6/13/14 1:55 AM

Cadillac CTS-V. With some mods I'm sure. I've driven the stock version. It belongs to a friend who had one too many run ins with the cops with his supercharged SVT Cobra. No one looks at a Cadillac. And they make a wagon version now. I think Paul has/had a Corvette too?

I've had a Ducati 999 (and 749 too). Currently own a poor man's sports car (1997 SVT Cobra Mustang, over 300 horsepower, 0-60 in 5.6 seconds, about $6000, for another $4500 it could be supercharged and around 450bhp, you couldn't get a used 80s Porsche for twice that).

But the Caddy is civilized, and can hold a couple of adult passengers too. And is fucking insane to drive stock, never mind whatever nonsense Paul has done to his to get it up to 900 HP.

Nothing compares to the Ducati for sheer thrills. Best ride of my life was through the BC interior mountains thinking I was getting chased by the cops. I mean, the RCMP truck flashed his lights at me going the opposite way and I wasn't sticking around for the 170kph (105-ish MPH) ticket.

But, Paul, "any stock bike doesn't stand a chance," I think is a bit bold, if only because the Ducati Panigale is 195 BHP stock and weighs 420lbs wet. I have a hard time believing your modified .25HP/lb Cadillac could compete with a .46HP/lb Ducati Panigale (stock). I mean, I'd rather drive the Cadillac with the drink holders and stereo and the company of an attractive woman in the passenger seat, if I was going anywhere, but even my friend with the stock CTS-V has a 1098R and says the former is decaffeinated by comparison.

FWIW he prefers his Mitsibushi Lancer Evo 5 over the Cadillac at 1000lbs lighter and all wheel drive. Though the Lancer is heavily modified is putting out way more than stock HP.

And as much as I love my Moto Guzzi V11, I'll probably have a Ducati 899 in a year or two. I'm waiting for used models to show up. 145HP? in an 899? Wow.

6/13/14 7:07 AM

Paul didn't say faster from a standing start-his equation takes into account not just power to weight but power/aero drag, where the big ole Caddy likely has a significant advantage over the bike.

That SVT sounds like a pretty cool ride for the money. Porsche prices have escalated rapidly in the last year, such that a mid 80's 911 is now 4x the price of the Mustang, and the pre impact bumper cars are in the 40's and up, way up. Silliness, like the muscle craze of a few years back.

6/13/14 7:13 AM

That's funny, thinking your being chased by cops, because I know exactly what you mean.

I didn't know about that Duc, don't follow the bike scene too closely these days, but every bike loses half it's power to weight advantage when you put a rider on board, a rider who had better be able to shift and keep the front end down. I rode a 210 hp GSX-R for years so know a little about this sort of thing.

My Vette at 2950 lbs and 700 hp has a better power to weight than the Caddy but anywhere other than a road race track, out in the real world AND in a straight line, the Caddy wins. It's been an interesting experience for me because it doesn't seem to be all about power to weight, seems when you really get going there's a transition to power to aerodynamics being more important. This is why when we have our big annual half-mile event here in August the Vette stays at home. The other thing with the Caddy is the transmission, it can make any driver look good.

Also, other than long road trips my Caddy always has drag radials on and will pull a 60ft time on a drag strip of 1.51. That said, this ain't no race car, when you're driving legally there's virtually no way anyone could tell the car isn't stock. My Vette is far more obnoxious, but then it also doesn't have the benefit of a supercharger.

As for mods, it's far easier to say what hasn't be modified...the block, crank, rods and pistons are stock. The heads are the new TFS 12 degree genX and the list goes on and on from there. I'm also spraying methanol injection at high boost, this controls heat (IAT2 temps) and adds a little octane. Found out last summer during a 7 week stay in the Catskills that meth isn't so easy to come by in the US, in Canada I can pick it up at any hardware store or places like Home Depot and Lowes. This year I'll be taking a couple extra gallons with me on vacation.

6/13/14 9:20 AM

"This year I'll be taking a couple extra gallons with me on vacation."

Don't come south of the border with that stuff in your trunk I am thinking. ;)

6/14/14 7:48 PM

It took a lot of work on this 1972 streetbike to hit high nines (9.71 best ET), but times sure have changed.
There are a few streetbikes these days that can take a skilled rider into the high nines with no modifications whatsoever, not even tires!

6/14/14 8:54 PM

Yeah, in 84 my stock Eddy Lawson Replica turned 12.7s and .8s. And not with me on it either. After mods to the tune of the same cost as the bike, 10.07 was the best we saw out of it. And not with me on it either. In fact the rider went on to win some nationals 2-3 years later in Pro-Stock. On his 83 GPZ.

Shit, I want a CTS-V Sports Wagon now...

6/16/14 12:11 PM

10.07 would be a very, very good number for that bike if still street rideable.

I had to go with racing tires, C-14 fuel, air shift, wheelie bars and frame modifications to get high nines, even though the bike weighed less than 350 pounds wet and with me at only 140 plus riding gear.
And no way would it survive on pump gas even, but to it's credit I did get multiple seasons out of just one modified clutch and only one set of forged pistons (I used air filters at all times).

6/16/14 12:23 PM

"10.07 would be a very, very good number for that bike if still street rideable. "

Ported head and biggest main jets in 33 mikiunis with an open Kirker pipe. Not to mention knife edged crank flywheels and an 1170 kit. Street rideable, but loud enough for the cops to hear it inDEAFinately. ;)

I wanted it to break 10 badly for the coin and effort spent. The right tire would have done it, it had a Michelin sticky road race tire at the time. Maybe it was a Metzler.. It was 1985...

The Pro Stock guy had a 78 KZ bored to 1400something and nitrous he let me ride, his street bike. ;) He said only hit the button in +3rd and above 35 MPH. Almost as abrupt as the 810 modded 3 cyl KZ 2 stroke another friend had.

Although maybe the same advise with regards to getting it in powerband a a certain speed would have spared my air matter separators from having to do any filtering... Scarey and a great rush at the same time... ;)

6/19/14 5:50 PM

Geez guys, you're walking me down memory lane.

I started with a '81 GPZ1100 (first fuel injected stock bike and first into the 10s with PeeWee Gleason). Then it was a '83 GPZ1100, then a '84 FJ1100 which would only go 11.3 with me on board so in '85 I bored it to 1200cc and got into the 10s. For '86 I got a GSXR1100 and went 10.9 bone stock and 10.7 with a pipe, and later with a small shoot of N2O I went 10.2. Following year it got an extended swingarm and went 9.6. In '88 it took a slick, wheelie bar and big bore to go 8.9. In 1989 I started to get serious with a full Pro Stock chassis and 10" car tire but only went 8.5. In '90 and '91 I eventually built a pretty stout engine that was still streetable, got up it to 1456cc, and with some N2O went 7.7 and 170mph.

See what you started!!!

Anyway, in the overall scheme of things my Caddy is actually pretty slow. Local guy who went 258kph at our Race-the-Runway event last year with his modified Aventadore (my car only went 252 with about 100hp less than it has now so I was planning on beating the Aventadore this year) has been running his TT Gallardo at 1/2 mile events in the US recently and went 222.7MPH (that 358kph!!!). Seems 2000hp and about 700K will do that for you.

Moral of the story, there will always be some wise guy who is faster than you.