This is a simple fix but not a simple problem and it still doesn't make sense to me.
But in a nutshell if your target proxy server works fast when accessing directly over SSL then this may be your issue.
It seems SSL does not play nicely when the target proxy destination/host has a riduculously long key (such as 8192 bits long). Now this is normally not a problem, in fact the target server could be accessed with hardly any delay directly despite such a long key.........
mod_status is a great way to track down the source of high CPU usage and to find what vhost/script is the cause of it.
It gives you a live view of bandwith usage, CPU usage, and memory usage broken down by domain/vhost and script/URI.
Enable mod_status
vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
ExtendedStatus On
SetHandler server-status
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
All........