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CARDRIVER This is the first of two Blackwing models that are the last gasoline-powered V models the luxury maker will ever produce. Farewell concerts too often aren't the last of anything. Cream, The Who, Kiss, and even Ol 'Blue Eyes himself Frank Sinatra all returned to the stage after a so-called final tour. Cadillac, however, does not appear to be bluffing when it says that the CT4-V Blackwing and its larger, V-8-powered CT5-V Blackwing brother will be the last of the gas-powered V cars. Even if plans change and somehow more gas-powered Cadillac Vs come after these, like any farewell tour, the CT4-V Blackwing is something you don't want to miss. The CT4-V Blackwing is an evolution of the ATS-V, a sports sedan graced with handling and performance but held back by an unrefined engine and a child-size back seat. The new car has a similarly tight rear seat, but a larger door opening makes it easier for adults to get in and out. Launched together, comparing the CT4-V Blackwing to the headlining CT5-V Blackwing might make the smaller sedan seem like an opening act. After all, the smaller Blackwing's twin-turbo V-6, an engine that shares a lot with the V-6 in a Chevrolet Colorado, is nearly 200 horsepower off the other Blackwing's 668-hp V-8. Nearly 500 horsepower is still a lot of firepower, and the 472-hp 3.6-liter V-6 enjoys a linear and immediate — for a turbo — throttle response. And this engine has learned how to sing. Inside and out, it sounds nothing like the 464-hp version in the old ATS-V. When the variable exhaust bypasses the muffler, it sounds angry, purposeful, and intimidating. To enhance the V-6 notes inside, the AKG audio system plays actual recordings of the V's engine through the speakers. It's more like autotune than the outright fakery of Milli Vanilli. Equipped with the $ 3175 10-speed automatic transmission, it should be able to bolt to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds. A no-cost six-speed manual will add a few tenths. In your mind, however, the manual will seem quicker thanks to a no-lift-shift feature. Keep your right foot pinned to the firewall, stab the clutch, and grab the next gear. The Tremec TR-6060 shifts with ease and accuracy. And if you do select the manual, Cadillac includes a bonus: titanium connecting rods. Roughly six times more expensive than the automatic's forged-steel rods, the lightweight material reduces reciprocating mass, further improving engine response for manual buyers. To make the manual version financially feasible, Cadillac uses what it calls "additive manufacturing." That's marketing spin for "some of the parts are 3-D printed." In addition to manual-specific HVAC ducting around the center console, the shift-pattern medallion on top of the shifter comes from a 3-D printer. If you're wondering about burning your hand on the shifter's H-pattern, engineers went so far as to add additional material below the metal trim to draw heat away and avoid burning the driver on hot days. Cadillac patented the design. BMW still offers a manual in its M3, but what BMW forgot, Cadillac has learned. Steering feel, also an ATS-V strength, is alive and well despite the reports that it died with electrically assisted steering. The 4-V's wheel is brimming with feedback and just-right effort levels that avoid qualifying for a CrossFit workout. There is also a very Ferrari-manettino-looking switch on the steering wheel. This $ 500 option makes it simple to cycle through the numerous stability-and-traction-control programs of General Motors's Performance Traction Management (PTM) system. There are five PTM modes: One is for the wet, two have an element of stability control that use the brakes to rein in sloppy cornering, and the upper two use the traction control to maximize corner exit speed. The raciest mode is aptly named Race. PTM works so well that development drivers use it while chasing lap times. And if you didn't already know, the CT4-V Blackwing stomped a 2: 52.5 lap on Virginia International Raceway's 4.1-mile Grand Course, the same configuration we use for Lightning Lap. That's a strong time for a 3850-pound sedan. The only four-door we've lapped quicker in 14 Lighting Lap events is the Mercedes-AMG GT63 S, which posted 2: 49.3. The next slowest sedan is the BMW M5 Competition with a time of 2: 54.0. A lot of credit is due to the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires size 255 / 35R-18 and 275 / 35R-18. These aren't off-the-shelf Michelins. While Most 4S tires use two compounds, these Cadillac-specific tires use three different rubber compounds. The third one is essentially an R compound found in streetable track tires, such as the Pilot Sport Cup 2. Keeping those special tires in constant contact with the tarmac are GM's latest magnetorheological dampers, or MR 4.0. The ride-handling balance is as good as we've ever experienced in the segment. The lovely ride and supportive seats offer multihour comfort and appropriate bolstering for track work. There are drive modes that set the steering effort, powertrain aggression, engine volume, brake feel, and damper stiffness. Normal, Sport, Snow / Ice, and Track are preset from Cadillac, but owners can tailor their setup in V Mode and My Mode. The V Mode has a steering wheel shortcut on the other side of the PTM switch, and My Mode will remain the default setting after a key cycle, so if you dial in a magic combination it won't be lost every time you start the car . We never found a need to play weekend engineer because the Normal mode proved perfect for the winding roads of North Carolina and Virginia and Track mode made us right at home on VIR's Full Course. The Cadillac's brakes were happy on the track too. Fade free and strong, we noticed that engineers added a separate parking-brake caliper for the rear instead of a drum-in-hat parking brake, a change that saved more than two pounds of rotating mass.

