I just barely caught a glimpse of this on my way home the other day. If I wasn’t a fan of Caddy’s (and I’m not just talking post-CTS fanboyism) I might have just overlooked this bad boy. I mean, Cadillac is guilty of some pretty awful badge engineering, like the Cimarron, or even the Catera to an extent… so your average car enthusiast would probably never notice the time that went into bringing this monstrosity to life. Continue reading →
The Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon is a rare bird. This CTS-V Sport Wagon is more like a Bald Eagle. As powerful and dangerous an animal it may be – with it’s 556hp ZR-1-derived LSA drivetrain – it’s on the brink of becoming extinct. Wagons themselves have unfortunately found themselves almost phased out in favor of their wimpy cousins, the CUV. The utilitarian nature and appearance of them draws people towards more “stylish” vehicles (Compact Utility Vehicles) or before that, vehicles with a less traditional image (Minivans).
I think the shame is that this is the last rear-wheel-drive, American-branded wagon for sale here. Before this we also had the Charger/300-based Magnum wagon. Unfortunately Chrysler’s post-K-car management left this car more Mercedes and Renault than Chrysler. Big wagons were apart of the suburban landscape until the 1980’s when minivans (coincidentally popularized by Chrysler’s K-car based “Magic-vans”) became hugely popular. We should be glad that for now, we have this ostentatious, outrageous, and over-powered American vehicle tearing up the asphalt and providing 1.0g of grocery bag-spilling lateral acceleration.
On my way to the west side I spotted this plume of smoke. As I got closer, I noticed it was a truck on fire in front of the north campus of Glendale Community College. As you can see the gentleman operating the vehicle was rather unsuccessful in extinguishing it.
I’m sure you’re asking yourself why I didn’t stop to help him, but it was very clear that he had gotten out of the vehicle safely and I had my daughter and step-son riding with me, and I didn’t want to leave them unattended. When I came back towards my home, perhaps 15 minutes later, Police and Fire Departments had arrived and put out the fire. Which isn’t surprising considering it happened practically in front of the local firehouse.
I know I’ve introduced the work I’ve done on my 1965 C-10; better known as the Futuramic Farm Truck (of which progress has been held captive searching for it’s Rocket heart). Now I’d like to introduce my daily driver*, a 1996 Chevrolet C2500. A unique vehicle, as only 5% of the C2500 trucks produced it’s year came with it’s powertrain: The underdog L30 5.0L Vortec mill. Rated at 230hp and 285ft lbs of torque, it wasn’t too far off from it’s vaunted big-brother, the L31 5.7L, rated at 250hp. Although it’s rather torque deficient compared to the 5.7L’s 330 ft lbs. Continue reading →
I’m sure a fellow 1st Generation Vortec engine aficionado has probably done this before, but in needing constant access to my distributor and intake manifold, I found a super cheap solution for getting rid of the big square Vortec silencer box.
If you’re tired of this bulky appliance taking up space above your intake manifold and reducing intake noise, we have a nearly free solution to get rid of it.
Every picture that doesn’t deserve an article, but it is too cool to go unnoticed is going in our photo gallery section of the site. We just started adding pictures, so go check them out!