Cadillac stirred up a fair bit of consternation last year when it announced that the next generation of V-Series sport sedans, the CT4-V and CT5-V, would be far softer than the ATS-V and CTS-V that preceded them. The company quickly moved to quell anxiety by announcing that there would indeed be mightier Vs above them…an announcement followed by a deafening silence regarding how they would be different from those wimpier models.
That silence, though, has now been filled — not by an official source, but by the next best thing. Citing internal sources, Car and Driver reports that the new super-CT5-V will use the supercharged 6.2-liter V8 from the beloved, recently-departed CTS-V.
While delightful, the news that Caddy’s new super-sedan will pack a venerable smallblock is admittedly a little surprising, considering the company has a new, high-tech high-performance power plant: the Blackwing V8. So far, that twin-turbo DOHC 4.2-liter V8 has only appeared in the CT6-V and CT6 Platinum. Car and Driver reports, however, that the new engine won’t fit into the CT5’s engine bay, leaving General Motors with no choice but to grab the tried-and-true engine from the CTS-V.
(In case you’re wondering how a 4.2-liter engine can be larger than a 6.2-liter one, the Blackwing’s dual overhead cam design makes the engine as a whole wider and taller than the tightly-packaged, overhead valve-equipped smallblock, according to C/D.)
Of course, assuming this is correct — and we trust Car and Driver more than the average blogger, so we’re betting it is — that still leaves a lot of questions up in the air. Given that the CTS-V’s prime competitors — the Mercedes-AMG E63 S, BMW M5 and Porsche Panamera Turbo — all use all-wheel-drive to better control the might of their mills, it seems possible that Cadillac will attempt to pack AWD into the CT5-V+ (or whatever this beefiest V-Series will be called).
It also remains to be seen how much horsepower Caddy will give the super-CT5-V. The CT5 is smaller in size than the CTS was, and has generally been positioned as more of a BMW 3 Series competitor than that 5 Series-fighter the CTS was seen as, so an M5-rivaling output might be excessive for an M3-fighter. That said, the CT5 seems to weigh around the same as the outgoing model, so maintaining the blown 6.2-liter’s 640 horses seems like a smart way to guarantee the car can still deliver the astounding performance that’s become a V-Series trademark.
There’s one thing that does seem extremely unlikely to show up in Cadillac’s next super-sedan, though: a manual transmission. If you want a potent Cadillac with a stick shift, you’re better off looking on Bring a Trailer.
