CARLOS LAGO: Hey. Carlos Lago with Edmunds here, and we've come all the way to Virginia to drive the Blackwing twins. That includes the 472-horsepower Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing and that bright blue-colored 668-horsepower Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing.
What are the Blackwings? What makes them similar? What makes them different? What can you expect? How much fun are they to drive? Are they faster than motorcycles? We'll answer some of these questions in this video, but probably not the motorcycle one. If you like videos like this one, let us know in the comments below, and make sure to click like and subscribe-- once you finish watching the video, of course. Share the links in the description for more and visit Edmunds.com/sellmycar to get an instant cash offer on the car you're trying to sell.
What is a Blackwing? Well, in order to answer that question, we have to back up a little bit by explaining first what the difference is between the CT4 and the CT5-- or 4 and 5, for the sake of simplicity. 4 is the smaller, less expensive one. 5's the bigger, more expensive one. Think BMW 3 Series to 5 Series, or Mercedes Benz C Class to E Class.
OK, now, Blackwing-- well, we can't actually get there yet because the CT4 and the CT5 are like your plain, normal luxury sedans, and then there are the CT4-V and CT5-V. You may think that's the successor to the CTS-V, but you'd be wrong. Those are like junior performance versions. So they're slightly sportier, have-- slightly more powerful, but they're not the real successor.
No, that's what the Blackwing is. The Blackwing gets upgraded suspension, upgraded chassis, more-- bigger engine, more power-- all kinds of stuff built for track use. That's what makes them a lot of fun the drive. We'll cover a lot more of that stuff in detail as we're driving the cars.
So because we're talking about the CT5-V Blackwing and the CT5-V Blackwing, in this video, I'm definitely going to have to leave stuff out just for the sake of brevity. But you can find out more by checking out the links in the description in the comments below to visit Edmunds.com.
We're going to start by talking about the 4 on the road. Now, this is a sedan that's going to compete with the likes of the BMW M3, the Mercedes Benz C 63 AMG, the Audi RS 4's of the world-- fairly competitive, really fun to drive sport sedans. So the question with this is, what is it like on the road? Because that's how people will be using it.
It's pretty fun. We've got a twin-turbo 3.6-liter V6 under the hood. It's got around 470 horsepower, which is a bit lower than some of those rivals that I mentioned. Because it's a V6, it sounds like a V6-- although Cadillac has done some nice things to emphasize the sound and make it a bit more exciting.
As far as power delivery goes, it's robust. My favorite part is the fact that you can flat shift with the manual transmission. These days, if you're going to have a manual in a sporty car, it better be a good one, and this one, by and large, is a lot of fun to use. That mostly has to do with the fact that it's got a function in it where you can keep your foot on the gas pedal, and so long as you're near red line, you can shift without lifting your foot off the gas pedal.
That no-lift shift-- it's really fun to do. It does remind me of high school, but there also is a function to it. In this turbocharged engine, it keeps the turbo spooling, so you don't have to wait for them to come back when you finish the shift. And it does make for faster acceleration, but it also just makes you giggle, makes your passengers giggle-- or your spouse hate you, if they're not into cars.
Getting back to the engine, though, I think the only criticism I can really levy on it is the quality of the sound it makes. It delivers power in a pleasing way, but the sound is just not as exciting or thrilling as some of the other vehicles that this would compete against. And that's really the only knock against it. It's not bad. It's just not as exciting.
Moving elsewhere through the car, we have adaptive dampers, of course. You've got a ton of electronic controls from the differential to the stability control. All of it's adjustable. There's five modes of stability control intervention on top of your normal on and off that you can adjust accordingly for track use, and it all works great. In fact, we can cut to-- past me talking about what this is like to drive on a racetrack now.
It's a lot of fun with either transmission. The automatic shifts very quickly in its performance shift mode-- very quick commanding upshifts, responsive downshifts. I felt no need to actually control the shift myself. The logic was smart enough. The handling balance-- now, the handling balance was really enjoyable. This is a car built for people who know what they're doing behind the wheel on track.
It seems like that's been baked into the chassis. Through the high-speed corners, this thing is really stable. There's one section on track here at Virginia International Raceway that's about 90 miles an hour or so, and it's a high-speed lift. This thing could take the [INAUDIBLE] and build up confidence to approach that corner turn after turn. It was a lot of fun to do.
Along some of the low-speed corners, there's some nimbleness, some neutrality in the chassis. So you can get into some oversteer if you're a little too aggressive in second gear, but that becomes more of a driver control issue. Overall, this car's very well-controlled, and a lot of fun to drive on track. And I'm really looking forward to comparing it to its contemporary rivals, like the BMW M3, and Audi RS 5, and all the other vehicles in that segment.
And he passed me. So young, so full of hope. On the road, what's nice about having adaptive dampers like this car does-- and a lot of sports cars-- is that, when you're driving on track, you can firm them up and get a ton of control on track, and then, when you drive on the road, they all get soft. You put them in their softest setting, and this car is comfortable to drive as a result.
Good visibility throughout all directions-- a steering wheel that's nice and large and wrapped with a microfiber suede-like material-- I'm not sure if it's actually Alcantara, but it feels good to my hands. Everything's clear and easy to read, and this could be a car that you can commute in every day-- doubly so if you get the optional 10-speed automatic transmission.
That's going to cost you about an additional $3,000, because it comes with other options that are required when you get that transmission. And it works just as well if you don't want to shift gears yourself. And to be frank, after driving both transmissions back to back on a racetrack, it's personal preference. Get the one you like. Get the one you think that you would drive more. They both have their pros and cons.
