GMT900 platform (Escalade, Tahoe, Suburban and Yukon Denali XL), the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator, as well as Ford's own version of the Hail Mary Pass, the new Edge. The GL450 was no doubt aided by its ability to repel side impact barriers, set slalom cones on fire, and swallow an entire home's worth of furniture (how do the Germans engineer this stuff?), all of which you can check out the GL450 doing in this "controversial" commercial.

Forget for a minute who won Motor Trend's SUV of the Year award and let's examine the 22 contenders (follow the jump for a complete list). MT editor Angus Mackenzie admits himself that only three out of the 22, the Mercedes-Benz GL, Jeep Wrangler and Toyota FJ Cruiser, have any real off-road capability. In fact, the vast majority are really crossovers, or CUVs, built on unibody frames like a car and meant for fair weather excursions where the road is always on an even keel. It's appropriate that the MT editors picked an actual SUV as this year's winner, as next year we might be reporting on Motor Trend's CUV of the Year.

[Source: MT and Mercedes-Benz]