2014 Cadillac CTS-V Wagon......and a tuba.

4282!? Did you remove the load of flooring???

Impressive % numbers for a stock vehicle, never mind a wagoon.

The car had about a single gallon of gas it it then too. It's a pig, but it's a fun pig.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Careful with that primer there hot shot.

I almost had a heart attack thinking this was the V when I first scrolled

Back from another track weekend in the V wagon. Two days at Eagles Canyon Raceway in Decatur Texas with NASA. Had a great time. I did seven 20 minute sessions in the car and a friend did one. I guess I'm still doing well because they gave me one of these. I spent the last two sessions in the advanced group with the better drivers and more open passing rules. They even sent a driver out in a proper race car to tail me closely for a bit and then pass me in a corner to see how I'd react. They say I did good and should be thinking about competition school. We'll see.
The car did well. It did puke a bit of fluid out of the rear end on the second day. The diff is known to have an overheating issue on these cars though mine never threw the hot diff light at me. I drained the old fluid and filled it with Royal Purple fluid this morning. The fluid looked good. Used, but no chunks or terribly nasty stuff. I pulled 1.25 quarts out and put 1.5 quarts in, so not that much leaked. It looked like the fluid came out of the passenger side axle seal, but it wasn't leaking at all off track. When I pulled the drain plug this morning the diff sucked in air like there was vacuum in there. Oddly I can't find any vent on the diff at all. It looks like the fluid got hot and expanded enough to push some past and axle seal. I'm going to keep an eye on it.
The wagon is also a fantastic place to take a nap between sessions. It is big enough for me to stretch out completely with the seats down. It was very nice.

Went autocrossing again. Finished 4th of 7 in FS, 0.07 out of the trophies. A friend's BRZ ate a cam gear so he co-drove with me. He was ahead of me until the very last run. Thank goodness we got 6 runs.
Another friend is experiencing ring land failure on his Sti (broken Subarus everywhere!) so he took a run too. He's actually fast and put just over two seconds on my best time. In his first drive in the car. I guess I need more practice.
Had a very fun day though and people continue to be very positive about the giant wagon wherever I go.

Headed back to the track this weekend. MSR Houston, so it's close to home. Since the last track day I've done three autocrosses with a co-driver at each one. The RS3's were getting pretty thin on the outside shoulders, so I flipped them. Now we see how much longer they last.
What else.......brakes! Everyone has told me repeatedly that stopping 4400lbs on track must surely destroy pads almost immediately. 7200 miles, a bunch of autocrossing and four days on track must have me down to the backing plates, yes? Doesn't look like it, but I ordered more stock pads anyway. Why stock? A couple of reasons. First, a lot of reading lead me to understand that the stock pads aren't too bad for track work. Most people on 200tw tires were getting several weekend out of them at least. Combine that with nice street manners and the fact that I wouldn't have to worry about buying new disks or resurfacing my current ones, and I went for it. $350 for all four wheels. And this was much cheaper than "track" pads for the V. Ouch. When the new pads came I bought a caliper. The measuring kind. I decided that with as much as these pads cost, I should get as much out of them as I could, and the only way to do that was to take real proper measurements. A new set of front pads measures 0.769 inches for the both.
Pulling a set of my 'heavily used' stock pads gave me a measurement of 0.560 inches, or right around 73% left.
If I poked around and measured corners of the pads individually, I could find wear as far down as 67% left. All of it outside the 50% wear recommended for replacing pads for track use.
I pulled the rear too and had 80% pad left. I'll leave all of these pads on for this weekend and probably pull a set of the fronts Saturday evening and see where I am for Sunday. Pulling pads is a five minute job now that I've done it a couple of times.

Great choice of car man! My stepdad has a '12 V wagon, auto. He's kind enough to let me use it freely when I'm home, even though he knows how I drive! I'm really not a fan of automatics, but after driving that I'm kind of inclined to think for a daily, the automatic trans is the right choice in that car! Did you get to drive an auto before you bought the manual?

Took my fiancé out in it on our first date when it was brand new, took her for a run through the canyons after dinner, it was the first time I'd really stretched its legs, and wow! I credit the V for the success of that date! Haha!

