2016 Cadillac CTS-V vs Mercedes-Benz SL600 Drag Race Is a Brutal-Ending Struggle

The answer comes from an event that took place last month in Sweden and saw the two duking its out on an empty airfield.

The Caddy came in factory stock form and since the LT4 heart of the Corvette Z06 was slightly detuned for this model, we're dealing with 640 ponies.

However, the Benz has been gifted with a few tech goodies, with the aim being to help the grand tourer keep up with newer speed-friendly machines.

After all, when you drive an SL600, it's a shame to let your V12-animated vehicle fall prey to the generation (performance) gap. So we won't point our finger at the driver of this Mercedes for taking his SL600 down the tuning route.

As for the aftermarket bits found in the car, we're dealing with a custom exhaust, one that involves a decatted setup and the obvious ECU remap. According to the guy behind the wheel of the SL, these tuning moves now allow the 6.0-liter V12 to deliver 550 horses.

However, you should keep in mind that we're talking about the power at the rear wheels. Using the 15 percent drivetrain loss estimate, this means the unit produces around 630 hp at the crank.

As for how the decatted exhaust transforms the aural side of the twin-turbo V12, the SL600 happens to be used as the camera car in the clip, so we'll let you be the judge of that.

And yes, this is the same 2016 CTS-V that engaged in a brawl with a Porsche 911 GT3 RS and a questionably-stock F10 BMW M5. Because why not.