BBC Going to the ghost town of Humberstone, in the Great North of Chile, is like traveling back in time. Although no one has lived or worked here for more than half a century, among its desert alleys you can still see part of the facades of the offices, schools and even a large theater that gave life to this site between 1870 and 1960, when thousands of workers worked for a common purpose: the million-dollar nitrate industry, also called "white gold." They were happy times for this South American country. The enormous demand for the material from industrialized nations of Europe led to a period of great enrichment, which was even called the Chilean "belle epoque." And it is that at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, almost all the saltpeter in the world came from the Atacama desert. And for Chile, its importance was vital: it represented between 40% and 60% of its tax revenue. "Chile literally lived on a single product: saltpeter," Julio Pinto, a historian from the University of Santiago, told BBC Mundo. Shanks system It all emerged in 1866, when the Chilean explorer José Santos Ossa discovered saltpeter deposits in the Salar del Carmen, near the city of Antofagasta. At that time, these lands belonged to Bolivia, but Santos Ossa obtained a permit authorizing him to extract the mineral for 15 years. Later, in 1982, the main and best known nitrate headquarters in the area was built: the Humberstone Saltpeter Office, originally called La Palma. At its peak, between 1900 and 1929, this place located about 50 kilometers from Iquique (Tarapacá Region), was home to around 3,500 people, which meant a great demographic mobility of Chileans to the north, which later it was enriched by different waves of migration, especially from Peru and Bolivia. Here its inhabitants forged a specific community culture of the "pampinos" that is, of those who inhabit the desert zone of northern Chile, characterized by their linguistic expression and their pioneering struggle for social justice due to the difficult working conditions in Chile. one of the most arid and hostile areas on the planet. The business model behind the nitrate mill was based on the Shanks system, developed by James Humberstone (nicknamed "Don Santiago" by workers in the area), a British chemical engineer who emigrated to South America in 1875 and where the name comes from. of this ghost town. The procedure considered dissolving "caliche", the nitrate-rich desert crust, at high temperature in order to extract sodium nitrate, a fertilizer that transformed agriculture in America and Europe, providing Chile with considerable wealth. In this way, the Briton managed to build a fortune based on one of the largest extractors of "white gold" in the world, employing thousands of people and setting up a business that was an engine of development for the surrounding regions. Pacific War The saltpeter was so important to the Chileans that they were willing to go to war for it. Despite the fact that the independence of the countries of Chile, Peru and Bolivia took place in 1810, 1821 and 1825, respectively, the borders were not completely defined. In the 1870s, many of the nitrate towns belonged to Bolivian territory despite the fact that most of the companies operating in the area were Chilean backed with British investment. The problem was unleashed when the Bolivian government imposed a tax of 10 cents per quintal of exported nitrate under a private transaction contract. Chile, then, decided to invade its territory in protest and arguing that it violated a commercial treaty signed in 1874. This agreement established that Bolivians would not increase taxes on nitrate for 25 years, that is, until 1899. The conflict that broke out and that involved Peru, an ally of Bolivia, is what is known today as the War of the Pacific (or Guano and Salitre War), which took place between 1879 and 1884, and is considered one of the bloodiest in the history of Latin America. The Chilean victory moved its border northward, annexing a large strip of nitrate-rich territory. This left Bolivia without 120,000 square kilometers of territory and 400 kilometers of coastline, according to historians' estimates. "The saltpeter was fundamental to the war," said historian Julio Pinto. "Once it had started, the main objective of the Chilean government was the permanent occupation of the Bolivian province of Antofagasta and the Peruvian province of Tarapacá," he says.