2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing Automatic Tested: 0–60 MPH and 1/4 Mile Times

Cadillac's CT5-V Blackwing is a thing of beastly beauty, a super-sport sedan that will go down in history as one of the greatest American-built performance cars of all time. Call it hyperbole if you want, but thanks in large part to its maniacal 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 with 668 horsepower underhood, the Blackwinged CT5-V is the epitome of power and panache wrapped up in one explosive package.

Hammering the go pedal of the 2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing is akin to igniting a load of TNT—the aural pyrotechnics alone will startle any unsuspecting civilian within earshot. We wanted to hear more, so after testing the manual version of the Blackwing, we got a 10-speed automatic-equipped version in for another blast—and it was a blast, believe us. But what we found after crunching the numbers turned out to be a bit of a surprise.

Cadillac officially quotes 0-60-mph times for the 2022 CT5-V Blackwing of 3.4 seconds with the automatic and 3.6 seconds with the six-speed manual transmission. Our testing was dead on Cadillac's numbers for the manual car, but not so much for the automatic, which we recorded at 3.7 seconds to 60 mph. Some of that may come down to weight, as the 10-speed car tipped our scales at 4,253 pounds versus the manual car's 4,067-pound figure.

Thundering down the quarter mile, the auto Blackwing put up an 11.6-second, 124.9-mph pass, just shy of the 11.5 at 127.5 we laid down in the manual car. Some of the discrepancy between the manual and automatic cars could be chalked up to the fact that the test day with the automatic was done in windy conditions, which may have slightly impacted vehicle stability and possibly a smidge of performance.

Road test analyst Alan Lau called the car "a very playful big puppy" in his notes about launching the Blackwing toward the horizon. "The customizable launch control is very fun to fiddle with," he said of the system, which allows you to dial in the rpm and the tire slip percentage within predetermined intervals. But no matter what he tried, wrangling the LT4 engine's stupendous low-end power proved an exercise in tire-burning and tail-wagging, factors that are even more pronounced given the car's rear-drive configuration.

Stopping numbers for the CT5-V Blackwings also proved a bit of a head-scratcher, with the heavier automatic car halting 2 feet shorter at 100 feet flat. The best we recorded for the manual car was 102 feet. Ambient conditions and tire wear can play a role, and the automatic Caddy wasn't fitted with the CT5-V Blackwing's optional carbon-ceramic brakes, while the manual car was. Take what you will from that. "The brake feel is absolutely outstanding," road test editor Chris Walton said of the automatic car's binders. "I was not expecting that. So easy to modulate and bleed off speed going into the skidpad."

Speaking of the skidpad, the manual car's 1.04-g average took home the title over the auto version's 1.01-g number. The manual Blackwing also nipped the automatic in our MotorTrend figure-eight, with a 23.4-second lap at 0.89 average g versus 23.8 seconds at 0.85 g. Back and forth we go. It stands to reason that if we took two nearly identical cars like these to the track on any given day, we'd probably get similar but different results—they're that close.

This is a bit of a Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Walton said of his time flying around in the Blackwing. "It's tremendous fun and not for the faint of heart. The power is so fierce, it easily breaks the rear tires loose on a whim. That said, with the V mode all set up with steering, suspension, engine, and shift all at their max, the balance on the skidpad was quite good, with just a whiff of understeer. The transmission was as clever as any Porsche or AMG in Sport Plus mode. No manual shifting required."

Despite the performance data variations between the two cars, what isn't in dispute is that the CT5-V Blackwing is every bit the match of any comparable car from any automaker, be it German, American, Japanese, or otherwise. It's also laughably inefficient, and it won't win any beauty contests. But mark our words, this uniquely American sedan will still thrill decades from now, long after new gas-powered monster machines of its ilk are in the rearview mirror.