The Cadillac XLR. Let's get one thing straight from the off: This car doesn't come in British Racing Green, or any deep green colour variation. This does not please me. It does, however, come in a rather fetching deep crimson red colour the manufacturers call "Crimson Pearl". So I'll let them off this one time.
The name 'Cadillac' will, for many people, conjure up images of 1960's bright pink hotrods, cruising down the US highways, probably in California or some such sunny beach state, being driven by guys in black leather who have used far too much hairstyling gel.
At least, that's what came to my mind when I saw the name.
In actual fact, cruising round the streets of a cold, sunny Stockholm afternoon, the Cadillac XLR looks vaguely futuristic in design. I find myself particularly attracted to the headlight design for some reason. Angular, and moulded into the upper front corners of the bonnet, this car just looks like it means business. It has a retractable hardtop, so I'm told, but in Project Gotham Racing 2 the top is always up. No fair!
The car drives pretty much as it looks. It has respectable acceleration, smooth response on the steering, and has a wonderfully thrummy engine note, kinda like a purring lion. Nice.
But, despite this praise, I am forced to nickname the Cadillac XLR the "Nearly Car". Why? One simple answer: Cornering. But not just as simple as not being able to corner well, it's something much more frustrating. At high speed, the Cadillac corners well, holding the road and smoothly powering through slight bends. Give it a slow corner, though, and we play a little dice game with the car.
Braking is fairly good, the car holds the road through the bend, and then you power away down the straight. Or do you? Half the time you'll get away fine, but push just a little too far or too fast and the car starts to oversteer very slightly, almost unnoticably, until you actually get back on to the straight, and the car continues to veer off sideways, requiring some correction, and it becomes all to easy to snake down the straight, losing vital seconds.
The problem is that it's not an obvious case of oversteer, where you could correct it straight away. Rather, it can be so subtle that you don't realise it's happening until you were sure you were travelling in a straight line again. And the problem with oversteer that subtle is that sometimes you start trying to correct it even when it doesn't happen, which usually ends up with you weaving across the road like a loony whle the other drivers point and stare at you.
Having said that, though, the Cadillac is a nice car to drive, and the oversteer problem isn't enough to put me off for good. It looks nice, it drives nice (most of the time) and it sounds nice. Give it a go and see for yourself.
