{"id":28138,"date":"2021-10-21T09:53:33","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T13:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=28138"},"modified":"2021-10-21T09:53:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T13:53:33","slug":"payne-last-of-the-breed-best-of-the-breed-cadillac-ct4-v-and-ct5-v-blackwings-can-absolutely-fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/payne-last-of-the-breed-best-of-the-breed-cadillac-ct4-v-and-ct5-v-blackwings-can-absolutely-fly","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Last of the breed, best of the breed. Cadillac CT4-V and CT5-V Blackwings can absolutely fly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wampum, Pennsylvania<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 The trouble with straightaways is they have to end.<\/p>\n

With 668 horses howling in my ears, I bang the gearshift into fourth through the kink on Pittsburgh International Race Complex\u2019s back straight and the supercharged\u00a06.2-liter V-8 engine in the 2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing wants to take me to the moon.<\/p>\n

\"Alpha<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The sound is heavenly. Violent. Addicting. My brain wants more. My right foot flattens the throttle, but as the digital instrument display gallops past 135 mph, a first-gear hairpin looms. Sigh. Huge\u00a015.7-inch brakes haul my Electric Blue missile back to earth for the right-hander ahead.<\/p>\n

For the last 20 years, General Motors\u2019 luxury brand took a detour from a century as America\u2019s premier land yacht-maker to become the sculptor of Detroit\u2019s best track athletes.<\/p>\n

Ditching Brougham elephant for CTS greyhound, Caddy benchmarked to Germany\u2019s BMW, Mercedes\u00a0and Audi in an attempt to climb the international podium as world\u2019s best luxury performance brand. Engineers traveled to the N\u00fcrburgring, the world\u2019s premier test track. Drivers competed in the world\u2019s most challenging race series.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The results are the Blackwing siblings: CT4-V and CT5-V. They are the best performance vehicles ever developed by Cadillac \u2014\u00a0and the last gas-powered hot rods before the brand transitions to electric power.<\/p>\n

Like other performance-oriented badges, the demands of making sedans this good trickle\u00a0down to make the whole model line better. Just as development for the Porsche 911 GT3 track weapon assures the standard 911 is the world\u2019s best sports car. Or the Honda Civic Type R promises\u00a0the standard Civic is a superior compact sedan. So do the Blackwings make the base CT4 and CT5 exceptional cars.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

I still remember my first test of the CT4 (then called the ATS \u2014\u00a0luxury brand alphanumerics can make your brain hurt) in 2015. It was magical. It was one of the best-handling compact sedans I\u2019d driven. I would get in ATSs just to drive them \u2014 no destination required.<\/p>\n

When the ATS-V performance model debuted, it went toe-to-toe with the BMW M3 and Giulia Quadrifoglio for the world\u2019s best four-door filly. (Caddy even loaned its Alpha chassis to Chevy so Camaro\u2019s team could make it the best-handling muscle car in class.)<\/p>\n

The ’22 CT4-V Blackwing model updates the ATS-V and improves the formula for the new badging. Like thoroughbreds from Porsche to Dodge to Honda, you have to track it to appreciate its enormous bandwidth. Over PIR\u2019s undulating\u00a02.8-mile course, the neutral, rear-wheel-drive beast switched directions nimbly. Credit better Michelin tires, magnetic shocks\u00a0and chassis stiffening for making this scalpel even sharper.<\/p>\n

\"Get<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

But the real revelation here is the CT5-V Blackwing \u2014 once known as the CTS-V Hair-whitener.<\/p>\n

Injected with the last-gen Corvette Z06\u2019s V-8 nuclear reactor, Cadillac\u2019s alpha male sedan has always been a straight-line hoot. But get it into the twisties and its phenomenal power could try your nerves. I\u2019ve had some hairy moments in the CTS-V on Michigan roads when my right foot was filled with too much lead.<\/p>\n

Hairy on track, too. So hairy, in fact, that Caddy test drivers were\u00a0faster in the ATS-V around Austin\u2019s high-speed Circuit of the America\u2019s Formula One track despite the V8-powered CTS-V\u2019s tremendous speeds on COTA\u2019s long straightaways.<\/p>\n

Clearly something had to be done to correct this problem for Generation Blackwing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, man, ya\u2019ll gonna\u00a0be in for a treat today!\u201d exulted Johnny O\u2019Donnell as he welcomed some hot-shoe media types to PIR. Johnny is a Connecticut boy who has adopted Atlanta and its native tongue, and it suits his outsized personality. He also has an outsized racing record \u2014 winning more races than any other GM driver in history.<\/p>\n

\"Moose.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

It was his first visit to PIR, and he was in clover with 668 horses and a new track to conquer.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t so sure. I\u2019d raced PIR before. It\u2019s a tight, technical track for my 1,000-pound Lola sports racer. But a 4,150-pound sedan with a V-8 boat anchor up front?<\/p>\n

Caddy executive chief engineer (and SCCA nationals racer) Brandon Vivian and his merry band of elves have transformed the CTS-V into the Kraken in tennis shoes. The CT5-V Blackwing now feels like a big CT4. Like the NBA\u2019s 6\u20193\u201d Chris Paul supersized into 6\u20198\u201d LeBron James, it\u2019s a franchise player.<\/p>\n

At the end of PIR\u2019s back straight, the first gear right-hander opens up quickly to a long\u00a0uphill bend crucial to front straight speeds. This is a challenge in any big car, and I can feel the weight transfer as the CT5 searches for traction.<\/p>\n

It finds it with an impressive bag of tools including Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, a sub-chassis stiffening plate, multi-link suspension\u00a0and something called PTM modes.<\/p>\n