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This is Cadillac’s final generation of internal combustion-powered sports sedans, and the company is going out on a high with the 472-hp CT4-V Blackwing. In fact, this might be my new favorite performance sedan. [credit: Jonathan Gitlin ]
ALTON, Va.—The age of the internal combustion engine is drawing to a close. Cadillac is marking the occasion with a pair of V-series performance sedans that will be the last of their kind to run on gasoline. We have to wait another week to tell you about one of them, but as of today, all discussion of the 2022 CT4-V Blackwing is fair game. That means I am now allowed to say that Cadillac’s final-ever V6-powered performance car might actually be its best-ever performance car. Like other cars of this kind, the Blackwing is overkill for the street. But when clad in downforce-generating carbon fiber dive planes and splitters, it will engage and reward you on track like few others.
V-Series makes its last gasoline cars
First introduced in 2004, the V-series cars are Cadillac’s answer to Audi Sport’s RS cars, the machines of BMW’s M Division, and the mighty Mercedes-AMGs. But when the American luxury brand first revealed the CT4-V to the world in May 2019, I declared it “more jalapeño than habanero.” That was because its 2.7 L V6 offered just 320 hp (240 kW) compared to the 464-hp (346 kW) ATS-V it was replacing.
At the time, GM’s vice president of global products told us that “not all customers want track time.” That was the explanation Cadillac gave for watering things down (or alternatively broadening its appeal) with less powerful, cheaper V-series cars. But evidently Cadillac realized that some of its customers very much wanted track time—or at least something comparable to a BMW M3 or Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio—which is why it developed the $59,990, 472 hp (352 kW), 445 lb-ft (603 Nm), 3.6 L twin-turbo V6 CT4-V Blackwing.
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