Robb Sutton | How to blog, be a father and make some money doing it

FS: 2009 Cadillac CTS-V 6MT Sedan – 1,306whp on nitrous / 803whp on 93oct and meth

March 9, 2017

Tagged : cadillac, ctsv

Time for the official thread. After jumping back and forth on whether or not to sell her, I have finally decided that it is time. I have had an awesome time building this car with Vengeance Racing and racing it all around the country. I have had the chance to meet some awesome people and take some records here and there. I am really going to miss this car but it is time that she goes to someone who can enjoy her as much as I did. I really am sad to see this one go.

First, the transaction will be handled through Shine Auto Salon. They are great friends of mine and they are local (10 mintues from my house). I am traveling too much to handle the sale on my own and they bring the unique ability of being able to handle the sale like a dealer. That means they can take trade ins on my car. They are also an incredible detail/paint protection shop and they have already polished her up. It was sad to see her looking so awesome right before I am getting rid of her. They literally told me “you don’t want to walk back there right now”.

Shine Auto Salon
Address: 1007 Union Center Dr, Alpharetta, GA 30004
Phone: (470) 297-8301
Starting price will be $49,500 I believe.

I am not parting out a single piece of this car. EVERYTHING is going with it from the ADV.1’s…to the Welds…to the stock wheels…to both rear differentials. It is ready to rock for whoever gets to pick it up. Alright…let’s get into the car.

2009 CTS-V 6MT in Black Raven
Loaded Options with Recaros
Build done by Vengeance Racing in Cumming, GA

The body has 101k on it. I know the pricing sounds high for the milage…but the body is the only thing that has that amount of milage on it. Everything else has been upgraded/replaced. I basically made a new car for the new owner. I started adding up what I have invested in this car and stopped when I hit $60k (not including the price of the car) with more to go. She was complete stock minus the Airaid intake when I bought it. All of the work has been done and serviced by Vengeance outside of the interior stuff.

Dyno on nitrous/C16

Cutouts open vs. closed

The Numbers

803whp on 93 oct w/meth
1306whp on nitrous C16
93/meth tune and C16 tune (for nitrous) included on handheld tuner/logger

What’s Included

ADV.1 Wheels with Nitto tires (90% tread left)
Stock polished wheels included
Powder coated satin black 17” Welds included (w/M&H 275’s)
Stock 3.73 rear diff included (1/4 mile setup)
3.23 rear diff installed (1/2 mile setup)
Brand new rear struts
Freshly rebuilt Alky Control Meth Pump
Freshly rebuilt RPS clutch (new carbon plates and new design hub)
All nitrous and fueling jets included

My Personal Bests

178.00mph 1/2 mile – GA wannaGOFAST 2016 Spring (top 5 fastest in the world and now capable of 184mph)
10.08 @ 150.48mph – (now capable of mid 9’s at 160mph) I have only taken this to the 1/4 once on stock axles. It has a lot more in it there.

Motor Build (less than 5k miles on new motor) Done by LME

Stock Cube LSA Core
Stock LSA Crank
Diamond Pistons – Armor Coated and Flat Top for 10.1:1 Compression (up a point from stock) – Modified for LSA Piston Squirters
Callies LS Ultra H Beam Connecting Rods
Clevite Main and Rod Bearings
ARP Stud Kit
Custom Grind Billet Cam from VR
Melling Oil Pump
Morel Lifters
WCCH CNC Stage 2 Heads
Comp Trunion Kit
VR Hardened Push Rods
Vengeance Racing .660 lift Dual Spring Kit with Ti Retainers
C5R Timing Chain
LS7 Timing Gear
Ls2 Dogbone Timing Damper
ARP Cam Bolts

