Only three Cadillac CTS-V.R Coupes were ever built. Now one of them is for sale at $249,000, and that price looks like a bargain when you consider what this car actually is.
Chassis number three rolled out of the Pratt & Miller shop after an eight-month development blitz with General Motors. The program targeted the Pirelli World Challenge GT Championship, and it dominated. Johnny O’Connell and Andy Pilgrim used the CTS-V.R platform to reel off three consecutive drivers’ championships from 2012 through 2014, plus two manufacturers’ titles for Cadillac in 2012 and 2013.
This particular car was piloted by Jordan Taylor during select World Challenge rounds, including Mid-Ohio appearances in 2012 and 2013. Taylor put it on the podium during its competitive career.
What separates this listing from the usual retired-racer fare is completeness. Too often, cars with this kind of pedigree get stripped and sold as rolling shells, their drivetrains scattered to the wind. Chassis three comes as a full, turnkey package with the naturally aspirated LS3 V8 sitting where it belongs.
The $249,000 asking price also buys a serious inventory of spares. Multiple wheel sets, spare bodywork, brake and suspension components, and subframes are all included. If the buyer wants to go deeper, a complete spare LS3 engine, Xtrac transmission, and differential are available separately.
Three cars. Three championships. The CTS-V.R program was a case study in doing more with less, and Pratt & Miller’s engineering made each chassis count in ways that bigger factory efforts with deeper rosters rarely manage. The coupe was one of the best-looking machines on the World Challenge grid during its era, a genuinely aggressive piece of American racing hardware that backed up its looks with results.
Chassis three is reportedly the only example that has seen active competition in recent years. That means it hasn’t been sitting in a climate-controlled museum slowly becoming a static display piece. Someone has been running it, keeping the mechanicals alive.
Race cars with this level of historical provenance and this level of rarity almost never come to market in ready-to-run condition with a spare parts catalog included. A quarter million dollars sounds like real money until you start comparing it to what lesser machines with thinner résumés fetch at auction. Factory-backed championship winners from limited production runs tend to appreciate, not depreciate.
The window to buy a piece of Cadillac’s modern racing legacy is open. Given that only two other examples exist on the planet, it probably won’t stay open long.
Share this Story