Even if you're getting old, the Cadillac CTS-V will make you feel young

Cadillac is General Motors' luxury brand, has been for over 100 years - and is undergoing a major reinvention.

Sales and marketing operations were moved to New York City in 2014, in order to make Caddy seem hip and fresh and of the global luxury conversation.

But Cadillac has been in the throes of transformation for more than a decade. For much of its history, it sat at the peak of GM's famous brand ladder: you entered your automotive life with a Chevy and closed it with a Caddy.

Back then, during the US auto industry's golden age and even into its crisis years in the 1970s and '80s, Cadillac produced big, comfortable cars that were designed to surround passengers in swaths of soft leather and ample ashtrays.

Taking one hard turn into a corner simply wasn't something that entered any Cadillac owner's mind, as he or she piloted the barge down a freeway with Sinatra flowing from the FM radio.

The invasion of German sports sedans disrupted this settled arrangement. "Luxury" now had to include "performance." And to up the ante, BMW in particular began to advance its "ultimate driving machine" pitch with street-legal competition-derived cars from its M Sport division. This was German performance - plus!

Even after Cadillac revolutionized its styling to be more aggressive, it had to tackle the impression that the Germans were simply better at going fast.

This led to a synthesis of Cadillac and Corvette. Posh met performance, and "performance" was a very big V8 engine with enough horsepower to make you think you're not just driving - you're being propelled forward at alarming velocity by a thick column of fire. The V-Series was born.

Caddy has been refining this formula for about a decade now, and Johan de Nysschen, the brand's boss, recently stressed to Business Insider how important the V-cars are to the future of the the brand. "[They're] very stunning and are exciting people around the brand," he said. "They draw people into showrooms who would never consider Cadillac."

So, a Caddy with the heart of a Corvette? Sounds pretty tasty, and maybe just a little bit rude. So we sampled the very core of the V lineup: the 2016 CTS-V sedan.