Sold the Cobra, Bought a Caddy.

[LargeOrangeFont]

It's a 70k car that is in the same class as 100k cars. Something's going to give. It's like comparing a Corvette to a 911.

I actually like the recaros a lot, better than BMW seats, and more supportive than Merc seats.

 

[kaz109]

Congrats. I actually just test drove one myself...was trying to replace the bmw with something bigger and faster. I have to say i didnt like it too much. Power was great but fit and finish just felt cheap and plasticy. I also found the recaros to be very uncomfortable. For 70k i would expect a litle more.

X2....felt the exact same way, but more ppl like this car for the simple fact of the power, as i have been told by a few Z06 owners that is "ricer" to care about such things as fit and finish and interior quality. With that said it is good to see ppl getting the car they want and not settling so Congrats to OP for his purchase :beer:

 

[whitevenum]

Nice looking ride

 

[kaz109]

It's a 70k car that is in the same class as 100k cars. Something's going to give. It's like comparing a Corvette to a 911.

I actually like the recaros a lot, better than BMW seats, and more supportive than Merc seats.

Just curious if u tested a E90 M3 or E60 M5 when u say u didnt like the seat? I am definitely a ///M nutswigger and i was VERY disappointed in the E90 M3 in every aspect but I loved the M5...I never found a MT with low miles though so didnt pick up a m5...also curious to know if u tested a XF-R

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

No I did not look at an xf-r. My boss has an e90 m3, and a coworker has an e60 m5. Another coworker has a 2011 e63. I have driven and rode in all 3 of the above. I was not too impressed with the m3 either. It's an ok car, but at that price point I was turned off. There are better cars for cheaper. Another friend has a 335d with a tuner, it is just as fast as the m3, for 15k less. The m5 was good but I wanted a manual. They sound amazing, but if you want to mod it, it's an arm and both legs. E63 was cool too but again I wanted a manual. It's probably the best touring type car though.

I'm ok with the look of the caddy interior. I don't think it looks overly cheap compared to similar BMW and Mercs. The interior does creak and make a bit more noise than I would like, but that's ok, I knew that going in. It is the same noises you hear when driving a corvette. I do like the look of the sedan and wagon, and like the Cobras, the bang for the buck and cheap mod potential is unmatched.

As far as driving dynamics go, I think the m5 and cts-v are close. The brakes on the v don't feel as good as the m5 but I think that is more the brake pad than anything else. The feel is great, there is just less initial bite in the cts-v. The steering on the m5 might be slightly better. I think the m5 feels faster than a V when you are driving it, but in reality it isn't.

 

[SCMOKN]

Sweet ride! I would love to have one...

 

[ExpatMedic]

CTS-V's are :xpl:

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

Some track pics...

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

Annnd got the new wheels on finally. I still need to paint the front grills and fender vents.

 

[earico]

Sick ride. Nice upgrade!

 

[kaz109]

Nice track pics!! Cant wait to take 63 out to thunderhill this summer! Any power mods yet?

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

Just an intake on the car at the moment. Going to do an upper pulley, ported blower, snout and ported ls7 TB. Along with a heat exchanger, injectors and a tune, it should be around 575 whp. If I do anything after that it will be headers.

 

[kaz109]

Kinda makes me wanna throw a 3.0 blower on mine but I think 500whp will be enough for a daily...a blower will put me far beyond 600hp and not sure I am gonna keep the car yet. Would love to run a ctsv on my current headers and tune tho, none around my way

 

[rockinrhodes]

Hell yes. I love the body lines on those cars.

 

[Steve@TF]

nice pics. is that on the big track? :beer:

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

Yes it is the big track.

 

[venomws6]

Badass V I love the new wheels Congrats.

 

[INNOVATE_1]

On the fence…

 

[stangposse]

Great car! Great choice!

Maybe I missed it, but which exhaust is it running? If stock, will you change it out and if so, with what?

 

[Ephingahol]

Awesome car, congrats! I did the same thing and went from an '04 Cobra to a 2G CTS-V. Mine is the 6MT as well. Funny thing is, to me the V is one of the closest cars to a 03-04 Cobra or GT500. Even though it has 4 doors, the heavier weight of the car, twin screw blower and mountains of torque give it a very similar feel, although the magnetic ride control gives it much better ride and handling characteristics IMO.

I did the standard mods to my V (details and video in my sig) and spent a lot of time researching the build and doing the work myself. The following quote is a lengthy (and somewhat rambling) email I wrote to a buddy who bought a V and didn't know much about them. He wanted help picking out the right mods, so I shared my insights. I'm sure you already know a lot of it, but I'm sharing it here in case any of it is helpful to you.

Again, awesome car. I love the color. Good luck with it.

