V-Club Newsroom

Andre Leighton has been attending Cadillac V-Club DFW Chapter local events for the last two years and is our local chapter "official photographer".  He has taken hundreds of photos that are published on his SmugMug website that are available for purchase and download for a nominal fee.  You have the option to purchase a single photo can download an entire "low resolution" event gallery for non-commercial use for a very low price.

You can view his gallery via this link: https://cadillacvclub.com/Media

Cadillac of South San Francisco has joined our growing list of Platinum level sponsor Cadillac dealers who have committed to partner with the Cadillac V-Club.

Jon Ngan is the General Manager of this "new concept" dealership located in Colma, CA. Jon stated, "We are definitely looking forward to running events with the V Club and are a completely new build from the ground up that soft opened in March. At Cadillac of South San Francisco, Customer Experience is not just our mission, it's part of our DNA. Our Cadillac Experience Center is centered around the concept of an elevated Customer Experience. Our philosophy is low pressure, transparent, and honest business. Our Brand Specialists are trained to help you find the vehicle that fits your needs and desires. As your personal shopper, we help you through your entire vehicle purchase journey. We believe shopping for a vehicle should be transparent, quick, and most importantly, fun!"

Jon has two Cadillac V-Series Blackwing preview events scheduled the first of which is on August 7 at their Cadillac of South San Francisco Colma location and next on August 8 and the BCL X Cars and Coffee event.

Effective today, based on numerous requests and input from the our leadership team, the following coverage area changes and naming has been implemented:

SOCAL Chapter: Includes the former San Diego and Los Angeles Chapter.  Mitchell Goodrich will serve in the role of Chapter Director and the coverage area will include all surrounding cities up to a 200 mile radius.

NORCAL Chapter: Includes the former San Francisco Chapter. Danial Stalcup will continue to lead this chapter which includes Sacramento and San Jose and the surrounding cities up to a 200 mile radius

Seattle Chapter: Includes Seattle/Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR.  Gene Hawks will continue to lead this chapter which includes surrounding cities up to a 200 mile radius.

Previously the coverage area for a local chapter has been 75-100 miles but that restriction has been increased to 200 miles and is applicable to all chapters.  Even if a member does not reside within 200 miles of a local chapter, if they prefer to do so they may join or renew their membership as a local chapter member rather than a regional member.

The Cadillac V-Club now has over 400 active members spread across 30 states.  The Cadillac V-Club was launched in February, 2013 as the Texas V-Club and in 2015 re-launched as a national organization at the request of GM/Cadillac headquarters as the official Cadillac V-Club.

If you would like to help launch a local chapter in your area and are interested in serving in as the Chapter Director, please submit a Leadership Application.

We are pleased to announce two new local chapters of the Cadillac V-Club have been chartered effective as of Tuesday, June 8, 2021.  The Detroit Chapter will be led by Brad Doerr and the Oklahoma City Chapter will be led by Felicia Smith.

Brad is currently a chassis engineer at Roush Industries and has worked in the auto industry for 18 years.  He was a GM employee for 11 years and worked in multiple roles on the Alpha platform. Brad and his wife Holly have been married for 9 years and have one son, Gregory.  They have owned a 2011 CTS-V Wagon for 10 years.  Brad enjoys racing and participates in track days and auto crosses with his CTS-V.

Felicia Smith is in technical services for an oil field company named TTS in Newcastle Oklahoma. Felicia and her husband Aaron Smith have been married for 5 years. She owns a 2009 CTSV that currently runs 8’s on the stock 1.9 liter blower. Her husband has a fully built 2650 Denali, and they also plan to start their third build being a 2004 Cadillac XLR. The two have been racing for years and together they build and maintain all of their vehicles out of their home shop.

With the launch of these two new chapters, the V-Club now has 10 chapters and over 400 members spread across 28 different states.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CNod7XDpDmq/?igshid=3sqj5afakpyf

Produced by Danial Stalcup - Los Angeles Chapter Director

Ultra-rare, take it home!

Check out this video on our Youtube Channel.

Performance starts with a P, but it should start with a V like in the new Cadillac CTS-V Dream Giveaway. Enter today and you’ll be one enormous step closer to making this extremely limited-production Cadillac CTS-V Championship Edition sedan yours. Plus, if you’re the winner, we will pay out $17,000 for the taxes.