When it comes to handling on the road, you feel a lot of the effects that you would get on the track. The steering is nice and accurate, nicely weighted, no matter what mode you've got it set in. And you combine that with a nice ride quality-- it makes this car feel like it always has an edge, with regard to sportiness, but not one that's going to cut you or feel too harsh.
This is a largely comfortable car that-- the only thing I could change-- it would probably be making it sound a little more thrilling. 4 and 5 Blackwings, like many modern sporty cars, have a variety of driving adjustments. And what's nice about this is that they've put more of those controls on the wheel versus other General Motors cars that have these settings buried in menus.
For example, there's like five or six different drive modes-- your normal, your touring, your sport, your track, and whatever-- wet weather and so on. There's also two personal drive modes, two presets. It's very similar to what you get in an M3 and M4. One mode is called V. It's just this button right here on the left of the steering wheel.
And then, when it comes to adjusting the stability control system, this has performance traction management. That's five levels of stability control. And there's a separate dial on the right of the steering wheel that you can use to adjust those settings. In our long-term Corvette, it's the same technology, but it's buried in a menu, and you have to tap a button twice, and then it changes the way the dial works.
And it can be a little confusing to get into, if it's your first time. This is a lot more simple to reap the same benefits of that technology. Also on the technology front, this car also has the Performance Data Recorder, which is essentially a forward-facing camera that can display and log a bunch of things that it pulls off the car's computer or ECU.
You can use a tool to learn how to drive faster on a racetrack or you can use it just as a dash cam-- either way. It's up to you. What's nice is that the SD card inserts just to the left of the steering wheel when you option the system. I like that feature a lot.
Overall, the CT4-V Blackwing has a lot of really nice things going for it. I like the way it handles, I like the way accelerates, I like the way it rides, and I like a lot of the technology it has inside. The only real downside to me is the V6's character, or lack thereof. It's not bad. It just isn't that exciting. But overall, given the price difference between this and a lot of other German competitors, there's a lot to like about this car.
With the CT5-V Blackwing, everything gets scaled up. You have a larger, more expensive vehicle, but you also have an incredible amount of power-- nearly 700 horsepower from the supercharged 6.2-liter V8-- yes, a very similar one to the one that you may remember from the Corvette Z06. That's an astounding amount of power.
But I got to be honest-- after driving this car for a bit on the track this morning in both manual and automatic, what's astounding to me is the ease that you can drive with 700 horsepower effectively in a sedan that's roughly 4,000 pounds. This is ridiculous and easy. That's what's incredible. So too is the 200 plus mile an hour claimed top speed.
We're on the full course of Virginia International Raceway a track that I haven't spent a lot of time at it's also a track that's very, very fast, and one that has a lot of blind corners that you got to take some time to remember. The ease of this thing is shocking.
And you got to give credit to a number of electronic features and controls on this car, because they're all working in harmony. You have the magnetically fluid reactant filled dampers that are constantly adjusting. You've got to electronically control differential. You've got super advanced stability control.
All these components are working together to make this car give you a lot more confidence than you would otherwise expect from a 600-horsepower full-sized Cadillac sedan. And how could we forget the standard 15.7-inch front brake rotors? If that's not enough, a carbon ceramic option is available, and soon lightweight magnesium wheels will be too.
And the result-- it's hilarious. It's so much fun. There's so much traction in these Michelin tires, lot of braking force in these big, massive brakes. And the whole experience is bizarrely capable, and just super exciting as a result. We're just about to approach the front straight here of VIR, and the speeds that this thing generates as you're turning is just-- you can't believe it. Listen to this.
Oh, what an insane, insane machine-- and what's also crazy about this car is that it's a sedan that you could also daily drive to work. When you have this 10-speed automatic, you don't even have to think about shifting. The performance shifting does the magic. And then, on the road, it's going to be comfortable, and supple, and compliant, and all that stuff.
How can you not love the six-speed manual, though? That thing is really a treat. And the fact that, like the CT4-V, you can flat shift it, like the seat CT4-V, it has no lift shift-- it has an automatic road matching downshifts-- it's so much fun to drive that, honestly, the hardest part about buying this or the 4 is deciding between automatic or manual. Both have compelling cases.
And meanwhile, I'm just talking to the camera casually at 130, approaching the climbing Ses at VIR, and it's no big deal. It takes a lot of technology working seamlessly to give you this level of confidence to approach this number 7 at 95 miles an hour or we drop down to 85. It's astounding. And I love the fact that all this is getting captured on a little data logger inside the car. You just plug in your SD card, read it, and go-- what a killer, killer machine.
OK, so the confidence it delivers in spades, and it's a combination of so many things, from electronic controls-- you also have the grip from the tires, the steering feel, and the traction overall. This is a large car. You heard the stability control engage right there-- limit me from a lot of oversteer. This is a large car that is really easy to maneuver around on a racetrack-- not something that you'd ever expect, but something that you really enjoy when you get it right.
The steering is appropriately weighted, and in this case, that means-- in this car, that means kind of heavy, because you want that resistance, because you're managing a car that is largely heavy. It's appropriate for the way this thing drives. It's not high effort, but the resistance is appropriate for what you feel the car doing. So god, in total, I'm a fan of this thing. This thing's a monster, and yeah, I really enjoy it.
The CT5-V Blackwing-- it's a killer sedan. This is the last of the big V8 supercars full-sized sedans. This is a hell of a one to go out with-- what a bang, what a bang.
Edmunds says
