Escalade-V

Make
Cadillac
Segment
SUV

Tim Allen hasn't exactly been well within the public eye in the last few years. The comedian's name made the rounds with Disney's new "Toy Story" spinoff, "Lightyear." However, the man is a certified car nut. That leads us to what could arguably be considered the Cadillac V car before Cadillac made a V car: The DeVille DTSi. It sure doesn't roll off the tongue like "Escalade V" does, but frankly, who cares?

No one really needed this, and yet it exists. In 2000, if you needed a fast sedan, you went to Audi and bought an S4. Or, you went to BMW and bought an M5. Still, the Cadillac DTS had plenty of driver-focused performance tech that is now standard in many go-fast Caddys.

The famous comedian commissioned the car 22 years ago through Wheel to Wheel, a Michigan-based tuner shop. The shop added new Konig wheels, a new front anti-roll bar, lowering springs, poly bushings, strut braces, and a big Brembo brake kit. Also assigned to oversee things was GM's own in-house tuner, Jon Moss.

From there, the engine was extensively modified, though power gains were pretty lame considering the litany of parts the GM-sanctioned car now had under the hood. The Northstar V8 got new ported and polished heads, high-compression pistons, stainless headers, a Corsa Performance exhaust, and a new intake system. Reportedly, that led to a 398 hp car, up from 300 hp. We should also note this is a FWD car. Talk about massive torque steer.

Inside, the sport sedan is just about stock. There are some special touches, however, like special Tim Allen Design (he founded his own design house, yes) which can also be seen outside.

Today, you'd expect to find tech like night vision, a heads-up display, and MagRide in something like the Cadillac Escalade V. But that stuff was all fitted on this car, way back in 2000. It is for that reason we maintain this one-off is the V car Cadillac accidentally made years before its first real one ever debuted.

This one is also up for auction over on Cars and Bids. With only 13,000 miles on the clock and six days left, it's sure not to be cheap. Right now, the high bid is $30,000, and we bet that number goes to infinity and beyond.