Not Your Daddy’s Caddy: Stanley & Weiss’ New Pro Mod Cadillac CTS-V

STANLEY

Camp Stanley was one of the original East Coast “Wild Bunch” racers who helped to get the Outlaw Pro Mod category off the ground and into the forefront of the racing public’s mind in the early 1980s. These days, Camp turns the screws on the incredibly stunning brand new Larry Jeffers Race Cars-built Cadillac CTS-V driven by none other than his son, John Stanley.

DSC_1217The Stanley & Weiss Racing Caddy is the latest evolution in the team’s progression of Outlaw Pro Mods that stretches all the way back to Camp’s “Luv-N-It” blown Chevy Luv truck and subsequent body-in-white blown Ford Taurus Wagon. These days, Camp and car co-owner Axle Weiss are at the forefront of Outlaw Pro Mod racing in the PDRA‘s Pro Extreme class with this car – an all-new undertaking from LJRC and the first example of the new CTS-V body anywhere on the planet.

Last season John drove the team’s old Pro Mod ’68 Camaro to what was then the world’s quickest performance — by a large margin — in Outlaw Pro Mod history at the Street Car Super Nationals in Las Vegas.

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The car knocked off a 5.64 — not once, but twice — to shock the Pro Mod world with its performance. At the time, Jeffers Pro Cars already had this machine planned for construction, as he and Camp Stanley had struck a deal at the now-defunct ADRL’s Houston event.

Over the winter, we ran a couple of updates on the new car’s construction (which you can see here and here).

The construction process accelerated as spring took hold, with Jeffers, Garret Livingston, and the rest of the LJRC team laying the pipe and getting the build completed in order for the team to debut the car at the PDRA’s event at Virginia Motorsports Park in July. “I only sat in the car one time before Dad went out there to pick it up. Larry had me sit in a carbon fiber seat on top of a wooden block and tell him where I wanted the ‘chute handle, and the pedals, and the steering wheel, and the next time I saw it was when Dad brought it home,” says John.

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Surprisingly, he says there are not many differences to driving the old Camaro compared to the new Caddy chassis, but the performance upgrade is substantial. “It’s the same but different – it reacts more quickly to whatever I tell it to do steering-wise, it feels more responsive, it’s ten times better. If I close my eyes, I feel like I’m sitting in the Camaro, but this car has a high firewall and a high hoodline, so the line of sight is different. But it hasn’t been too difficult to get used to it,” he says.

DSC_1200On a Pro Modified car, the underpinnings are typically the same as the Mustang or Camaro that might be in the next lane over, and the body is the only difference. In this case, the Caddy CTS-V body molds are owned by LJRC and are manufactured in the monstrous new LJRC shop in House Springs, Missouri, where Jeffers and his crew have put together some of the sickest Pro Mods in the world.

The LJRC team put hundreds of hours of construction time into this machine. Camp Stanley says the plan was initially to build a Barracuda, but Jeffers talked him into the CTS-V, and they never looked back. The car was picked up at the end of June as a roller – minus engine – as John was still working on the new bullet at the Stanley & Weiss Racing homebase in Hagerstown, Maryland.

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The car was picked up at LJRC by Camp in the team’s rig; it arrived at the homebase July 3rd — just in time to get the engine installed and all of the other final details together for the car’s inaugural event at VMP three weeks later, where they won “Best Appearing Car” and saw John rocket down the strip to a 3.79 on the first hit on a brand-new car. Although the team found themselves just outside the bump at that initial event, they deemed it a success with such a stout performance while still working out the new-car bugs.

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With twenty-five cars on the property at the car’s second appearance in Tulsa, and the team continuing to battle the bugs, they again missed the race day field in Pro Extreme. Their struggles continued into Gateway Mototorsports Park this past weekend, where they finally began to get a handle on the program.

“The car would go out thirty feet and spin the tires, or go right, or go left, and Larry Jeffers noticed on the video that we had a small fuel leak that was coming out the vent and getting under the tires,” says John.

“Every car is different. What I learned from the suspension in the Camaro doesn’t necessarily translate over to the Cadillac. It’s just a new-car deal – we really shouldn’t be racing it until we get all this stuff sorted out. I drove right by the racetrack on the way to Tulsa, so it made sense for us to stay there and use the SCSN race as a test session. It was worth it,” Camp explains.

DSC_1294In the first round of competition at SCSN St. Louis, they faced off against Australia’s Paul Mouhayet, and earned the win with a 6.06 despite an ignition issue, while Mouhayet went into a wheelstand and had to shut down. They subsequently lost in the semifinal round to race winner Turky Al Zafiri when Zafiri put down a stunning 5.47 at 272 MPH to Stanley’s faltering 8.42 hit.

