Vengenance Racing Built 9 Second Hand-Controlled CTS-V Cranks Out 850HP To The Wheels.
It’s so common that we really don’t even notice anymore, but to an outsider taking a glimpse into our world – the automotive hobby and community, that is – the way we build cars might seem a bit unusual.
With most projects for the general public, there’s progression, but usually an end goal or a point of completion. You remodel a house, you eventually reach a point where you consider it finished, for example, but that’s rarely the case with cars. Project cars usually start out innocently enough, with the intention being to just bump horsepower a bit and usually add a little more authority to the exhaust note so that your daily stands out from the crowd a bit. However, it doesn’t take long for that itch to return and the need for a little more power overrides the need for a tame, reliable daily driver and in no time, we need a new daily because our old one is a racecar!
Bryan Hart teamed up with Vengeance Racing to blur that line between daily driver and racecar, though, and together they’re built one of the best looking, strongest-running daily driven Cadillac CTS-V’s we’ve ever laid eyes on. Like most, this build started out as a daily, albeit one that laid down 470 horsepower to the wheels in stock form. Like most gearheads, Bryan wanted a little more power, so he made the call to Ron and the crew and Vengeance to map out a plan to put the car’s output in the 600 RWHP range.
The first round of modifications included an AirRaid intake and a smaller pulley on the supercharger, allowing it to cram more air into the LSA engine and bump the power to 540 at the wheels.
That whet Bryan’s appetite for the time being, but his goal of 600+ horsepower lurked in the back of his mind and before long, another round of upgrades – a set of American Racing longtube headers and an E85 flex fuel setup – pushed the car to 620 ponies to the wheels. Bryan paused the progression there for a while, racing and showing the car for some time like it was, but the bug bit again in time and plans were made for yet another round of mods, this one by far the biggest so far.
Bryan wanted the car to make north of 800 horsepower, run 9’s in the quarter, and hit 160 MPH in the half mile. Those goals would be lofty for a dedicated racecar that didn’t need to maintain streetability, but Bryan wanted to be able to drive his Caddy anywhere, anytime, so that required a little more thought be put into the planning. Of course, solving problems like this is exactly why Hart called Vengeance in the first place. Ron sat down with his guys and planned out the next two phases of upgrades, opting for a hybrid version of VR’s Stage 5 package. This would find them installing CNC ported LSA heads, a VRPD-2 cam, a massive Nick Williams 102mm throttle body, ATI balancer/lower pulley and modifications to the supercharger snout to increase airflow along with an air lit from a ZL1 Camaro.
Now pushing 730 horsepower to the wheels, Bryan was content to drive and race the car like that for a while. After all, having a car you drive to work and back that’s pushing over 700 wheel horsepower will keep you happy for a while.
Eventually, though, Hart decided it was time to pursue those performance goals, so he sent the car back to Vengeance with one major modification left in store. The final upgrade was a simple, but effective one. Ron believes the stock blower could have pushed the LSA to reach Bryan’s goals, but it would have been hard on the supercharger itself. Instead of pushing the blower, Hard chose to swap it for a monster Magnusson 2.3 L unit. Along with the new blower, Vengeance installed a trunk-mounted ice tank to cool things down, a custom 5” cold air intake, and an AlkyControl meth injection system.
The final dyno session would produce an insane 830 horsepower to the wheels and push the car to run in the 9’s as well as hitting 168 MPH in the half mile. All of this in a car Bryan controls by hand. As you will see in the video, Bryan lost the use of his legs in an ATV accident, meaning the car would need hand controls. As you will also see in the video, that was merely another modification, with Bryan opting to pursue his goals regardless of the obstacles that stood in his path.
Not only does this V sound and run great, the car looks amazing. The black wheels and hood contrasting against the stark white paint. Without knowing ahead of time, there’s not too much to give away the fact that this car makes well over 800 horsepower, as even the exhaust is relatively tame for a car with such insane power levels. It would be hard to ever consider a CTS-V a sleeper, but seeing this one driven daily certainly might lull an unsuspecting victim into thinking he might want to try Bryan from stoplight to stoplight. We hope that happens and that there’s video of the carnage!
