First time V-car owner

[jcsperson]

Hi all,

I brought home a very lightly-used 2024 CT4-V Blackwing Friday. It's my first Cadillac. Previously I had a 2017 C7 Grand Sport and before that a 2001 C5 coupe. Over the years I've had a Camaro, Porsche 911T, VW GTI, and Mazda RX7 FD prior to the Corvettes. I used to track my C5 at VIR. This car might see the occasional track day.

It's nicely equipped:

The Gen 4 MRC is much better than on the Corvette. I'm pretty much a techtard and this has all kinds of stuff my C7 didn't have. I'm looking forward to learning more about this car and getting some pointers from long-term owners.

 

[Rob]

Congrats!

 

[Roadhawk]

Congrats! We will want to hear more WRT impressions of and experiences with the car considering all the nice and diverse vehicles you have owned and driven.

Does jcs refer to Joint Chiefs of Staff or something else? Curious since I worked for them for many years...

 

[jcsperson]

Does jcs refer to Joint Chiefs of Staff or something else? Curious since I worked for them for many years...

My first dog was named JC. He was my dog and I was his person.

 

[Roadhawk]

Cool...so whats NF on the tail of that fighter jet? I assume its a jet....did you fly in the Air Force? (I used to work with a lot of those guys as well).

Also don't forget to give us some car impression as you drive and experience it more...

 

[jcsperson]

Cool...so whats NF on the tail of that fighter jet? I assume its a jet....did you fly in the Air Force? (I used to work with a lot of those guys as well).

NF was the tail code for Carrier Air Wing 5. I was a Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) back in the '80s. My squadron was VF-151 and we flew the F-4 Phantom.

 

[Roadhawk]

Awesome. My father-in-law (recently deceased) flew F-4s in Vietnam back in the mid-late 1960s.

Back in the late 90s early 2000s I drove in (and won) a street race called the meatball (loosely patterned after the Cannonball). The race was originally conceived in the 1980s by navy pilots & radar guys (anti-submarine) out of Annapolis MD. Originally point to point it had morphed into a scavenger hunt type of race. We ran it (in a superchaged mazda Millenia) 3 times and (to the amazement and disbelief of others confounding all predictions) won it all 3 times...to the point they stopped holding the race feeling no one could ever beat us (plus they were getting old).

Usually there were about 12-18 cars or so....each with a driver and navigator (though a blow up doll was officially accepted as a navigator option). No one knew the course before the race. Each team was given a slot and given the instructions (coordinates/place names in a list) with no order or directions and teams left at 5 minute intervals. Often the destinations and what you had to do for proof you were there involved purchasing something or counting boards on a wooden bridge, gravestone rubbing etc....most often very tongue and cheek.

Anyway, for a race where the winners usually finished in 4-5 hours we won the first race by 15 min, the second by 1/2 hour and the third by a full hour....even after they made excuses and brought back prior legendary race winners who still couldn't take us. The 3rd year we won the triple crown - fastest time, least distance and highest average speed....which for us was 67 MPH over a mostly backroads course including 8-9 stops plus gas fillup. My (excellent) navigator lost it out the window at least once all 3 races.

The race always began at 10 AM and to claim the crown you could not be seen without a beer in hand (or mouth) at any time from when you came in until midnight where a court was held with the winners presiding and each team telling a tale of their adventures....many were often hillarious (and some included encounters with cops....etc). Unfortunately we killed it for being too good...

The interesting thing is that many of the participants were ex navy pilots/navigators etc who used tons of electronics....radar detectors, jammers, navigation software (on laptops....pre cell phone days) etc...even one team who used police siren and bullhorn to get folks out of there way. We used only paper maps...