Modern Car Culture: 2013 Cadillac ATS vs. the World

Cultural Exploration Part of ‘ATS vs. the World’ Series; Host Ross Thomas and driver Derek Hill extend experience with visits, interviews

Staff Report

DETROIT, MI – Professional race car driver Derek Hill and American actor Ross Thomas star in Cadillac’s new ATS vs. the World series of more than 40 television ads and online videos introducing the all-new ATS compact luxury sport sedan.

While the first television ad aired during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games on July 27, Hill and Thomas did more on their journeys than just take on treacherous roads. Shot documentary-style, the video series features Hill pushing the ATS to its limits through some of the world’s most extreme roads in Chile, China, Monaco, and Morocco. Ross plays host and sidekick in the series and explores the local cultures of the exotic locales where filming took place.

“As a professional driver, I think that Cadillac got it right with theATS,” says Hill. “Whether it was the Magnetic Ride Control adjusting the suspension in the bumpy Guoliang Tunnel or the performance of the Brembo brakes as we took on 100 hairpin corners in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, the vehicle really responded when I pushed it to its limits.”

Hill is the son of legendary race driver Phil Hill, who is the last American to win the Formula World Championship. He’s known for logging wins in the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours races and for taking home the championship title at the 1997 Barber Pro Series, winning four races along the way.

Thomas, who graduated from the University of Southern California, has appeared in numerous television and movie roles. His love for anthropology has taken him around the globe from Peru to Laos studying the cultures of indigenous tribes in remote places. This experience helped Thomas highlight the stories behind the cultures he encountered while filming the ATS vs. the World video series.

In windswept Patagonia, Chile, where the ATS’s advanced aerodynamics is put to the test. Thomas and Hill profile the Yaghan people, considered to live in the southern most part of the world.

“On the ATS vs. the World challenge, we had the rare opportunity to interview the last full-blooded, native speaking Yaghan woman, Christina Calderon,” said Thomas. “The fact that we had the chance to archive even a small amount of information from Ms. Calderon that will live on through this project was very special for me.”

In Morocco, Hill steers through 100 turns over three miles up and down the Atlas Mountains at speeds up to 55 mph. Thomas and Hill then travel through the southeastern Saharan desert on camelback to experience how the local Berber tribe has traveled the land over the years.

In Monaco, the ATS takes on the pinnacle of racing at the Monaco Grand Prix Circuit and its tight corners and elevation changes at speeds up to 130 mph. Thomas and Hill then take in Monaco’s nautical culture, while musing over Hill’s own history racing the Monaco Grand Prix.

In China, Hill takes the ATS through the hand-carved Guoliang Tunnels, while Thomas highlights Hainan Province; the birthplace of kung fu.

Cadillac has been a leading luxury auto brand since 1902. In recent years, Cadillac has engineered a historic renaissance led by artful engineering and advanced technology. More information on Cadillac can be found atmedia.cadillac.com.