The Car and Driver 10Best Cars for 2025 list is out, and two of those 10 have “Blackwing” in their names. One is on the 10Best list for the fourth time, the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. Car and Driver Executive Editor K.C. Colwell called the 2025 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing “a romance that builds with spectacular passion. The longer you drive it, the better it gets.”
It’s not hard to see why an enthusiast-oriented outlet like Car and Driver loves the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. It’s not the only high-powered luxury sport sedan on the market, but it’s the only one with the specific advantages of a V8 engine, rear-wheel drive, and an available manual transmission. That’s a formula you can’t currently get from rivals like the BMW M5 or Audi RS 7.
Car and Driver says these four criteria – V8, RWD, manual, sedan – put the CT5-V Blackwing “in the middle of a Venn diagram of our dreams.” It’s a serious performance car and a legitimately practical luxury sedan without compromise. C&D also praised the updated technology inside and the newly available Precision Package (RPO V8V), which improves handling and braking “without making it unlivable on the street.”
Updates for the 2025 model year include revisions to the front end, with new air intakes and aero ground effects, as well as new front fenders. The lighting is also new, with redesigned headlights that incorporate stacked vertical lighting components and LED headlamps in the corners.
The updates continue in the cabin, with a 33-inch-diagonal LED display now dominating the dash layout. The semi-autonomous GM Super Cruise hands-free driver assist system is also included as standard for the 2025 CT5-V Blackwing models equipped with the optional 10-speed automatic transmission.
The new 2025 CT5-V Blackwing starts at $96,990. Compared to the 2024 model year, the manual CT5-V Blackwing is $2,100 more expensive, and the automatic model is $5,200 costlier.
The high-performance 2025 CT5-V Blackwing’s power comes from the supercharged 6.2L V8 LT4 gasoline engine, which pumps out 668 horsepower and 659 pound-feet of torque. With the Chevy Camaro ZL1 gone, the CT5-V Blackwing and Cadillac Escalade-V are the only GM models that still have the LT4 under the hood.
The 2025 CT5 remains on the GM Alpha 2 platform, while production takes place at the GM Lansing Grand River plant in Michigan.
Comments
What a lovely testament to GM’s unmatched history. Long live the CT5-V Blackwing!
GM’s best vehicle.
Frank. Close to GMs best car. Corvette Z06 is without a doubt GM’s best vehicle. I would own this Blackwing but the Z06 is cutting edge tech. The LT6 will go down in history as the greatest na engine in history.
This is great of course but does anybody think these cars are staying around and therefore would anyone buy one. I’m actually surprised they’re still in production. GM says Cadillac is going all-electric so it’s hard to get excited about CT4/CT5 when we know GM is planning their demise whereas BMW is planning the successor for its long-lived and industry dominating sports sedans.
Great car. The industry plunge, (directed by governments), into electric vehicles is now looking like a disaster.
The big question now is will the new Republic control remove the ever tightening restrictions on internal combustion power vehicles and if so will the auto industry resume building performance gas powered cars like the Camaro, V8 powered mopars, etc.
These are great cars.
But I have heard horror stories about rod bearings on forums (NONE on YT surprisingly in terms of videos) But since they produced very little CT5 BWs every year, I think the failure no may be 10-50 units or so….not very sure.
Does anyone else have an idea?