Power/Cooling

ECS Heat Exchanger
Aldo Welds CTSV Trunk Mount HX Tank with install kit 845.00 845.00T
Aldo Welds CTSV Dedicated Fuel Cell (under hood)
KPE Intake
Dual Nozzle Alky Single Nossil Mth Kit
fuelinjectorconnection.com 850cc Bosch Injectors
Dedicated Motorsports Fuel System
American Racing 2″ Longtubes with Catless X-Pipe
VR Plug Wire Insulators
Metco 10 Bolt SC Hub
Metco 2.55″ Upper Pulley
LPE 18% Overdrive Pulley
ATI Damper
102mm Nick Williams TB
VR Catch Can that vents in front bumper
Vengeance Racing Ported Snout
Vengeance Racing Ported Blower
DMH Electronic Cutouts
Nitrous Outlet ZL1 Lid with 300 shot jets, single stage.
Vengeance Racing custom dual nitrous bottle mount
Standalone Fuel System
Lingenfelter RPM Limiter Timing Retard Launch Controller LSA & LS9 Engines
NOS Progressive Controller
Nitrous Outlet CTS-V Switch Panel
Misc Support Parts
ECU Tuning by Vengeance Racing
Stock 3.73 gear for 1/4 mile and auto 3.23 gear for DD and 1/2 mile

Drivetrain

RPS Street Slayer Triple Carbon Clutch
DSS Stage 5 Axles
Core Short Shifter

Wheels/Tires/Suspension/Brakes

ADV.1 ADV6.2 Track Spec SL’s in Matte Black Face w/Gloss Black Lip and Barrel
17″ Weld Racing Rears Powder Coated Satin Black
Eibach Coupe Spring (fronts cut 5″)
R1 Concepts Premium Drilled and Slotted Rotors
Hawk HP Plus Pads
ZR1 Blue Powdercoated Calipers
20% Ceramic tint all around

Interior

Pioneer AppRadio
Metra CTS-V Kit
Steering Wheel Control Module
Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.3
Alpine PDX-F4
Alpine PDX-V9
Scanspeak Discovery 10F 4″ Midrange
DLS Iridium 8 – 8″ midbasses
Vifa 1″ silk dome tweeters (in custom fiberglassed a-pillars
JPM Coachworks shift knob and shift boot (black Alcantara/blue stitching)
JPM Coachworks steering wheel (black Alcantara/blue stitching)
JPM Coachworks armrests (black Alcantara/blue stitching)
JPM Coachworks gauge hood (black Alcantara/blue stitching)
DashCommand Data Monitoring through the AppRadio
Dynamat installed in entire interior
XSPower Battery

Exterior

Chrome window trim vinyl covered with satin black
Satin black painted grey plastic pieces and front lip
Satin black painted rear chrome trim
Gloss vinyl wrapped and black Plastidip front grill
Tinted rear tail lights
Satin black painted chrome headlights
New 5k HID bulbs

As you guys can probably imagine…this isn’t an easy decision for me. It is time though and I hope the new owner can have as much fun with her as I did. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Spring 2016 GA wannaGOFAST: New Personal Best!

May 20, 2016

Tagged : 1/2 mile, bmw, cadillac, ctsv, e92, m3, wannagofast

Categories: Stuff I Like Transportation

It was a great weekend at the wannaGOFAST GA 1/2 mile event. I really look forward to this one as it is 2 hours from my house. There were a lot of friends and my family there. On Saturday, I hit a new personal best of 178.00mph. The car had 180+ in it but I couldn’t keep the wheels from spinning…even at 178mph while crossing the traps! It made for a crazy ride every single pass.

The main reason every run was so scary was that I think the rear shocks are finally completely blown. The rear end of the car was bouncing really bad and it was making the suspension light come on every time the nitrous hit. Having the rear end weight and unweight at those speeds isn’t the safest thing to do. On one pass, a friend of mine went to record it with his phone to eventually just drop it and start running because he thought I was about to put the car in the trees. Luckily, I lifted and was able to get it straight…but by that time I was already in the wrong lane! The ride home was really rough like there isn’t even any fluid left in them. I have been wanting to upgrade the suspension for a long time now so this is the perfect opportunity to look at aftermarket options to really get the car to hook. Because of this…this write-up isn’t a pass by pass reading like the others. All of the passes were a mess and I was nervous to start every nitrous pass of the weekend.

That said…for those of you that know the GA track…it is not a record setting event at all so I am still extremely happy with 178mph especially with the traction issues I was having. 180 soon…

By far the highlight of the weekend was being able to race with my wife for the first time in her M3. This was her first time racing ever and she enjoyed the hell out of it. I don’t know how…but she was able to pull off back to back 135mph runs in a car that is only supposed to do 131mph in the half. She was driving the hell out of the car and now she wants to go faster. I foresee an ESS blower in her future!

