Earlier this week, Cadillac officially announced that the next-level, ultra-high-performance variants of the CT4-V and CT5-V luxury sedans will carry the Blackwing moniker, and will officially be called CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing. Cadillac Society was first to break the news last year. The luxury automobile brand also confirmed that both vehicles will be available with manual transmissions, also something CS previously reported. But Caddy’s announcement also contained a surprise video.
The 22-second-long clip shows the Cadillac V-Series logo and overlays the glorious sounds of an engine accelerating at wide open throttle, roaring through the gears – six of them – to be exact. Have a look listen:
Though Cadillac didn’t provide any details about the beast that’s the subject of this audible furor, it’s doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that an eight cylinder engine mated to a six-speed manual transmission are responsible.
Put all that together, and we can conclude that the vehicle in the video is none other than the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing, which we expect to be powered by a supercharged 6.2L V8 engine very similar to the heart of the now-discontinued, third-generation CTS-V. In that vehicle, the engine (production code LT4) made 640 horsepower and 630 pound-feet of torque, and sounded very similar. That said, we should note that the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing might not necessarily have the same output figures. For those that aren’t into rowing their own gears, fear not – we also expect the CT5-V Blackwing to also offer an automatic gearbox in the form of Caddy’s still-new 10-speed automatic unit.
Meanwhile, the CT4-V Blackwing is expected to be powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.6L V6 engine similar to the one used in the last-gen ATS-V. In that application, the twin-boosted six made 464 horsepower and 445 pound-feet of torque.
Notably, neither the CT4-V Blackwing nor the CT5-V Blackwing will offer Cadillac’s now-defunct twin-turbocharged 4.2L V8 engine (production code LTA) that was briefly offered in the Cadillac CT6 Platinum and CT6-V.
It’s worth noting that the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed both of these Blackwing models. The vehicles were to debut this year and go on sale later on in this calendar year, or in the very beginning of 2021. Now, however, the vehicles will likely not be revealed until 2021 and arrive at dealerships thereafter.
Cadillac says that “more V-Series Blackwing information will be made available at a later date,” and we’ll be here every step of the way to tell you all about it, so be sure to subscribe to Cadillac Society for more Cadillac CT5 news, Cadillac CT4 news and ongoing Cadillac news coverage.
One of four new colors for the 2025 model year.
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A curious sighting from a video of the Cadillac design studio.