YouTuber Cleetus McFarland Drives Blown LSX Cadillac, Immediately Breaks It

On his first hard pull with Cooper’s Cadillac, Cleetus fears that he blew the new engine.

This video comes to us from the Cleetus McFarland YouTube channel and it features the well-known internet celebrity driving the built CTS-V, owned by a friend named Cooper. After returning from a 2,000-mile road trip, Cleetus visits with his dog, Holly, and speaks with Cooper about his recently finished Cadillac and the owner wants to take the car for a quick spin.

He likely came to regret this quick spin in his supercharged Cadillac.

First Drive with the LSX

The interesting part of this video begins with Cooper and Cleetus head out onto the road in the supercharged Cadillac CTS-V, featuring a built LSX topped with a positive-displacement blower. They figure that the engine is making around 700 horsepower and that power is sent to the bald street tires by means of a built manual transmission and a set of 4.10 gears.

As you might expect, the first few minutes of the first drive in this built Cadillac are spent warming the car up, but once everything is up to proper operating temperature, Cooper opens it up. He makes a couple hard pulls, easily spinning the tires through first and second gear, with third gear providing just enough grip for the two to experience the G-forces of hard acceleration.

This first portion ends with the two stopping at a parts store, at which point the owner asks Cleetus if he wants to drive, and of course he does.

Host Behind the Wheel

Around the 6:45 mark of this video, Cleetus McFarland himself climbs into the driver’s seat of this built Cadillac CTS-V and he heads out onto the street. The owner points out that the car is warmed up, so the host of the popular YouTube show can go ahead and hammer down.

He eases out onto the street, gradually moving from first gear to second, at which point he climbs into the throttle. The tires spin and the engine roars, then something goes wrong.

A horrific knocking noise comes from the uncovered engine bay, leading Cleetus to quickly get the car to the side of the road with the engine off. The two push the car onto a side street, at which point they examine the damage – fearing the worst.

Surveying the Damage

Once the car was out of the way of traffic, Cleetus and Cooper look over the engine bay, finding that one of the coil packs had come loose, so the owner climbed into the car to fire it up. When he did, Cleetus quickly gave him the sign to shut the car off. He excitedly points out that the engine isn’t blown – the harmonic balancer had come apart.

It turns out that the owner had opted to use the factory balancer rather than installing a new one on his freshly-supercharged LSX and it failed – rendering the car powerless.

As a result, Cleetus got an Uber back to the shop, where he explained what happened to Holly and picked up a truck and trailer before going to get Cooper and his broken CTS-V.

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Patrick Rall

"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.

"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.

"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.

"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.

"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.

"Being based on Detroit," says Rall, "I never miss the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit's Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.

Rall can be contacted at QuickMirada@Yahoo.com