Back in the mid-1990s, Cadillac wanted to flaunt an entry-level competitor which would take on counterparts from BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes-Benz. Initially introduced as a concept named LSE, the Catera made it to the market in 1996 and stayed there until 2001. The car in question here is from the 2001MY, but it’s been… well, tweaked. And not by Cadillac.

A subtle mix of stock and aftermarket

The stock Cadillac Catera was no race car. Responsible for that was the sheer mass it had to move from A to B - essentially, the Catera was a redressed Opel/Vauxhall Omega, a heavy car by definition as some European readers might recall.

It did come with a 3.0-liter V-6, but at 200 horsepower, there was not much it could do to handle the beefy Catera. The sedan, however, excelled when it came to standard features:

-* front bucket seats

-* dual-zone auto climate control

-* eight-speaker sound system

-* ABS

-* traction control

-* keyless entry

-* alloy wheels

Customers could climb further up the higher ladder and opt for leather heated seats, a cassette player/CD player multimedia combo, and even chrome wheels. Still, the Catera lacked performance.

One owner, however, wanted to even the odds and took his car to Lingenfelter Performance.

Power (unspecified in the ad, but we could be looking at as much as 500 horsepower) gets to the rear wheels through a Tremec six-speed manual and a limited-slip diff borrowed from a fifth-gen Pontiac GTO. Continuing the not-so-stock list of parts, there’s also a Momo aftermarket steering wheel replacing the original one and Eibach lowering springs.

At the time of writing, the current bid stood at $13,000. How much would you pay for this Catera?