The Cadillac CTS-V Championship Edition sedan makes the track-taming third-generation CTS-V as exclusive a sports car as you could ever dream to own. Only 86 of these limited-edition land rockets were produced in Crystal White Tintcoat with Red Obsession highlights as a special run that sold out as quickly as it was announced.

Of course, we didn't stop there. We made this CTS-V even more special with Corsa Performance's most popular exhaust system, the Xtreme Sound Level Axle-Back Dual Exhaust with Twin 4-inch tips, which give it a 13% increase in airflow over the stock exhaust system.

Horsepower fans, don’t miss out on this sensational, street-scorching and fully street-legal sedan. The Cadillac CTS-V Championship Edition boldly brings together the luxury of Cadillac with the very-same performance-packed powertrain that propels the Corvette Z06 and the Camaro ZL1.

We know you’re ready to put this supercharged, 640hp Cadillac CTS-V Championship Edition sedan in your garage, so enter now.

*Stay tuned for potential engine bay updates!*

The Cadillac CTS-V Championship Edition was limited to 162 vehicles, all with special limited-edition paint, graphics, seats, interior, and wheels, plus an exclusive carbon-fiber package, Ultra-View sunroof, Cadillac CUE infotainment system, Performance Data Recorder and luxury interior package. Making this grand-prize CTS-V rarer is the fact it is 1 of 86 in Crystal White Tintcoat. (Cadillac produced another 76 in Black Raven Tintcoat.)

With 640 horsepower from the supercharged, factory 6.2L V-8 engine, winning this limited-edition Cadillac CTS-V means you’ll experience performance, innovation and craftsmanship on a whole other level reserved only for Cadillac V-series owners.

You want it. You deserve it. Now make it yours. Enter to win this Cadillac CTS-V Championship Edition sedan today. Your donation to win helps out our military veterans and children in need.

Plus, Dream Giveaway will pay $17,000 for the taxes and give you the keys to this amazing Cadillac CTS-V. Enter now!

NO PURCHASE, CONTRIBUTION, DONATION OR PAYMENT IS NECESSARY AND MAKING ONE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. Donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Cadillac CTS-V Dream Giveaway starts on October 4, 2020, at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time and ends August 31, 2021, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time, with the selection of a winner on or about September 16, 2021. This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. (except Oregon) and Canada (except Quebec) and other countries and U.S. territories and possessions only where offered and permitted by law, age 18 and older. Void where prohibited. Odds of winning equal to one divided by the total number of tickets issued. This ad is for informational purposes only. For entry and official rules including free entry method visit www.dreamgiveaway.com/dg/cadillac/official-rules. The Sponsor, New Beginning Children’s Homes, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization, PO Box 529, Centerton, AR 72719, is a licensee of the Dream Giveaway® brand. Prizes identified, logos, brands and other trademarks referred to within a Dream Giveaway are the property of their respective trademark holders and are not sponsor of this promotion.

 

Effective immediately, Gene Hawks has been selected as the Seattle Chapter Director.  Gene is replacing John Charpentier who was recently appointed as the Director of Marketing & Social Media for the Cadillac V-Club. 

Gene is currently Vice President, and Head of Channels for North America at Alcatel Lucent Enterprises.  Gene and his wife Liz have been married for 25 years and have three teenage children, Johnathan, Alexis and Timothy.  He owns a 2018 ATS-V and prior to that has owned numerous sports cars including a Mustang GT, Infinity G35 and a Mercedes AMG.  Gene enjoys Jiu Jitsu/MMA, participating in road racing track days, drag racing and taking long drives in the mountains with his family in his his Cadillac ATS-V.

As chronicled in the film NO LIMITS - NO REGRETS, Cadillac V-Club member Axe DeKruif breaks speed record for cross-country motorcycle ride

SAN ANTONIO (September 29, 2020) — An experienced engineer, Axe DeKruif knew if he were going to break the speed record for a cross-country motorcycle ride, technology would be key.

As he began plotting an ideal route, he also decided that he needed to examine his bike and body just as he would an electromechanical device still in development.

