I was taking a lovely, top-down, leaf-and-sunshine-swept autumn drive through the tonier part of town in my 1991 Corvette convertible last weekend when I pulled up behind a little black Cadillac.
I got up real close so I could clearly make out that it was a CT4-V BLACKWING. Wowza. I'm using this brand new 2026 Blackwing
You don't see many Cadillac CT4s, let alone CT4-Vs, and especially a Blackwing. Gosh, I felt like I was sharing the road with a local celebrity.
Cadillac introduced the CT4 in May 2019 as a 2020 model, replacing the ATS. Built on GM's Alpha architecture, which it shares with the sixth-generation Chevrolet Camaro, the CT4 is a nice-riding and handling, if fairly ordinary, sedan. The CT4-V is a pleasant enough sports sedan, too. The CT4-V Blackwing, introduced for 2022, is a different bird altogether.
While critics have been fairly ambivalent toward the CT4 and even the CT4-V, they adore the Blackwing. Car and Driver suggesting it's more engaging to drive than the car it's purportedly slotted up against, the BMW M3 Competition.
Although the M3 Competition is quicker, the Blackwing is hardly slow. Its 3.6-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 makes 472 horsepower and 445 lb-ft of torque. The porky, stubby little car can get from zero to sixty in about four seconds.
The CT4-V Blackwing is also roughly twenty-grand less expensive than a comparable BMW M3 Competition. Such a deal, no?
I'm the wrong person to ask. I would never spend this kind of money on a car. For the record, I spent relatively little on my Corvette.
So, who would buy a Blackwing?
Good question. Best I can tell that hard-core car freaks who value searing high performance more than anything else. There's something ostensibly very cool about that. And who's not into saving or not spending a little money?
I certainly don't think it's because they think the car is beautiful; as far as look goes, both the Blackwing and the BMW aren't anything to write home or text mom about.
Sorry, but when you spend that much on a car, not that I would but if I did, it better be as viscerally appealing as it is tempting to drive to its limits and beyond.
