The Cadillac CTS-V wagon is one of the most brutally entertaining cars I've ever driven. Of course, as today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe Canepa Express proves, sometimes too much is never enough. Will that however, apply to its price as well?
Let's think of some things that don't really seem to go together but strangely enough are being matched- Ben Affleck and non-ironic Batman, wealthy European men and speedo swim attire, and, as noted by its 78% Crack Pipe loss, yesterday's 1997 Jeep and its 2JZ mill, at least not for eighteen grand.
You know what two things - for the longest time at least - didn't seem to go together at all? That's right, you got it: Cadillac and brutal, anvil to the head-level performance. No, for years, Caddy's products were aimed at retirement rather than engagement, and most drivers wore blue hair instead of a helmet.
Baby steps were taken with the advent of the Seville STS, a sub-model that in the '90s demonstrated that the luxury marque's cars could ride and handle without the the appearance of ass anesthetics. The later CTS models made that standard, and when fitted with a waffle grille, massive 6.2-litres of romper-stomper V8, and a V badge, the cars put Cadillac on a whole new plateau. One of the coolest of the CTS-V models - and one of our favorites to boot - is the one with the big boot, er, hatch, the CTS long roof in V form.
The resulting wagon is a total hoot and a half to drive, and putting your foot into one is an experience - like tasting a 30-year old single malt or losing your virginity without the shame of Whitesnake provide the sound track - that everyone should have. In fact, I would go so far as to equate driving one to riding SpaceX's Falcon Heavy while cosseted in leather and origami styling.
Of course you can never have too much of a good thing and that's why California's Canepa Design has taken the time to breathe on the last-gen CTS-V, giving the car a wider stance, flared fenders, and a host of other modifications to ensure your Caddy stands out from the crowd at the polo field valet stand. This 2012 CTS-V has been just so Canepa'd, and like the creepy kind of belly buttons, it does stand out
Now, right up front, I want to note that there people out there who have differing opinions about Bruce Canepa and his dalliances into Porsche 959 domestication among other things. I'm just going to leave it at that. There is however, no denying the fact that Canapa has touched, traded, restored, or revamped just about every type of interesting car on the planet, and the CTS-V can surely be counted as pretty damn interesting.
Cadillac built just 1,200 of these 556-horse beasties, and straight from the factory the car is one bad motorscooter. Canepa Design appends a body kit that is based on the wide-load Bridgestone Coupe that the company brought to SEMA back in 2011. It drops like a urban gangster's drawers and sits on HRE Performance alloys that are wrapped in some serious meats. The whole shebang - including the grille - is painted in opulent blue, and the car has been pretty much denuded of badging.
For a company dedicated to performance enhancements, there's surprisingly little info to be had about what the Canepa mods do for the CTS-V other than making it look a ton more aggressive and make its owner sourpuss those narrow 'compact' parking spaces.
The CTS-V wagon is a rare enough bird as it is, and with the Canepa Design visual cues, this particular one will be an eagle among the pigeons. Of course, at $71,999, you'll now need to vote whether or not someone would be a birdbrain to buy it.
You decide!
SF Bay Area Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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