Yahoo Autos 2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing Gets a Glorious 668-HP V-8 and a Manual
Cadillac has unveiled its CT5-V Blackwing performance sedan, which features a 668-hp supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 and is available with a manual transmission.
These Blackwing models, the CT5-V and the CT4-V, will be the last gasoline-powered models in Cadillac's V-Series lineup as the brand pivots to electric vehicles.
They may be the last of their line, but they're also the most track-capable V models ever, Cadillac says.
Forget about the name change for a second. Or that this is the final era for gas-powered Vs. Let's first live in the now and revel in the fact that the most powerful Cadillac ever is offered with a manual transmission. That's right, the CT5-V Blackwing's 668-hp supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 comes standard tethered to a six-speed Tremec TR6060 gearbox from the Camaro.
But with this most excellent news comes equally bad news. Cadillac boss Rory Harvey confirms that the CT5-V Blackwing—along with its simultaneously announced CT4-V Blackwing sibling—will be the last gasoline-powered V models, capping off a brilliant run of ferociously capable yet daily-drivable models that started with the 2004 CTS-V. It doesn't mean V is dead, but next time around it'll be electric.
Although this highest-performance CT5 is an evolution of the previous CTS-V, both the model name and performance designation have changed this time around. CTS has become CT5, and the former top V moniker has become V Blackwing. That's a shift in the previous hierarchy of V Sport to V to now V and V Blackwing. Although the Blackwing name started as a label for the exclusive-to-Cadillac twin-turbo V-8 that powered the short-lived CT6 and CT6-V, the company now says it means simply "the pinnacle of Cadillac performance."
It seems silly to change the nomenclature now, right before another total revamp to electric power. But, also, who really cares what it's called? We won't look a gift V-8-powered, shift-it-yourself supersedan in the mouth.
The supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 returns for an encore performance from the previous CTS-V with intake and exhaust improvements that bump its output from 640 hp and 630 pound-feet to 668 and 659, respectively, this time around. Although the Eaton four-lobe supercharger still displaces 1.7 liters, it now has smaller-diameter rotors to improve response. Each engine is hand-built by a single technician at the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, who signs each of his or her creations.
Cadillac promises a 3.7-second zero-to-60-mph time with the available and quick-shifting 10-speed automatic, although that's not any quicker than before. The quickest we got out of a CTS-V was 3.5 seconds to 60 mph, and with a similar claimed weight of just over 4100 pounds for the CT5-V Blackwing, we expect similar results. With the manual, the CT5-V Blackwing will be slower. No one cares.