Get the Eibach springs and not the D3's. I hear the D3 spring rate is off and makes the ride brutal. I ended up going with the Eibach coupe springs and cutting half a coil off the front. Keep in mind you can trim the springs to get the ride height exactly where you want it with no loss in ride quality since the springs aren't progressively wound.

I recently put on some MT 305/35/19 ET streets and they hook incredibly well. I've tried a few different rear tires and I can tell you that these are far and away the best I've ever tried. It dead hooks in first now in 70 deg. weather with 650rwhp.

I run a New Era CAI which is arguably the best one out there for the V. I swapped the filter for a huge Green 14" filter that extends the whole way to the opening next to the fog light. I then bought the D3 led fogs which look awesome and triple the size of the opening next to the fog light. You have to do a little cutting to fit them but it's an easy job. With the extended filter sitting right behind the large opening, my AFR leaned out from 10.5 to 11.6. Once I retuned the car, I picked up 28rwhp with this mod alone. That is 28rwhp on top of what the non-modified CAI gave me.

If you're looking to cam it, give KDI a call. They have three different cams; mine is the mid-level cam (TS-19). Awesome cam that sounds nasty, makes great power w/o any low-end loss, and is very driveable in traffic.

KDI also makes far and away the best intercooler for these cars IMO. Much thicker and more surface area than anything else out there. I also installed a Jabsco 29GPM pump (stock is 8GPM) that they sell. KDI sells the pump, fittings, and mounting bracket as a kit. I just bought the same pump online, bought the fittings myself, and fabricated a bracket out of mild steel and paid about half of what they charge for the kit.

I bought most of my stuff from KDI. They're very knowledgeable, great customer service, and they can get just about anything. They hooked me up with a PRC dual valvespring kit and hardened pushrods that work great. If you do a cam, make sure to add a trunion upgrade kit to the valvetrain upgrades as well. The stock rocker arm trunions use cageless needle bearings that can become failure prone when used with a more agressive cam. If the bearings fail, they can sucked in the intake valve and you can imagine what happens next. Comp Cams sells a trunion upgrade kit for about $130 IIRC. Just punch out your old crappy ones and use the supplied spacers and a shop press to install the new ones. Only takes about an hour.

I have a full Stainless Works exhaust. They're the only ones to make 2" primary longtubes and a true 3" dual exhaust. Very cost effective (I think just over $2k for the entire system) and makes arguably the most power, but it is a little lacking in the sound dept. Too quiet at WOT and not enough tone. I'm going to cut out the mufflers and weld in something else. If I had to do it again, I'd get the SW 2" primary headers with a B&B, Corsa, or Borla catback. I'd also skip the cats if I had to do it over. They clogged within 2k miles and I had to cut them out.

The consensus is pretty much universal that ID 850 injectors are the way to go anywhere in the 550-750whp range. I doubt my idle would be half as smooth without them.

I run a 9.1 lower pulley and a 2.55 upper. This setup is about as far as you want to push the unported stock blower on stock heads. If you run this setup, make damn sure you have an upgraded heat exchanger and pump installed at a minimum. Without those upgrades, there's a damn good chance you'll heat soak sooner and actually loose power compared to a slightly less aggressive setup. While you're in there, install a solid isolater. This is the piece that joins the shaft inside the blower snout to the shaft inside the blower itself. The stock isolator is spring loaded. Due to an engineering oversight, the spring is made from hardened steel while the blower couplers it mounts to aren't. Over time, the spring wears into the couper and wears a groove. This then allows the coupler too much movement and creates a loud and obnoxious knocking noise at idle and low RPM. This has happened to people with as few as 1,000 miles on their cars. A solid isolator is only about $50 and is cheap insurance. Get the Lingenfelter piece and not the Metco. There have been fitment issues with the Metco piece lately.

Most people say to run a TR6 heat range plug in the 650whp range. I adhered to this advice to the point of stupidity as I battled KR and detonation issues for well over a month. Against the advice of others, I finally switched to a BR7EF and the car runs much, much better and stronger. A TR7IX would work too. I'm not saying this is for everyone, but every car is different so pay attention here. I melted the electrode and ceramic off a TR6 before I learned my lesson.

Future mods are ported blower & snout, CNC ported LSA or MAST heads, and E85 and / or meth. Those would definitely net well over 700rwhp.

I tuned my car myself with a wideband and HPTuners Pro. Figured the car made about 650rwhp like other cars with the same mods. I used the ID injector data and tuned it to 10.5 AFR, 19 deg timing and no KR. Thought I did a good job. I was wrong. Car dynoed 556rwhp. Jeremy Formato happened to be at this particular dyno day and I paid him to tune my car on the spot. By the time we were done, the car picked up 100rwhp and he walked me through everything he was doing so I understood. I'd highly recommend him for tuning. Mike @ New Era is also a great tuner for these cars.