Houston-Nov 19 - Cadillac DTS In Depth - RC45 style....

[RC45]

I have been toying with the idea of an online-car e-zine/road-test-zine for a while now. So I figured I would try my hand at the whole "Road Test" thing. The gist is that I will invite folks to have their cars tested - and they also get to test their own cars - thereby posting "real world, owner driver" performance results - not traditional magazine tester crap

My latest toy is a GPS Data Logger - I am refining the format and such. Today we did a location and equipment shakedown.

For the shakedown, I decided to try something totally different - a Yank Land yacht. Let me tell you, there is nothing quite as exilirating as throwing a bad handling, floating, wallowing, FWD V8 through a narrow forrest road...

Anyway, here is the first edition of
Zero to 60, Road tests for the rest of us


Datalogging GPS Setup


Detailed Analysis of Slalom





Detail Poses



On Road Video Freeze Frames




The "Article and comments" to follow....in this space

[sentra_dude]

Hahahah, awesome car dude.

Looks good, can't wait to read the write-up!

[bmagni]

damn !! i wanna test some cars !
nice idea !

talking bout the article, i love the new cadillac design, IMO the best american cars out there, performance wise (except the XLR) and in design.

[Pehtren]

nice "invention"
the car looks ok on some of the pics, but tooo bad that they are shoot with the phone

and what all those analysis mean 8)

thanks for road test

[TT]

Interesting idea dude, basically that's what we started to do on asphalte.ch too . Sometimes indeed it's better to read "real" ppl's impressions, which can be less biased that journo's ones

[RC45]

Originally Posted by pehtren nice "invention" the car looks ok on some of the pics, but tooo bad that they are shoot with the phone

Not sure what you mean by "shoot" with the phone.. - oh you mean picture phone pictures? Not really - those are just "freeze frames" from the video footage of the car driving..

Originally Posted by pehtren and what all those analysis mean 8) thanks for road test

Basically means that the best lateral G I could get the Caddie to do was about 0.6G -any more and it wanted to slingshot me into the ditch.

So - the real-world slalom for that overweight under-powered lump of pig-iron is about 30mph... pulling 0.6G

Originally Posted by TT Interesting idea dude, basically that's what we started to do on asphalte.ch too . Sometimes indeed it's better to read "real" ppl's impressions, which can be less biased that journo's ones

Yeah - it's been done a 1,000 ways and a 1,000 times before hehehe -- but I have been waiting to get some reasonably decent data logging equipment to measure the performance that "real world" folks get to achieve with their car.

[dingo]

So is the data logger programmed to tell you the Corvette is perfect?

Seriously though its a good idea, and should be some interesting stuff to come out of it - hopefully some Ferraris and Lambos.

[komotar]

thereby posting "real world, owner driver" performance results - not traditional magazine tester crap

Sometimes indeed it's better to read "real" ppl's impressions, which can be less biased that journo's ones

khm, khm :x


Nice, RC! Can't wait for the write-up 8)

[Wutputt]

Sounds very interesting to hear some real world, everyday people reviews of cars
Btw, why is the speed so heavily oscillating in the first slalom graph. A glitch in the GPS datalogger? Or was there a little kangaroo constantly jumping on the brake pedal?

[5vz-fe]

How come the speed vs distance data of the salom test looks abit funny? 100 too 500 ft the data looks normal...but......after that the data seems not right like Wutputt said.

[RC45]

Originally Posted by 5vz-fe How come the speed vs distance data of the salom test looks abit funny? 100 too 500 ft the data looks normal...but......after that the data seems not right like Wutputt said.

Slalom - 420 ft long, cones spaced 70 ft apart.

You drive forward through the cones pass through the last cone - then you come to a stop, do a 3 point turn and drive back to chat with the videographer... Just like the plotted track shows.

Now knowing this info - take a look at the graph again.

The smaller oscillations along the line could be that it was set at 20hz instead 60hz sampling rate - that's the purpose of these shakedowns.

Originally Posted by komotar thereby posting "real world, owner driver" performance results - not traditional magazine tester crap Sometimes indeed it's better to read "real" ppl's impressions, which can be less biased that journo's ones khm, khm :x Nice, RC! Can't wait for the write-up 8)

Awe.. we didn't mean you komotar... - you are still fresh in the game withoutan agenda (and it seems you boss/magazine publisher has not yet influenced your reports ) - we are refering to the jaded journos who come out with the predictable generic reports and test results people argue about

As for my right up - I know if I wanted to read Shakespeare I would buy Shakespeare - but car tests writeups eem like final year English Major papers... prose be damned... if a car sucks, I want to read it sucks.

And this Caddie sucks... it is just a luxury version of any other large heave, badly handling, under powered, badly braking FWD car.

It's slow as a pig, can't turn, can't stop and wallows through high speed sweepers.

In short - compared to a modern sports car it is an unsafe death trap - and I don't know why the hell anyone would spend the money for a new one.

But I hate to give away the ending...

[Wutputt]

^^^
What I mean is that if you look at the graph from 500 ft till about 700 ft. the speed doesn't increase uniformly, but it does it in a 'shattered' way. For instance from 600 till 620 ft it goes like 24.5 - 21 - 25 mph. I guess this is just the inaccuracy every GPS device has?


edit: ah you edited your post while I was posting mine. Idd a higher sampling rate could fix those up and downs.

[5vz-fe]

Originally Posted by RC45 Originally Posted by 5vz-fe How come the speed vs distance data of the salom test looks abit funny? 100 too 500 ft the data looks normal...but......after that the data seems not right like Wutputt said. Slalom - 420 ft long, cones spaced 70 ft apart. You drive forward through the cones pass through the last cone - then you come to a stop, do a 3 point turn and drive back to chat with the videographer... Just like the plotted track shows. Now knowing this info - take a look at the graph again. The smaller oscillations along the line could be that it was set at 20hz instead 60hz sampling rate - that's the purpose of these shakedowns.

OK, it's all good now that I know it's 420 ft long and 70ft spaced =) Data looks consistant.

[RC45]

Originally Posted by 5vz-fe Data looks consistant.

It better be - I paid enough for the unit ..

[noliebro]

I dont understand why they would put FWD on a car that size with a V8, come on GM, back the good looks up with a decent drivetrain.