2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe at Chicago

Cadillac spokesman Nick Twork dropped by our Chicago offices this morning to take us for a spin in an early production CTS coupe. The car hits dealerships this summer, and journalists won’t get to drive it until later this spring. So, coffee in hand, we hopped in the passenger seat and learned some new tidbits about the car.

With a standard direct-injection 3.6-liter V-6, Cadillac plans to position the CTS coupe slightly upmarket of the sedan. Pricing has yet to be announced, but the 3.6-liter CTS sedan starts at $41,565 for 2010, so the coupe could start somewhere in the mid-40s.

The CTS coupe won’t be offered with the sedan’s 3.0-liter base V-6, at least for now. Its nominally wider rear track and higher final drive ratio — with automatics, 3.73 versus 3.42 in the sedan — should make for a “more lively” driving experience, Twork said. Zero-to-60 mph acceleration times could be a few tenths quicker than the 3.6-liter sedan’s mid-6-second times, he estimated.

Inside, the coupe has a unique black headliner; it’s a lighter color in the sedan. As we noted during last December’s Los Angeles Auto Show, the coupe ditches the sedan’s traditional door handles for Corvette-like electronic, button-actuated ones.