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Originally Posted by Car and Driver
Highs: Instant supercharged responses, best steering, lowest price.
Lows: Thirstiest, some crummy interior materials, this one didn't have the manual.
Verdict: A four-door race car that's fun at any speed.
Everyone loves the Blackwing, the most visceral car here. You don't need to push a button to access the CT5-V's rowdy side—it's always there, sometimes lurking just below the surface and sometimes blasting through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man. One cam, 668 horsepower, oh yeah!
Of course, there is a V button on the steering wheel. It effects less of a personality change than the RS and M buttons in the other cars, simply because the Caddy is a bundle of aggression by default. It's the lightest, the most powerful, the loudest at wide-open throttle. It pulled 1.01 g's on the skidpad. It's the sole car in this group to offer a manual transmission (an auto is tested here). And it's the least expensive, costing $35,380 less than the BMW. The Blackwing never lets you forget what it is—it's the only one with a top-dead-center stripe on the steering wheel—but it's not obnoxious about it. It can calm down, smother the bumps, even give you a little driver's-seat back massage (not as good as the BMW's, but please). Then you drop the hammer and it erupts.
In the lower gears, the supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 doesn't seem to rev so much as explode. Mat the throttle and unleash an 85-decibel braaappp-braaappp; suddenly you are doing 100 mph. With no lag and instant reactions from the throttle and 10-speed automatic transmission, the CT5 trashed even the mighty M5 in both 30-to-50-mph and 50-to-70-mph passing tests. The M5 and RS7 have all-wheel-drive traction off the line, but the Blackwing doesn't take long to assert its horsepower. At the quarter-mile—dispatched in 11.4 seconds—the Caddy's 128-mph trap speed is just behind the M5's 130 mph.
The CT5's logbook was filled with praise. "The Blackwing was clearly developed by people who care about cars," one entry reads. "Dynamically, it's near perfection. The ride control is amazing. The steering is honest-to-God great, like the man upstairs developed it himself. And the electronically controlled limited-slip differential and performance traction management make wrangling 668 horsepower with a pair of 305/35R-19 lassos a not-scary experience." Those rear tires are wider than the Audi's and BMW's by 20 millimeters, giving the Caddy the stance of an escaped IMSA GT4 car. If there's a letdown, it's the interior, which isn't up to Audi or BMW levels of luxury. But the joyousness of the Blackwing driving experience has a way of blinding you to Chevy Trax–grade lower door panels.
When we strapped into Wicked Twister, we knew its days were numbered. We can say the same about these snarling V-8 anomalies, elite performance machines straddling the gas-powered past and an electrified future. They're all outrageous fun, but the Cadillac is the car we'll reminisce about decades from now.
Maybe Cedar Point should replace Wicked Twister with a track and a CT5-V Blackwing. We'd be willing to wait in line for that.
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