Camp deemed the weekend a success, however. “We left there in good spirits. John clicked the car off at 900 feet and still ran 5.84 at 217 MPH. Between eighth-mile and quarter-mile, the car still only has four full hits on it. Our philosophy is to live to fight another day. It’s all new-car stuff holding us back right now,” he says.

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Don’t let the stunning appearance of the car fool you into thinking that the Stanley & Weiss Racing operation is some sort of professional team racing out of a monstrous fully-equipped shop; this car was finished in a one-bay garage at John’s house. There is a single bay garage with a small workshop set off in a side building, and that’s where all of the magic happens. In fact, when they have to load the car into the trailer for an event, they have to stop all of the traffic on the road in order to do so, as the rig doesn’t even fit into the driveway. John says that in order to move the spare engine from the “shop” to the trailer, they have to load it into a cart and pull it with a lawnmower to get it past the gravel driveway. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition of doing it on a budget.

DSC_0901The 2,300 pound racecar uses a HEMI powerplant displacing 521 cubic inches, with machine work done by none other than Mike Janis at Jan-Cen Motorsports in Elma, New York and assembled in the home shop by the Stanley boys.

The Brad Anderson Enterprises block is stuffed with a billet Bryant crankshaft that swings Bill Miller Engineering connecting rods and Venolia pistons. The team looks across the pond to Australia, in the direction of Noonan Race Engineering for the company’s Super 600 Outlaw heads and billet intake manifold. The camshaft is spec’d out by Janis, and they’ve got a C-rotor screw blower on top of the whole works making the horsepower happen. Ignition is handled by an MSD Mag 44, with a Rage fuel system supplying the alcohol. As mentioned in the past, the car is also hooked up with one of Davis Technologies‘ Profiler Wheel Speed Management systems, and it’s with Shannon Davis’ help that they’ve been able to run so consistently in the past – and expect to again with this car. Data acquisition is handled by a Racepak V500 data acquisition system outfitted with all of the pertinent sensors.

Snyder Motorsports put together the two-speed Lencodrive transmission that’s backed by a Neal Chance torque converter. In the rear of the car, it’s all Strange, all the time, as the housing, axles, differential, and gears are all from the company, along with the brakes at all four corners.

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Penske Racing dampers work in conjunction with the Jeffers-designed four-link in the rear and the traditional front strut design to control suspension movement. Rolling stock consists of Mickey Thompson wheels and tires front and rear, while John relies on safety gear from DJ Safety to keep him protected in the event of a mishap.

As with any racing effort of this magnitude, it wouldn’t be possible without the support of many people, both in the forefront and behind the scenes. Crewmembers Scott Kline and Jimmy Kline have been with the team for quite some time, helping to keep John safe and secure, and ensuring that the racecar is in top shape when it’s time to roll into the waterbox.

As Camp says, “If you see a sticker on this car, it’s someone that’s helped our program out for many years.” Especially important to the program is the assistance provided by Steel Dynamics, Inc., because without their help the team wouldn’t be able to compete at this level.” The company is one of the largest carbon steel manufacturers and metal recyclers in the country and produces everything from flat-rolled steel to structural steel.

Other sponsors include Mickey Thompson Tires and WheelsRacepakDavis TechnologiesDJ Safety, Franklin Electric, LencodrivePro BellBill Miller EngineeringStrange Engineering, ASAP Powder Coating, Penske Racing ShocksVP Racing FuelsNGK Spark PlugsNeal ChanceDan Olson Oil PansMSD IgnitionNoonan Race EngineeringMVM Wheelie BarsD&D Truck Repair and TowingMotorsports Unlimited, Ridgeley Distributors, East End Auto PartsHarshman AutomotiveTim Fraker SignsCantrell Racing Products, and Flying A Motorsports – a long list, but without this support of so many companies, the Stanley gang would be hopping up lawnmowers in their spare time.

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During the car’s short life, the team’s quickest eighth-mile elapsed time is 3.73, with the quarter-mile best the aforementioned 5.84 at 217 MPH. A year ago these would have been near-record times, and we’re dying to see what type of performances they can lay down once all of the bugs are squashed and John’s able to ride the Caddy out on a full pass.

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About the author

Jason Reiss

Jason draws on over 15 years of experience in the automotive publishing industry, and collaborates with many of the industry's movers and shakers to create compelling technical articles and high-quality race coverage.
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