The next time you get a rideshare car in Los Angeles, keep in mind that you could’ve been in something with a 400 horsepower V8 and a stick shift instead of some Toyota RAV4. That’s how Corbin Goodwin rolls: picking up Lyft fares in a Cadillac CTS-V.
My five-star experience with him began in a deli parking lot. A friend had tipped me off about the car, and I was eager to meet Goodwin, a former RX-7 hot rodder. His latest ride accomplishes a different set of goals.
His CTS-V is a 2007, and yes, it has a manual gearbox. He says that at one point it had a good amount of half-finished modifications, but he’s since reverted some of them. There’s an E85 chip in there but the previous owner didn’t finish the job, so he’s just sort of got the plate and one step on the way through the Flex-Fuel conversion.
“I did intend to do Lyft but I knew it wasn’t optimal for that,” he told me. “Basically, I knew I’d have to drive to pay off such an expensive purchase, and once I’ve made a few bucks it’s time to get something less thirsty.”
This being a rideshare simulation, we took a trip to the most exciting place one can go in the San Fernando Valley at 4 p.m. on a weekday: The nearest Ross Dress For Less.
Perhaps the ideal car for driving around perhaps the least interesting corridor of Los Angeles County, the CTS-V is comfortable and quiet enough that most disinterested passengers would never know they were in a car that was in any way noteworthy. Those interested, however, will quickly see the appeal in a Lyft that can go fast.
This is, I’m fairly certain, the only Lyft in Southern California with a six-lug pattern and the ability to run a respectable quarter-mile time. If that isn’t the ideal goal for a rideshare car, I don’t what else you’re looking for.
I give Corbin Goodwin’s CTS-V Lyft car five free mini water bottles in the door card cupholders (that this car does not actually have) out of five.
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