New Report Alleges Cadillac's Hot V Cars Will Be Called Blackwing

It certainly makes sense, but why is Cadillac being so secretive about this?

When Cadillac unveiled the CT4-V and CT5-V at the end of May, we were underwhelmed. Actually, a good chunk of the motoring press was underwhelmed, and judging by the many comments from Motor1.com readers in the debut posts and social media, you were extremely underwhelmed and perhaps a bit perturbed that Caddy would dare adorn these sedans with the V moniker. We were also very confused, and things only got worse when – just a couple days later – Cadillac showed its “actual” high-performance V-Series replacements at the Detroit Grand Prix, still dressed in camouflage. So what the heck is going on here?

In short, it seems Cadillac is in the middle of rebranding its V-Series performance vehicles. New V-Series offerings will now slot into a lower position once occupied by the V-Sport line. Meanwhile, the true V-Series successors – vehicles with gobs of horsepower – will adopt the Blackwing moniker. It’s a theory we’ve heard previously, but a new report from Cadillac Society adds additional support to the claim by citing anonymous Cadillac sources as confirming this will happen.

Cadillac Two New V-Series Prototypes
Cadillac Two New V-Series Prototypes
Cadillac Two New V-Series Prototypes
Cadillac Two New V-Series Prototypes
Cadillac Two New V-Series Prototypes
Cadillac Two New V-Series Prototypes
Cadillac Two New V-Series Prototypes

Of course, this raises a very obvious question: Why didn’t Cadillac just say this in the first place? For the last fifteen years, the world has known Caddy’s V-Series cars as the pinnacle of performance in the brand’s lineup. Then in 2018, we learn about a nifty new twin-turbo V8 called Blackwing, but the moniker only references the engine. Around the same time, Cadillac drops the CTS-V and recasts the Blackwing-equipped CT6 V-Sport as CT6-V. Flash forward to 2019; we’re told a new CT4-V and CT5-V are forthcoming, and since we’ve had fifteen years of high-powered V-Series cars – and since GM offered no suggestion that anything was changing – it’s only natural to assume these were replacements for the ATS-V and CTS-V. Can you see where a little bit of confusion enters into the mix, here? Folks, this is what you call a PR disaster.

There does appear to be good news, at least. The takeaway here is that Cadillac still seems interested in building some properly exciting sports sedans with big power. That’s not to say the CT4-V and CT5-V won’t be fun in their own ways; we are actually quite excited to take each car for a spin. As for why the company is being all secretive about a new Blackwing trim level despite all the negativity around the recently launched V sedans, that remains a complete mystery.

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