We even got to line up for a pass. I needed to do a boost only log (as it turned out I fouled a plug on the previous nitrous pass). She left early on me on purpose! I was able to pass her half track on 7 cylinders. It was awesome watching her drive.

As always…the support from Vengeance Racing at the event was outstanding for both me and my wife. I really couldn’t have this much fun with a car without those guys. This had to be the best time I have ever had at a 1/2 mile event. While my setup wasn’t working the way I wanted (the power was there and the car was running great…I just couldn’t get it to the ground), being able to enjoy this with my wife and race with her is something I will never forget. I can’t wait to do it all again with both cars faster. She is officially addicted to 1/2 mile racing.

Also a huge thanks to Danny, Ryan and the rest of the Shine Auto Salon crew for the hospitality for me and the family over the weekend. The lake house was awesome and it was great hanging out with friends over the weekend.

wannaGOFAST VA 2016 Recap – NOPOWER Cadillac CTS-V

May 4, 2016

Tagged :

Categories: Stuff I Like Transportation

A friend of mine reminded me that I needed to get back to recapping the events since I forgot to do the Florida event…so here we go.

The event in Virginia is one of my favorites. The track has a lot of grip but it is not a record setting track at all due to the elevation. It is the views off of either side of the runway at Ingalls Field that are absolutely amazing. You can see mountains for what seems like states. We really don’t get views like this at any other event. To make matters even better, the Omni resort that we stay in Hot Springs, VA is awesome. Last year I roomed with a friend of mine and after seeing the place I knew I had to bring my wife this time around. She ended up coming along with a really good friend of mine with his Chevy SS and his wife. Randy with his TT Vette and V3 CTS-V was also coming with his wife so it was turning into an adult vacation weekend.

We got there on Friday after a quick stop Thursday night in Asheville, NC (Wicked Weed has some awesome beer!) and headed up to the runway after checking in to drop off the V. The weather was insanely nice and the views lived up to my memories of them.

On Saturday morning, the wive’s went to the huge spa for a message and we headed to the track…

Saturday at Ingalls Field Airstrip

We woke up Saturday morning with a surprise. The weather at the resort was perfect. The weather had been threatening to be bad all weekend long and as we walked outside, we were pumped for a full day of racing as it was overcast and cool…perfect…or so we thought.

As we started the climb up the road to the airstrip the conditions went from perfect to horrible. Apparently there wasn’t any rain to be found, but the clouds had lowered to the point you couldn’t see 15 feet away from your hand up at the airstrip. We waited around until about 1pm to see if they were going to lift until we decided to head back down to the resort for lunch. As you can expect…the weather was still great there and everyone was playing golf. The forecast called for rain all Sunday so I ended up going and picking up my car and brought it back down to the resort on the trailer just in case it was a rainout. There was not a single pass by anyone on Saturday. We had a great dinner, hung out and relaxed.

Sunday at the VA 1/2 Mile

Sunday was supposed to be a complete washout. We woke up to rain in the morning and decided to wait until about 10:30 before even heading up to the airstrip. About 11am…the sky opened up and the sun was out. This was not supposed to happen! The weatherman was wrong both days for the airstrip but I’ll take it. I unloaded the car as they were drying off the track and we were getting ready to race. The bad news was the friend of mine that I brought up only bought a Saturday pass was already headed home after seeing the rain.

While the track was dry the air was horrible. There was 100% humidity with about 8,000 ft DA. For those of you that don’t know what that means…there is a lot of water in the air and very little oxygen. The cars really need better air conditions to run at their best. While air conditions were bad last year…this was on another level. My car was down 3.5 pounds of boost due to just the air quality. It really didn’t matter in the long run though…we were racing and I was using this event as a test and tune on my car anyway as we got the new fuel system dialed in with the built motor. This was going to be fun to get some passes in while getting the car setup for GA in two weeks.