“The weakest link in this system is me as the human, which is true in a lot of systems, so the question was how do I mitigate these things?” DeKruif says.  He created a Mitigation of Marginal Areas of Performance Plan (MMAPP, patent pending) that allowed him to observe his body and his bike during shorter test drives on his BMW S1000RR. During the rides, he identified potential failure points and then created mitigation strategies that he implemented before performing the test again to perfect his ultimate method for speed.

On the bike, DeKruif knew that stopping for fuel as frequently as is needed on a standard gas tank would slow him down. To decrease the need for refueling, he mounted a 5-gallon tank to the tail of his bike and built the necessary plumbing and valving to feed that extra fuel into his gas tank as it was running low. DeKruif also switched out a sprocket in an effort to increase his mileage by as much as 12 percent on each tank and he installed a Throttlemeister to provide a version of cruise control. Together, the changes allowed him to travel around 350 miles between each refueling.
When it came to speed, he needed to be able to go as fast as possible without detection and without adding undue stress to his bike.

A radar detector and screen were affixed between the handlebars of the motorcycle and Bluetooth communication installed in DeKruif’s helmet. The Bluetooth allowed him to listen to music and talk with his route coordinator in San Antonio, Texas, but also gave him the ability to hear alerts whenever his radar detected law enforcement nearby.

To ensure he could spot any animals or obstacles in the road in the dark of night, DeKruif designed and printed 3D brackets so he could install a FLIR thermal vision system on the BMW.

DeKruif knew a lighter body mass would be best for speed, so he cut carbs and alcohol weeks before the ride, visited the gym at least once daily and switched to lighter weights to focus on toning rather than building muscle.

“I created this method of looking at any system—you could look at a race car and driver, a fighter jet and pilot—it’s just a different way of looking at the human system and minimizing all of the weaknesses of the human and letting the machine do its thing.”

Sitting in one position for hours on end is inherently tough on the body so DeKruif added exercises to increase flexibility and endurance. He also installed foot rests toward the rear of his bike to allow for an alternate knee position while riding.

Along with conditioning his body, DeKruif’s study made it clear that some of the body’s natural processes—hunger, tiredness and bladder or bowel voiding—would hinder his quest for speed. Having committed to breaking the speed record even if it caused discomfort, DeKruif crafted some ways to get around those things, too.

To get his body accustomed to fewer calories during the 30-plus hour ride, DeKruif ate MREs for three days before his ride knowing that he could then get by with just two beef jerkey sticks during his journey. He also shifted his sleep schedule to prepare his mind and body for being awake in the dark.
He couldn’t overcome the body’s need for water. Instead, he created plumbing that would allow him to drink fluids from a CamelBak backpack without taking off his helmet. To eliminate those fluids, he wore a condom-style catheter that drained to the ground. If a bowel movement was necessary, DeKruif was ready with an adult diaper.

“Mentally, you have to get your mind in position for accepting things like discomfort or a lack of safety because you have to do whatever gets you there fastest,” he says. “If you’re tired, too bad. If you’re hungry, too bad. As long as it’s not risking the mission, that’s what you do.”

And for DeKruif, a self- admitted adrenaline addict, the sacrifices were well worth it. He rode from San Diego to Jacksonville in just 33 hours and 10 minutes—nearly three hours faster than the previous record.

DeKruif says the method of his MMAPP study could be applied to several situations to maximize human performance. Since his ride, he has presented the study during a Military Health System Research Symposium and says he hopes to continue sharing his method so others can find success in their own challenges. “It’s looking at risk mitigation just like I do as an engineer,” he says.

“No Limits - No Regrets" documentary is available on Amazon ($4.99 for rental, $11.99 to purchase) and the book from Barnes & Noble ($3.99 on NOOK, $17.99 for paperback).

Axe DeKruif is a San Antonio-based engineer who broke the record for fastest cross-country motorcycle ride, traveling from San Diego, California to Jacksonville, Florida in just 33 hours and 10 minutes. DeKruif is driven by his innate need for an adrenaline rush—one that he chases even after enduring open heart surgery and valve replacement a decade ago plus three additional heart surgeries in 2020.  Axe also owns a 2013 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe and has competed in the Texas Mile on both his motorcycle and CTS-V.