Cadillac recently unveiled the CT5-V Blackwing — which, in spite of the odd moniker, is basically the de facto next-generation CTS-V enthusiasts craved. It’s a 668-horsepower, rear-wheel-drive sedan with a standard manual transmission. And despite the car’s name, it foregoes the Blackwing V8 for the same LT4 version of GM’s supercharged 6.2-liter V8 that the last-generation CTS-V used.
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While a 668-hp sedan sounds (and will be) absolutely monstrous, that’s actually not GM’s most powerful version of the 6.2-liter V8. The company built one called LT5 for the 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 that — thanks to 755 hp and 715 lb-ft of torque — was GM’s most powerful production car engine ever.
According to GM Authority, Cadillac considered but ultimately opted against using the LT5 engine in the CT5-V Blackwing for some excellent reasons.
One problem? You wouldn’t have been able to see out of the car. Without expensive modifications, the LT5 would have had to sit higher in the CT5-V than it did in the Corvette — which itself required a shaker hood to accommodate it. Mirza Gribovic, the chief engineer for the CT5-V Blackwing, told GM Authority that the resulting car “wouldn’t have met the regulatory requirements for vision.”
Another issue was the tires. The CT5-V Blackwing has a maximum tire width of 305 millimeters, which is appreciably smaller than the 335 mm rear wheels featured on the ZR1 Corvette. Drivers would have struggled with having that much power sent to the rear wheels, and the car likely wouldn’t have been much faster around a track despite the added juice. Cadillac could have countered that by switching to an all-wheel-drive setup, much as competitors like the BMW M5 Competition and Audi RS 7 have done…but they were committed to enthusiast-favored rear-wheel-drive.