The Corvette has never been a car that was designed with day-to-day practicality as a top priority. That's not to say that most 'Vettes can't be used daily, and compared to a lot of supercars, they have decent-sized trunks, good visibility, and other sensible things like that. Over the years, a few companies and enterprising individuals have even created Corvette sport wagons and shooting brakes of sorts, including the ridiculously cool Callaway Corvette Aerowagon, and there has even been talk of an SUV version to take on the Lamborghini Urus.But so far, GM has never produced a proper, five-door Chevy Corvette wagon. Or has it? One GM product came tantalizingly close to a Corvette wagon, and you can buy one right now. It's also one of the greatest sleeper wagons of all time — who says you can't have your cake and eat it? The Cadillac CTS-V Wagon Is The Closest We Got To A Load-Lugging 'Vette Bring A TrailerAt the start of the 2000s, Cadillac was undergoing a bit of a rebranding. The company had long had a whiff of retirees at the golf club about it, settling into a comfort zone as cushy as the front chairs of a DeVille. But Florida condo communities only buy a certain number of cars, so it was decided that Caddy needed to get with the program, find some rizz, and create a few models that slap (thank you, Urban Dictionary). The answer was the V series, a line of high-performance cars in the same vein as BMW's M Division.It would have been easy to smirk, but Caddy wiped the smiles off a lot of faces with the potent STS-V and the CTS-V, a supercharged V8-powered sedan with the ability to scare BMW M3s and M5s into hiding. But then Caddy had a brainwave. The CTS Sport Wagon had recently been launched with a 3.0-liter V6, so what about fitting that with the same Corvette-derived V8? The CTS-V Sport Wagon was born, and it was probably the closest thing we have ever seen to a Corvette load-lugger. The CTS-V Wagon Is Fitted With A 556-Horsepower LSA V8 Via: Bring a TrailerThe engine in the CTS-V is a 556-horsepower and 551 lb-ft of torque, supercharged 6.2-liter V-8, named LSA. This mill features an intercooled Eaton Twin Vortices Series (TVS) supercharger, with a unique design that employs twin four-lobe rotors twisted 160 degrees. The power is handled by a suite of technical and performance features designed to complement the powertrain, including Magnetic Ride Control, Brembo brakes, and Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 performance tires mounted on 19-inch forged aluminum wheels. How Close Is The CTS-V's Engine To A Corvette's? Bring A TrailerThe CTS-V arrived in late 2010 and was a world away from the Caddys of old. Sharp, angular styling, and a neat wagon body made it the perfect M3 alternative — if BMW had actually made a Touring version of the E90/ E92 M3, that is. But the real showstopper was the engine in the CTS-V. Under the hood is an LSA supercharged 6.2-liter V8, which appeared to be pretty much a slightly detuned version of the ZR1’s 638-horsepower LS9. This is where things can get a little confusing and open to debate. Best part? It came with an optional manual transmission, which allegedly let the driver launch the car to 60 mph quicker than an automatic. How The LSA Differs From The LS9 BaT It could be seen as a less powerful version of the ZR1's 638-horsepower LS9, but there are some differences. There is a smaller 1.9-liter supercharger (Eaton Twin Vortices Series) in the LSA, single-brick intercooler heat exchanger against the 'Vette's dual-brick, and wet sump oiling compared to the ZR1's dry sump setup. The CTS-V also has less fancy cast pistons instead of forged items. Ultimately, you could view it as a de-tuned version of the ZR1's engine, or call it a standard Corvette C6 6.2-liter lump with a blower bolted on. Either way, this is pretty much a Corvette unit fitted into the nose of a practical wagon body. The CTS-V Wagon Is Corvette Fast Bring A Trailer Another thing that is for certain about the CTS-V is that it will hang on to a Corvette in a straight line. The 6.2-liter V8 produces 556 horsepower at 6100 rpm and 551 lb-ft of torque at 3800 rpm, transmitted through a Tremec TR6060 six-speed manual gearbox or a Hydra-Matic 6L90 six-speed auto alternative. The CTS-V is rear-drive only but still manages to 60 mph in a claimed 3.9 seconds, which made it a shade quicker than a V8-powered BMW M3 (E90). With the Hydra-matic, that time was about 4 seconds flat.Perhaps, even more telling, is how the CTS-V stacks up against the Corvettes of its time. A 2009 Chevy Corvette Z51, with 436 horsepower and 428 lb-ft of torque, will hit 60 mph in 4.1 seconds. Over a quarter mile, the Corvette will be just ahead, covering the distance in 12.4 seconds compared to the CTS-V's time of 12.6 seconds. A ZR1 Corvette from 2009 will reach 60 mph in 3.4 seconds and cover the quarter mile in 11.5 seconds. How The CTS-V Compares To Other Muscle Wagons Bring A Trailer Probably the closest American competitor to the CTS-V is the macho 2006 Dodge Magnum SRT8. This muscle wagon has a 6.1-liter Hemi V8 pushing out 425 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque. The SRT8 won't see which way the CTS-V goes, however, with a sprint to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds. Then there is the 2007 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG Wagon. Fitted with a 507-horsepower 6.2-liter V8, this estate will gallop to 60 mph in 4.0 seconds dead. The 2008 Audi RS6 comes with a stonking twin-turbo 5.0-liter V10 and hits 60 mph in around 4.5 seconds. Buying A Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon In 2026 Bring a TrailerCadillac introduced the wagon version (or Vagon) of the 2nd Gen CTS-V for the 2011 model year, arriving with both a manual and automatic gearbox. While a Corvette-beating 185 mph wagon with room for the dog may seem like a very tempting prospect, in the end, Cadillac made less than 2,000 examples of this very special car. Just 1,253 automatic CTS-V Wagons were built by the end of production in 2014, says Classic.com, but that's nothing compared with the number with a stick shift. Only 514 manual CTS-V Wagons were ever built. This means that prices stay healthy, and demand is high, for these muscular estate cars. How The CTS-V Compares To The Prices Of The C6 Corvette Chevrolet Expect to pay on average $51,200 for an auto CTS-V, says Classic.com. The manual versions are even more valuable, coming in at an average $61,494. It's worth pointing out that both cars eclipse even the average price of a 2011 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (C6), which stands at $46,325. A 2012 Corvette ZR-1 costs considerably more, with an average price of $120,250. For half that price, the fast and practical CTS-V wagon seems like an absolute bargain.Sources: Classic.com, General Motors.