Bolt-On CTS-V Puts Down 535RWHP, Runs 11.6 At 122MPH

As we all know by now, factory boosted cars respond incredibly well to simple bolt-ons such as cold air intakes, exhaust upgrades, an increase in boost pressure and a good tune. Gearheads discovered this back in the mid-’80s with the turbo Buicks, and the same can be said about today’s supercharged LSA and LS9-powered beasts, like the Corvette ZR1 and the CTS-V. Browsing the forums of LS1Tech.com recently, we’ve come across a very interesting car that was tuned by the mad scientists at DiabloSport. It’s a 2009 CTS-V, and though it may look completely factory, it’s got a few tricks up its sleeve in the form of a tune, a pulley swap, a cold air kit, and a Hennessey heat exchanger.

But in order to find out more about it, we had to get in touch with the man who tuned it, Mike Litsch of DiabloSport Tuners. We let Mike explain in his own words how the car came to be and how it helped reunite three old street racing buddies in the process. Take it away, Mike:

For starters, the owner of this car (Marsad, aka Litig8r), the builder of this car (Jamie Wells, aka V-SeriesTech) and myself, used to street race together 10 years ago, in another world. When I started working [for DiabloSport], Marsad had bought a 300C SRT8 and done heads and cam and had it tuned here, which was the first time we ran into each other in years. Fast forward to last month when he bought the V, the first person he called was Johan, who is our GM/Chrysler tuner, to look into making it faster.”

“Johan suggested to Marsad that he contact Jamie, who works at a local Cadillac dealership where they are very mod friendly. It didn’t take Marsad long to realize he was meeting up with one of his old buddies from the street racing days. A plan was quickly hatched to first send the car to us for a baseline tune on the stock car (which will eventually go into our Trinity tuner for any V owner to use), then back to Jamie for a few well chosen mods, including a W4M lower pulley, an Airaid CAI, and a Hennessey heat exchanger. Once the new parts were installed, the car came right back to our dyno for a retune, where it laid down some impressive numbers along the lines of 535 rwhp/578 ft/lbs of torque at 14 psi, on a safe, conservative tune. This same tune will also be available in the Trinity as the CTS-V ‘Pulley’ tune.”

“At this point, we all knew the dyno numbers were just dyno numbers, and Marsad wasted no time in backing them up. He went to the track on Sunday morning, and while I was still catching some Z’s, he ran an 11.60 @ 122 right off the highway. After a nice cool down, a backup run in the hottest part of the day produced an 11.58 @ 121... Next up, we’re looking into ways to improve the efficiency of the stock intercooler system with a larger reservoir and maybe an upgraded intercooler pump.”

So as you can see, it doesn’t take much for these factory-boosted LS mills to respond. Although we’ve seen faster and more built “Vees” out there, this car represents what can be done with a few well chosen, inexpensive modifications. The future is wide open for the LSA/LS9 plants, and we look forward to seeing what tuners do to the upcoming Camaro ZL1!

About the author

Rick Seitz

Being into cars at a very early age, Rick has always preferred GM performance cars, and today's LS series engines just sealed the deal. When he's not busy running errands around town in his CTS-V, you can find him in the garage wrenching on his WS6 Trans Am, or at the local cruise spots in his Grand National.
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