Cadillac wants the world to know that the ATS is a legitimate sport sedan.

Not content to  focus on just acceleration and handling, Cadillac has gone to great lengths to ensure that its new compact sedan even sounds the part.

That task isn’t as easy as it sounds, since there’s a fine line between a pleasing exhaust note and a droning exhaust tone.

Tuning the exhaust for a Chevrolet Camaro is one thing, but tuning it for Cadillac’s potential buyers is something else entirely.

As Kyle Stanforth, Cadillac’s noise and vibration engineer, explains, “Cadillac customers expect a level of refinement beyond what most cars have. Yes, it’s quiet, but it’s more than that. They also love to hear that sound of refined power when they ask for it...open it up, you not only feel the power, you hear it, too.”

With that in mind, engineers shaped the intake system to maximize breathing while minimizing unwanted noise. The same is true of the exhaust, which was designed to maximize performance while minimizing noise at idle and at highway speeds.

Taking noise mitigation one step further, the ATS employs Bose Active Sound Management to actively cancel unwanted engine noise. This allows Cadillac to reduce the amount of sound-deadening material used, which helps keep the car’s weight below 3,400 pounds.