If you're not old enough to remember Woodstock, you probably don't recall a point in your life when Cadillac called itself the "standard of the world." Honestly though, there was a time when owning a 20-foot-long chrome-plated land mass told the world you'd made it, a time when being called the "Cadillac" of anything was a compliment of the highest order. Over the years, however, the world grew and its automotive standards grew with it. Even before the first Bush took office, BMW and Mercedes had long helped us realize that the world had more to offer.It may have taken a few decades, but Cadillac finally took the "adapt or die" adage more seriously and did something about it. Its first move was this CTS, an early 2003 model whose high-output engine, rear-wheel-drive, slim measurements, and available manual transmission represented strong opposites of every idea that went into past Cadillacs. The name allegedly stands for Catera Touring Sedan, but don't take that literally: Cadillac had the confidence to do this one solo instead of asking for another round of sloppy seconds from German subsidiary Opel, who designed the Catera. And you know what? Our guys topped it.Consider this CTS proof that traditional Cadillac dogma has crumbled.