Sure it may be Photoshop, but who cares…

What’s got 556 horsepower, goes 0-60 in around 4.2 seconds and has room for 4 adults and their luggage? Well the upcoming Cadillac CTS-V Wagon of course. I LOOOOOOVE this thing. I mean I really love it. Wagons are some of the most versatile road going machines out there. They’re big, comfortable and can carry all the junk that you and your family need for a weekend getaway to the Pocono’s. Combine that with the fact that you’ll be able to crush 99.9% of all other road going vehicles out there and you got yourself one hell of a grocery getter.

I play a little game during night drives. I try to identify the make, model, and year of cars by the shape of their taillights or headlights alone. I’m pretty good. See, I have an Asperger’s-like obsession with cars and I’m rarely stumped. So when most of the cars at an auto museum absolutely confound me, I know it’s good. And thus, the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, Ca., is good.

The Blackhawk Museum is tucked in the foothills of Mt. Diablo, technically in Danville, just south of the upscale community of Blackhawk. It was built in ‘88 and has 70,000-square-feet of gallery space. The place may be small, but it’s crammed with a stunning, bizarro collection of contraptions. On average, it houses about 90 cars, most on loan to the museum from private collectors.

And it’s quite a collection, spanning automotive history from the early teens right up through the Malaise. But enough talk, let’s take a look at some of these rides.

I want to preface this list by saying that there were many factors going into the reasons as to why each one of these cars made the cut. Some of you will agree with my choices and others will not. You see, when I do a list like this I don’t just go with who’s got the highest hp numbers, or which is the best car from 60-0. I try to be objective and look at things like, everyday usage, price, reliability, performance and roominess. I look at these cars from the vantage point of using them as an everyday driver, which means 24/7/365. Yes, some will be pricey and deservedly so and others will be more budget oriented. So, now that you know the parameters, lets get down to business.

You know its bad when you have to start attacking other car companies to make your own car’s mor appealing. It appears GM got their bashing  campaign idea from a Honda dealer in Dallas, Texas who was trying to steal a few Toyota customers away by displaing a sign that read, “Our gas pedals don’t stick.” While it is quite funny, it seems like they are getting kind of desperate.  General Motors just announced that they will be using a new incentive structure to lure Toyota car drivers towards GM vehicles. This incentive program will be in effect until the end of February. All of this comes after news that Toyota had to recall more than two million cars due to sticking gas pedals. Not only did Toyota have to recall two million cars,but several car rental companies(Avis, Enterprise, National) are pulling a larger percentage of their rental fleet. Just some more bad press for Toyota. Any current Toyota customer who wants to switch to a Buick, Cadillac Chevrolet, or GMC will be offered these three following deals.

             Lease Customers: Waiver of three payments up to $1,000

             Financing Customers: 0% financing for 60 months

             Cash Buyers: $1,000 Bonus

It is going to be interesting to see if this will knock Toyota back a little bit or will they will be able to recover from a loss of their customer base.

Good news for all the expectant fanboys at the local VFW: the 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe has finally made its first appearance. Scheduled to officially debut next week at the 2010 North American International Auto Show, the high performance (though slightly chunky) coupe promises to pose a serious threat to the high-output warhorses currently thundering out of Germany. While the Caddy of legends told might have enjoyed limited popularity outside of bingo halls and Def Jam, the CTS-V coupe is a beast unlike any other. Despite the fact that GM’s corporate philosophy as a whole may leave a lot to be desired, even we – the consummate, caustic professionals – here at RideLust can’t deny a superbly engineered vehicle when we see one.

When news of Tiger Woods’ accident first broke what seems like eons ago, every automotive blog desperate to cash in on what was destined to remain in Google Trends for weeks to come threw up a post about Tiger’s ill-fated Escalade. RideLust, of course, refrained.

Today, however, we’ve opted to take the road more heavily traveled thanks to a game forwarded to us by a certain staff member’s father. Introduced by Break.com, “Tiger Hunting” is a relatively simple game whose primary focus is successfully avoiding various obstacles while fleeing an enraged Elin Nordegren.

On the whole, RideLust’s (read: my) first foray into the glamorous world of open bars and company-sponsored parties was extremely successful, save for the excruciatingly boring reveals. Fortunately, since unlike most automotive journalists my trip was financed completely out of pocket, I’m not obligated to paint any particular company in a flattering light and thus able to provide an accurate, far more entertaining analysis. Well, entertaining for me at least, I’m sure the scores of dissenting douchenozzles commenters will have much to say otherwise.

Topping my list of favorite new reveals are some interesting selections that seem at odds with RideLust’s traditionally Macho Man Savage taste in automobiles and include the Honda P-Nut (Personal-Neo Urban Transport), Audi e-Tron, 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe, Mazda2, and the vehicle destined to be perpetually overshadowed by the Mazda2 – the Ford Fiesta (among many, many others).

At 12 o’clock this morning while most of us were nursing the nasty side effects of a weekend-long bender, GM officially unveiled the new 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe to the motoring press. The live, in-the-flesh reveal isn’t scheduled until next week at the LA Auto Show (which I will be attending, for all 3 of you interested fans), but as PR custom dictates GM was kind enough to give us a sneak preview a full 7 days early.

Based on its increasing popular full-sized brethren, the CTS coupe shares all the basic styling cues of the CTS sedan yet features a much chunkier, Beyonce-in-a-bodysuit ass. Fortunately, thanks to the 304-hp direct injected 3.6L V6, if you are successfully able to row your own (6-sp manual standard, 6-speed auto available for poseurs) you should be able to peel out of a dead stop before the jeers from the Bimmer owners reach your ears. If you aren’t fast enough on the throttle or otherwise catch the last sing-song remnants of “Fatty fatty two-by-four…” the CTS coupe also comes with enough interior accessories to keep your crushing depression at bay until you get to your therapist’s office, including iPod/MP3 capability, 40-gig hard drive, pop-up nav, Bluetooth, standard Keyless Access and Smart Remote Start, rear camera system, and a Bose 5.1 Cabin Surround™ audio system.

Thanks to our dutiful following of VolvoXC60 on Twitter, we learned today that Rolling Strength’s revolutionary new crossover has made the list of finalists for Motor Trend’s 2010 SUV of the Year award. Of course to be fair, the XC60 was neither engineered or marketed as an SUV, but the majority of Motor Trend’s other finalists weren’t either. Given the current market and auto maker’s eagerness to distance themselves from the often negative stigma attached to SUVs, however, MT would be hard pressed to assemble a similarly lengthy list if limiting the criteria to only those vehicles explicitly billed as SUVs. Thus, the one aspect all the candidates have in common is ride height, multi-function capability, and an all wheel drive train.

Cadillac announced today that they are actively seeking to partner with a new advertising agency for the next coming model year, presumably one that will deliver them from the wealthy older female (read: “cougar”) demographic that the brand is currently trapped in. Modernista!, the agency responsible for such marketing gems as the Kate Walsh for Cadillac campaign which relayed nothing positive about the CTS save for the fact that it could be easily piloted in a pair of Jimmy Choo’s (ask your girlfriend, lads), has apparently declined to participate in GM’s new media blitz.