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No, the big news is the aforementioned Venom GT power unit. The 93 octane pump gas slurping 7.0L twin-turbo V8 is installed in place of the stock 6.2L supercharged V8, and by the time the engine’s power passes through the 6-speed manual transmission and other driveline components, it’s spinning the rear wheels to the tune of 1,066hp and 964 lb.-ft of torque. Using the typical 15% drivetrain friction loss factor, the numbers at the flywheel come out to 1,226hp and 1,109 lb.-ft. Those figures are whack-a-doodle in any car, but in a Cadillac weighing more than two tons and features like air conditioning, a banging stereo system and GPS navigation, they’re crazy on a level comparable to a Terry Crews Old Spice commercial featuring a cameo from Britney Spears during her Telly Savalas coiffure phase.

And of course, nutso power and torque figures tend to yield nutso performance figures, and the VR1200 doesn’t disappoint in this regard. Hennessey projects 0-60 mph blitzes will – if you can get the rear tires to hook up – take 2.9 seconds. The quarter mile should go by in 10.2 seconds with a trap speed of 141 mph. And the top speed, which is 189 mph for a stock manual CTS-V Coupe, leaps to 242 mph. For those keeping score, that’s 1 mph faster than a certain ‘90s supercar called the McLaren F1. Yeah, that was our reaction, too.

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