You're absolutely right about it being easy to get into trouble with, If you're anything but 100% responsible it's a liability on the road. I'd love to get one of these things on a track!

Went to the track again. No pictures because I was a bit frustrated. The differential leak I had last time which I thought was due to hear was not. Right from the get go I was getting smoke on long left turns as diff fluid piled up against the leaking seal and spilled onto the exhaust. I must have had 15 people mention that the car was smoking in corners. I checked the fluid at mid day and again at the end of the day and had to add about two ounces of fluid total. Not bad. Day two of the track weekend saw me babying the car on the long left and checking the fluid again at lunch. That's when I noticed that the passengers side axle was coming out of the diff and had moved out about 3/4 of an inch.
Uh oh.
No bad noises, no extra heat, so I called it a day and drove home. I took it into the dealer this morning and they confirmed that a C clip had popped off. They said it wasn't deformed in any way and it may not have been seated properly at the factory. They replaced the axle seal just in case and buttoned it up and sent me home under warranty. They assured me thst everything slid back together well and that there wasn't any spline damage.
So the car kind of broke, but it wasn't my fault and Cadillac probably fixed it.

booo c clips

50 cent clip that some goober screws up makes wheel of 70k wagon fall off. Makes total sense.

It wasn't going to make the wheel fall off. It's IRS so it was going to let the axle fall out of the diff. It would have been like one of the axles on your Toyota popping out of the trans and flopping around until you stopped, but backwards. It certainly would have been exciting at 120mph on track.
Speaking of speed, the spedometer is a big fat liar. When it says 131 or so, the GPS says it's only going 124. But maybe the track tires are just smaller.

While crusing the Hot wheels/Matchbox section at the store I came upon the Outdoor Sights 5-Pack. A Honda Ridgeline, a CTS-V wagon, a big communications truck, a Suburban, and a camping trailer.
Wait....
How does a CTS-V wagon fit into that group?

Glad to hear you enjoyed Eagles Canyon. It's a nice course and was an easy drive from north dallas...

How does a CTS-V wagon fit into that group?

It is a thing that can be.. seen.. outdoors?

New shoes for One Lap!
Branded.
They weigh just under 27 lbs each and are another 3/4 of an inch wider than the RS3's at 10 3/4 inches (275mm) across the tread. The 275 RS3's are something like 255 across the tread and the 285 Pilot Sports on the back of the car are about 250. They're enormous. I hope they don't rub.

Those tires look great. I also noticed they come in 265/35-18 which I think I could fit on the front of my car, and 275/35-19 for the rear. That would probably give me the amount of front end bite I'm currently lacking with 245/40-18 front tires. Just over $1200 for a set on Tirerack, good thing my RS3s should last the rest of this year.

Interesting data point, I cannot break the rear loose with a second gear roll. I could do that quite easily with the stock pilot sports and the RS3's. These just hook and go. Still a lot to be learned, but there is certainly something going on. They kind of fit under the car. Mostly.

Was looking at picking up a set when my current run out. Let me know how they work for you.

I was talking to someone at autocross and they were wondering how long they would last. "About a week."

Not much happening in this thread because all the action was in my One Lap of America thread where the CTS-V did it's job well.
Mazdeuce Does One Lap
On Friday I'm headed back to the dealer to try and get the axle issue resolved for good. Should be interesting rolling in looking like this. What could go wrong?

Just take in the e-mail from the dude at Caddy you communicated with :)

I like how you think Adrian.

Better yet, hand the service manager your phone with Tony on the other end!

Todd

So how did you like the RE-71R tires?

Saw in the other thread you had plenty of tread left after One Lap.

I spent the day with Tony at the Detroit GP today and he told me he's been working with you on getting your car fixed Seth. He described multiple issues to me.

Rode to the Detroit GP in the new CTS-V with Tony and his wife. Car was very impressive

In reply to wawazat:

I've really enjoyed talking to Tony. He clearly loves these cars and has been a big help.
I'm very jealous that you got a ride in the new CTS-V. That car looks like a beast.