Cadillac Has Finally Figured Out What to Do With the Blackwing Name

Curiously, the powerful Cadillac V-8 of the same name won't play a role in these V-series models.

Cadillac's hottest high-performance models finally have a name: V-Series Blackwing. The American luxury brand teased the new brand—which effectively replaces the previously peak-Cadillac-performance V sub-brand—last year at the Detroit Grand Prix but refused to christen the cars with a formal name at the time. All we knew is that the V moniker would no longer describe Cadillac's sportiest vehicles; the V designation has since morphed into a sporty trim level bridging normal Cadillacs and their V-series Blackwing counterparts. Think of Audi's S-line models (which sit below RS cars) and BMW's M Performance series that live beneath full-blown M models. 

Nevertheless, the CT4 and CT5 sedans will be the first Cadillacs to bear the Blackwing moniker. Dubbed the CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing, the two cars offer model-specific chassis tuning and powertrains that aim to take on the top competitors in each vehicles' respective segment while vaulting past the non-Blackwing CT4-V and CT5-V models. 

What exactly motivates these racy Cadillacs, however, is a mystery. That said, Cadillac's executive chief engineer, Brandon Vivian, confirmed to MotorTrend in a phone interview that neither the CT4-V Blackwing nor the CT5-V Blackwing will feature the twin-turbocharged 4.2-liter V-8 engine—also known as Blackwing, confusingly—that soaked up tons of development dollars and effort only to be installed in the limited-run, since-canceled CT6 full-size sedan.

Despite the cars' somewhat misleading nomenclature, both Cadillac models are sure to offer formidable performance credentials upon hitting the market—likely within the next year. In fact, it wouldn't surprise us if the CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing evolve the formulas of the prior ATS-V and CTS-V. 

As such, it is feasible the CT4-V Blackwing packs a twin-turbocharged V-6 with north of 460 horsepower, while the CT5-V Blackwing employs a supercharged V-8 with more than 640 ponies (à la the 464-hp twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter V-6 of the ATS-V and the 640-hp supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 of the CTS-V). Of course, it's certainly possible Cadillac surprises us by changing up the recipe entirely, opting instead to build the CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing using variants of the four- and six-cylinder engines that motivate lesser CT4-V and CT5-V models. Regardless, Cadillac promises both of its Blackwing-badged sedans will sport an available manual transmission(!). 

Admittedly, it's hard to get excited about Cadillac's V-Series Blackwing models with so many stones left unturned. Still, if the ATS-V and CTS-V of yore are anything to go by, then the CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing ought to provide an exhilarating behind-the-wheel experience.