Run #1 – 151mph Boost Only

I did the first pass of the day against a turbo Cyclone. I hadn’t seen one of those in years! We both took off and I was on a baby tune just to get a log on the car so Mike could start working his magic on my C16 tune. The race was neck and neck. I got him by a few but he would actually end up running faster than this pass later. He was a really cool guy who wanted to recount the entire run later. That is why I really love these events. As a point of reference…my car runs 160+ on boost only at other events. The MPH on this trip was going to be way off.

Run #2 – 153mph Boost Only

Mike made some tweaks to the tune and I headed back out. This time I lined up against a new Nissan GT-R Nismo edition. It’s a beautiful car. We took off and he got out on me a little bit at the line thanks to AWD but I ended up reeling him in and passing him right before the line. That was a fun race even though I wasn’t spraying yet. He came to talk to me later in the day as well about the run and we sat there and talked cars for a bit.

Run #3 – I don’t know the MPH – Nitrous 57 Jets

I headed out for the first nitrous hit trying something new. I really have been wanting to get first gear lockout to work so I don’t have to pedal 1st gear so bad keeping nitrous out of the system. The hope was to get the MPH up in 1st to be able to try to hit nitrous harder in 2nd. It didn’t work. The kit didn’t come on until 4th for some reason so I just ended up pulling straight into the pits.

Run #4 – 166mph – Nitrous 57 Jets

I headed back out after cooling everything down. Everything on the run went great until I got to the 3/4 shift. I over revved 3rd and ended up getting locked out of 4th. I had to clutch in and back out again to get it to shift so obviously the MPH suffered due to the lost time. Even with that…we got another good log on the car so it was time to look at the data. It was time to jet up a bit and see how things go. I have been running the 57 jets for a year on the stock block pulling no timing. Now we were pulling 4 degrees on the built motor so instead of turning my favorite knob we went to the bigger jets.

Run #5 – 174mph – Nitrous 62 Jets

For this run, I lined up with Randy in his bolt-0n/cam V3 for a fun run. We pull up to the line and he takes off before the tree lights even come on! I yell “that mother *&$#^%!” and take off. The car feels awesome. The built motor is taking the increased hit very well and I am off and rolling. He took off so much before me I couldn’t real him in even after finishing 20mph higher. That would become a fun joke between all of us the rest of the weekend. We got the car back in the pits and took a look at the log. Everything was perfect but we were still way down in boost thanks to the air.

Run #5 – 165mph – Nitrous 62 Jets

I went out for another run but got locked out of 4th again. I am starting to think my completely stock TR6060 is starting to see some wear…especially the syncros. It might be time for a RPM trans eventually. We’ll see how the car does in GA under better conditions.

The Weekend Overall

While it may seem like the weekend should have sucked thanks to the conditions and weather…it didn’t. I got to hang out with friends, stay in an awesome resort, race my car and hang out with my wife. Even if it wasn’t record setting and we didn’t get as many passes in as we would have hoped…I don’t care. I had a great weekend and would do it all over again tomorrow.

As always, Vengeance Racing over delivered and produced me with a car that won the 4 door class and was faster than all of the heavy weights at the event as well. The support and encouragement is always incredible and I am thankful to have a group that I can work with like this and call friends/family. I really wish my friend with the SS would have gotten passes in but that is just racing sometimes. You can’t control the weather. Blake and his crew at wannaGOFAST put on another amazing event despite the hurdles. We are now ready for GA.

176.74mph!!! 2015 September wannaGOFAST GA Event Recap

September 14, 2015

Tagged : 1/2 mile, ctsv, racing, wannagofast

Categories: Stuff I Like Transportation

What an awesome weekend of ½ mile racing. I really don’t even know where to start so let’s just jump into it.

The September ½ mile event in GA is one of the best. It is a long standing event with wannaGOFAST and it is 2 hours away from my house. Leading up to the event, the weather looked like it was going to be near perfect with an even cooler day on Sunday. We did the normal prep on the car with an oil change and a general look over, but…other than that…the car remained unchanged from last event outside of having even more miles on the stock short block. It is now over 94,500 miles on the clock!

We arrived Friday night and I dropped the car off at the airstrip with the rest of the Vengeance customers ready for a Saturday full of racing.

