First Test: D3 Cadillac CTS-V Wagon

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Sledgehammer,adj: Ruthlessly severe; crushing. That's an apt description for this heavily modified Cadillac CTS-V Wagon. The modifications come from the Signal Hill, California-based Cadillac tuner D3. We sampled one of D3's cars before -- a 575-horse 2008 XLR-V -- and generally liked what it did. So when D3 offered up its CTS-V super wagon, we decided see what it could do with a proper performance Caddy.

Technically, the supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 under the hood should make a ZR1 --beating 675 horsepower and 675 lb-ft at the crank with the kit on it. But unless D3 has discovered the drivetrain equivalent of the superconductor, the real figures go from ZR1-beating to beat down. According to the dyno sheet, the car puts down 629 horsepower and 659 lb-ft at the wheels. Calculating the theoretical 15% drivetrain loss roughly equates to tire-punishing figures of 740 horsepower and 775 lb-ft.

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How did they get those figures? Updates include a new intake; a supercharger pulley kit that includes a harmonic dampener, boost pulley, idler pulley, and crank bolt; new spark plugs and plug wires; plus the requisite performance ECU remap. There's also an exhaust system that consists of Kooks headers and X-pipe and a Corsa catback. To keep everything running properly, D3 also threw in an upgraded intercooler, heat exchanger pump, radiator, and oil cooler, all designed with the Middle East (where many of D3's customers hail from) in mind.

The Kooks/Corsa combo isn't too loud at idle or when cruising. Burying the throttle in the carpet, however, provides a roaring soundtrack. Past 4500 rpm or so, the supercharger joins in with a demonic scream, but you'll want to avoid letting this demon out of its cage on the street unless you feel like hearing sirens. You'll also want to turn off the Bose stereo and roll down the windows anytime the weather's dry.

Tasked with putting all of that power to the ground are barely DOT-approved Toyo Proxes R888 tires fitted to the stock Cadillac's 19-inch wheels. Slightly wider than stock -- 265mm wide up front, 295mm wide at rear -- these provide the ridiculous levels of grip necessary to put the equally ridiculous level of power to the pavement. Without the sticky rubber, it's doubtful this CTS-V would have been able to sprint to 60 in 3.7 seconds and thunder through the quarter mile in 11.9 seconds, traveling 120.6 mph across the finish line and shaving 0.4 seconds off a stock car's performance in the process. Stopping capability is similarly impressive -- just 104 feet are necessary to reach a complete stop from 60 mph. But despite the addition of aftermarket Porterfield R4S brake pads, cross-drilled and slotted rotors, and steel-braided lines, that's only a foot better than the stock CTS-V wagon.

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Things got a little weird during the handling portion of our testing procedure. Despite the sticky rubber, new springs, stiffer anti-roll bars, and chassis bracing, D3's creation practically matched our bone-stock long-termer. On the skidpad, its 0.92 g was just 0.01 g better, and in the figure eight, its 25.2-second performance shaved a tenth off the stock car. Testing director Kim Reynolds noted strange front-end behavior during testing as well as a clunk from the rear end. After D3 got the car back, it noticed the alignment was off, as was one of the chassis braces.

A bigger issue lies underneath. Because of the substantially lowered ride height and chassis bracing, the car scraped at the slightest provocation. Not your garden-variety lowered tuner "take speed bumps and inclines diagonally" scraping, but the serious, just-might-high-center-no-matter-what kind. This sort of setup is fine for a track car that will only see the smoothest of pavement, but for a street car that has to deal with bus-size potholes and crumbling concrete, it's almost dangerous. Besides, it's hard to look cool cruising through a parking lot when your soundtrack is rumble-rumble-SCRAPE. Additionally, the front end would vibrate at speeds above 65 mph, though that could be due to the alignment issue.

In all, D3 threw $14,202 worth of mods onto this car. I'd skip the suspension and chassis changes for the sake of road usability, and because Cadillac seems to have the suspension sorted quite well already. That shaves $2019 off the cost, resulting in a $12,183 bill for the cooling, engine, tire, and brake upgrades. Though slightly on the steep side, you do get one hell of a sledgehammer -- one that should hold up quite well to the stresses of track driving.

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