What’s that old saying? Never assume anything, as it makes an ass out of u and me. Or was it assumption is the mother of all f*$! ups?

For me, which of those wise and pithy sayings is nearest the mark was irrelevant, as I was too busy thinking having just made it round the infamous back section of Dubai Autodrome’s National circuit. And soon, I would have to contend with the ever-confusing dive through the club link and into the bowl. Now normally I’d never assume anything on a race track, having over the last few years been nearly punted by fellow motoring journalists, hit by flying birds and even faced down by an errant marshal who thought crossing a live race track was a wise life decision.

The reason behind my sudden shock at assuming something and then being proved wrong was that I was behind the wheel of an all-American car and on a racetrack. My big mistake was expecting not to make it round the first bend, let alone the rest of the track.

For all the spaceships, fast food and dodgy TV, the US has always struggled to make cars that stick to the road. If you want to go straight and have a hairy time in the bends then they’ve always had a plethora of cars for you to choose from. Ask for something that can keep pace with some of Europe’s best bahn-stormers and you’ll be highly disappointed.

But now not only has a major US brand built a car finally able to take on the Germans, but to top off the V-sign to BMW and Mercedes, the car that’s turning the tables is a Cadillac.

At first glance it seems like yet another big, brash piece of Americana, thrown together by a speed junkie with a severe dislike of bends. A 6.2-litre V8 trying to shove 556bhp through the rear tyres really isn’t the sort of thing that makes you think of pinpoint handling and space-age chassis design. But oddly, in the new supercharged and steroid-fed CTS, it actually does work.

Now it’s rather important to point out here that this is no fluke. The men with big hats and loud voices didn’t stumble across this set up by accident. Realising that there is actually life beyond the east and west coasts, Cadillac really did their homework and headed over to Europe to tune the car in the enemy’s backyard.

What they created was the awesome Cadillac CTS-V. A car that for the very first time might just make buyers outside the US think about Cadillac as a serious super-saloon contender. And just to rub it in they even nicked the title of fastest four-door saloon at the Nürburgring, cracking the previously untouched sub-eight minute lap, albeit by just a second.

The incredibly flat torque curve (or slightly bent line to be precise) gives you monster power from go to shift, and the car remains flat and stable regardless of how brutally you use the throttle pedal.

So will it worry BMW? Probably not. Despite the Caddy being quicker to 100kph (3.9 seconds to be precise), the Bavarian has such a huge following and is a far superior machine in terms of outright technology. Mercedes won’t be too worried either, as east of the Atlantic they have by far the more coveted badge.

Where the Cadillac will win big is in the middle market. Those people that would love an M5 but either can’t afford it or see it as simply too focused to be good at anything else. The people who should perhaps be worried are Audi, who for years have picked up these middle-ground buyers in droves. It’s such drivers who are truly looking for something different.    And that’s the Cadillac’s winning point. It is certainly very, very different, which is something one would never have assumed, especially on a racetrack.