Day #1 – Saturday

We arrived at Heaven’s Landing early Saturday morning ready to prep the car. I filled up the tank with 10 gallons of MS109 race fuel, filled the meth, topped off the C16 standalone and loaded up 2 full nitrous tanks into the trunk. After letting it idle a bit we were ready to go. A friend of mine and Vengeance Racing customer offered me a sponsor slot for this race so I would be able to run at the top of every hour without waiting in the long regular line. It does make staging for the passes much easier.

Run #1 – 154mph

This event I was going to do something different. Since I already make multiple boost only passes on this car a day, I thought it would be fun to go out on kill for the first run to set the bar. Common sense settled in right before the run and I decided to do a boost only pass just to get the fuel really running through the car. I had run the car down so far on fuel on Friday that I was actually worried about getting it up to the strip but it was still a good idea to get a good WOT pass in to really get it flowing. My car is not geared at all for boost passes with the 3.23 auto gear in it. I pass the traps no where near peak power. It’s really kind of boring but it has a purpose.

Run #2 – 150 mph

For this run we tried something new…and it didn’t work. We set up the nitrous progressive controller to skip 1^st gear and come on strong in second. In theory, this was going to work perfectly as I get to 65 mph in 1^st. 2^nd gear traction was going to be there and ready for the 200 hit. One big problem. The syncros in my TR6060 trans are starting to let go on 2^nd gear thanks to all of the abuse I give this car. When I went to shift into 2^nd…I couldn’t get in. By the time I did, too much time had elapsed and I had double clutched so the progressive controller thought I was done. Another boost pass it was with a ton of lost time so I just drove to the Sunday grocery store run to the line.

Run #3 – 172mph

I came back in and we took off the 1^st gear lockout. Now I just had to short shift and pedal first to get into second and hope that wheel spin could be kept at a minimum. Overall the car did great but I could feel that it was pulling timing up top. We put a data logger in the car and got ready for the next run. I also was in the left lane that had a bump in it close to my 2^nd gear hit. The rear tires left the ground…pegged the limiter and the car took off with some wheel spin before I hit 3^rd.

Run #4 – 174 mph

Run number 4 of the day went a lot like #3 except I got in the right lane. We pulled the data log and the car was getting too hot on the back end of the pull. I knew exactly why. In staging we were spending a ton of time at the end of the strip waiting for all of the sponsor cars to get in and the car was just heat soaking. I really needed to get IAT2’s down to keep the car pulling at the end of the run.

Day #2 – Sunday

We woke up to a really cool Sunday morning .The morning passes were going to be FAST. I got the car ready with full bottles looking to make a monster pass in the morning.

Run #1 – 0 mph

I took the first run and the car shot out of the hole like a bat out of hell. The cooler air was really working well. I was in the left lane that was known to have a big hump towards the beginning of the run like I had already experienced the day before. In all reality, it probably wasn’t as much of an issue for other cars as it was mine. It just happened that the hump in the runway was timed perfectly with where I needed the full boat of nitrous to hit. The car was squatting and taking off the hardest right where that point was. The nitrous hit hard thanks to a little over pressurized bottle right in the hump and sent the car air born (also pegged my 7500rpm rev limiter again!) While just trying to keep the car straight it also popped out of 2^nd in the process. Cussing inside the car I just pulled it off the strip and went straight to the pits. I had just wasted probably the best pass I was going to have that day.

Run #2 – 173 mph

The air was still cool and the car was already ready to go so I pulled back around to go for another pass the next hour. The next sponsor run was full so I had to wait until 11am and the air was starting to get hotter. When the time came to make the run, I took the right lane and went first. The pass was clean and the car was fast but it was still pulling out timing up top. I pulled back in and went over options.

Run #3 – 176.74 mph

Getting ready for the next run, we didn’t want to change anything with the car. Other than the heat issue it was running incredibly well so jetting up or getting more aggressive really didn’t make any sense on the high mileage stock short block. We made the decision that we were just going to ice down the car as much as possible to try to keep IAT2’s stable. The next run was supposed to be at 1pm so I spent the next hour putting ice in the HX tank and cycling it through the system. I have the pump hardwired to the accessory switch so I could turn on the pump without starting the car. I sat in the car at 5 until 1pm calming myself down ready to go…then they told us they weren’t going to do the sponsor cars until 2! I brought the cooler back and iced her down for another hour.

