With CT6-V Sold Out, Cadillac Poised to Drop a Second V8 Shoe

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

We’ve hinted at this before, but now there’s order guides and pricing to share. While Cadillac’s CT6 flagship sedan will soon be without a home, General Motors hasn’t said anything about dropping the model. Once Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly shuts off the lights, GM would like to source its full-size sedan from some other place, be it China or another U.S. factory.

In the interim, there’s a new engine poised to appear beneath the sedan’s hood.

According to CarsDirect, the brand will soon offer buyers the chance to spring for a detuned version of the twin-turbo Blackwing V8 — a 4.2-liter unit reserved the limited-run CT6-V. That model, boasting 550 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque, sold out within minutes back in January.

While those 275 CT6-Vs will be thin on the ground, you’re likely to see more V8 CT6s once the milder Blackwing comes online. The new engine, CarsDirect claims, generates 500 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque. That’s a significant upgrade from the current top-end engine — a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6 making 404 hp and 400 lb-ft.

While powerful, the mass-market Blackwing won’t come cheap. Offered in the soon-to-come Platinum 4.2 trim, the 10-speed, all-wheel-drive sedan will sell for $96,790 after destination, order guides say. That’s a climb from the CT6-V’s price, and $9,000 more than a 3.0TT AWD Platinum model.

A Cadillac sedan creeping close to the six-figure mark may seem excessive, but for those remaining ultra-lux-yet-mainstream sedan buyers, it may represent a bargain. The CT6 Platinum 4.2 undercuts the BMW 750i xDrive my more than four grand, and its power output tops that of other German rivals.

Just how many V8 versions of the CT6 GM plans to build is unknown, given the model’s hazy future and the fact that the clock’s winding down on Detroit-Hamtramck.

[Image: General Motors]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Spartan Spartan on Feb 21, 2019

    The hate for Cadillac and GM at large is alarming. Even this site is guilty of it and it annoys me to no end. Whatever will you do when you continue to buy foreign automakers cars and GM finally goes under? Will you finally be happy?

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    • Art Vandelay Art Vandelay on Feb 22, 2019

      "Whatever will you do when you continue to buy foreign automakers cars and GM finally goes under? Will you finally be happy?" Hopefully I'll pay a little less on my tax bill. Honestly the only GM Vehicles I ever owned that didn't disappoint were gen 1 Saturns. They just ran and ran and it was hard to be disappointed for what they cost.

  • BklynPete BklynPete on Feb 23, 2019

    Cadillac is beyond stupid in how they've messed this up. I can still help them save their misbegotten asses. Here's how to salvage and amortize the wasteful CT6 investment: - Rename it without some awful alphanumeric crap. Seville wouldn't be bad. Seachange, Seabiscuit or Catalyst would be better. Consult Marianne Moore from the Great Beyond if you have to. - Redo the front end to look more like a 77-79 DeVille. - A base 3.6 for $65K, with fleet option baked in at a similar price point. - AWD only $3K option. - Be real and price the BlackWing at $75-$80K, you greedy bastards. That'll keep the assembly lines profitably going for the next 3-4 years. - Read Lexus' 1990-1994 LS 400 marketing strategy, copy & paste. Signed, The idiot from Brooklyn you didn't hire because Melanie said I had no luxury goods background. Laugh now, you dolts.

  • Kcflyer So..... Nicer interior than Tesla put's in any vehicle. Interesting.
  • Theflyersfan Couldn't help to notice that a 2025 Kicks new engine makes the same power and gets roughly the same fuel economy of the 1991 Sentra SE-R. Progress?
  • Bouzouki It is easy to pick on GM in general, and the Cobalt in particular, due to the infamous ignition key cylinder issue/recall. And yet, back in the day, even Consumer Reports commented how it was "fun to drive" and every Cobalt should drive like that--though CR noted was expensive (around $20k base, $22-24k MSRP typical sticker). Car and Driver road tested one, with a mildly positive review, but not a rave. I need a car in late 2006, when my boss informed me I was losing my company car, as I would not be travelling for work. I wanted an inexpensive car with a manual trans. I drove a plebeian used Cobalt. I actually liked it. I came back, and was told I should not have driven that car, it was sold. But I liked the car, and started looking for a used one. So I went to another Chevy dealer. He had no manual trans Cobalts, new or used. No wait--he had this yellow supercharged SS. I could drive that. He unburied it (it had been sitting). It had the optional Recaro seat package. The car was a blast! If GM made a front-drive Camaro with a V8, this is what it might be like. I didn't like the color so I left. Then I found Car and Driver's first "Lightning Lap" test, circa 2006. In short, the Cobalt SS Supercharged that some here mock was FIVE seconds quicker than an 06 VW GTI. FIVE SECONDS! Even more impressive, it was a fraction quicker than a ... Mustang GT 5.0. A car with an extra 100 horses. So I looked and found a red one I generally like (options-wise. It needed the Recaro seats--best car seat EVER!). I had no problems with it over 4 years, 50k other than sliding into a curb on a snowy morning about a month after I bought it, causing about $2k of damage to suspension bits (the rim was gouged, but remained round! The tire was reused. The control arm and bearing and 1-2 other items needed replace, but car drove like new). I ordered some snow wheel/tires and put them on afterward. It was a good car in general, and a great-DRIVING car. The steering, shifter, exhaust note, power, engine smoothness. It was hard to believe this was a GM vehicle.... The back seat was big--but the ingress/egress was awful. I had too many cars at the time So I sold it after four years, one of the few cars I regret selling.
  • JLGOLDEN Jeep, Dodge, and Chrysler don't have a suitable competitor for a high-volume segment such as compact crossovers. Abandoning Journey and Cherokee's $25K-$40K bandwidth, left the market to be eaten by Equinox/Terrain, Escape/Bronco Sport, Rogue, RAV 4, and on and on. Further, GM has reinvented entry-level with the striking new Trax and Envista. Nissan is swinging hard for new buyers with a re-invented Kicks. Instead of reading the room, Stellantis focuses on too many models with ambitious pricing at $50K and beyond.
  • ToolGuy This might be a good candidate for an EV conversion.
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