At 2pm we rolled out and started staging. I was about 12 cars back in line but my IAT2’s were 67 degrees!! By the time I pulled up to the line, they were sitting at 83 degrees but stable. I did my short burnout , turned on Rage Against the Machine on the sound system, took a deep breath and got ready to launch. 1^st gear rollout was perfect. I short shifted 1^st at 4,500 rpms and just flat out stabbed 2^nd gear. Wheel spin!!!! Grabbed! I then shifted hard into third and the car was ROLLING. I shifted 3^rd at 7k and slammed my right foot to the floor. I literally thought I might push the gas pedal straight through the floor. Come on baby! GOOOO! Top end of 4^th was pulling like a damn freight train! Holy shit this is much faster than before! Crossed through the traps, clutched in, took a deep breath and looked down at my gauge. IAT2’s at 115 degrees and falling. The car didn’t pull anything…other than some massive g-forces.

I rolled around to the timing tent hoping for the best. I kept my helmet on and everything…I just wanted to see the slip. It felt freaking fast but you never really know until you get the slip. I pulled up and took a look…176.74mph!!!! Holy shit! I pulled down the ramp, revved the car up and purged the nitrous! We had done it. After giving Ron (the owner of Vengeance) a huge thanks I made my way up to my wife and gave her a huge hug. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t tearing up a little bit when I hugged her. She is as much a part of this process as I am and she is a mechanical engineer so she really gets it. I don’t know why she married me but I am glad she did (in all fairness…I did warn her to what she was getting into!!).

Another personal best and I reset the LSA record. At the time, I actually thought it was the world CTS-V overall record until I came home and found out that Brett had run a 176.77 in his Maggie powered built 427. .03 mph off some of the best built motor cars out there…I ‘ll take that for sure. It is probably a good thing I didn’t know that at the track as I had to leave after the run and I probably would have hurt something with one of those infamous “one last run” moves.

On a side note. My son was also at the event and he will be 4 next month. Apparently, he thought I could hear him cheering me on in the car so he was screaming “spray it! Spray it Daddy!” on my last pass. He really does think that he helped me on that last run which melts my heart. He also ran up and gave me a huge hug when he saw me yelling “Daddy you won!”. It doesn’t get much better than that. It was awesome to have him there to share the experience with.

So broken record time but it needs to be said…

It is unbelievable to me what Vengeance and myself have been able to accomplish with this car. A 94,500+ mile stock short block that is competing with the best of the best in the CTS-V world. Even better…we have not touched the tune at all during or in between these events. I just keeps running, winning and daily driving like a champ. The customer experience at Vengeance Racing is unlike anything else I have ever experienced in my long history of modifying cars and being a part of the tuning industry. It is simply insane what they are able to accomplish and I am glad to call them close friends and family. I might be starting to sound like an obsessed cheerleader but that really is the experience that this shop creates and I got to hang out with 30+ customers this weekend that feel the exact same way. It was an awesome weekend.

Once again, I drove my car to the event…raced it…drove it home…then work up the next day and drove it to daycare and the airport.

Next up is TX to take on the TX CTS-V Club boys. We will be bringing the heat for sure! It has been a bucket list item for me to make this trip and I can’t think of a cooler group of guys/cars to race against. It is going to be an incredible trip. It is also incredibly cool that the group of people on the CTSVOwners.com forum and the guys at the top of the respective ¼ and ½ mile lists are so close and fun to race with. It’s not everywhere that I can be racing with guys from TX and Canada that I also get to stay in close touch with over the year.

Until the next event…N0P0WER CTS-V will keep tearing up the streets of north Atlanta racking up even more miles all while rocking a Recaro baby seat. Damn I love this car.

It’s early in the week so I’ll add pictures and videos to this thread as I get them complete and get them in from friends that were taking shots there. I never even got my camera out of the car but I did get one of the 170+ runs from two GoPros. I left them off for my last shot at a glory pass that was the 176 run. Maybe I should have taped up the fog lights too to get that .03 extra!