The Rare American V8 Sedan That Deserves More Attention
Full-size sports sedans: it’s as though at some point in the early 2020s, the world’s OEMs got together and decided they’d rather sell crossovers and full-size SUVs at tremendous markups instead. Today, only a handful of manufacturers sell proper full-size sports sedans, and only one of them, the new Dodge Charger, comes from the US. Still, just a few short years ago, the situation was very different. Over at Cadillac, you could even get a flagship luxo-barge with a V8 unlike anything seen before it.
Cadillac in the 2010s, a Brand Resurgent
If you ever wanted a reminder of how much things can change in 20 years, look no further than Cadillac in the 21st century. After decades of languishing, trying and failing to compete with German and Japanese luxury cars with badge-engineered nonsense, GM clearly realized Cadillac might not survive at all without major changes. In short, the haggard grandpa aesthetic had to go, and fast.
In its place, Cadillac made its best effort in at least half a century to match the Germans in refinement. That meant designing sleeker, aggressive cars with the option of genuine sports car hardware under the hood. Effectively, it was the same formula Mercedes and BMW’s AMG and M Division had perfected decades earlier. Except, this time, Cadillac gave it the all-American approach. In 2003, Cadillac’s V-Series performance lineup was introduced for the exact purpose of making the brand cool again.
To that end, Cadillac wouldn’t apply the V treatment to its flagship Escalade for at least another 20 years. Those early days were home to a who’s who of great sports sedans—icons like the Corvette-powered CTS-V and its wagon counterpart, plus the twin-turbo V6 ATS-V. Between them, Cadillac offered a viable American alternative to the fat cats from BMW, Audi, and Mercedes. Still, these offerings stuck to a format, and seldom did it include venturing beyond the mid-size market segment. To make something that big go that fast was an entirely different ballgame, and one that Cadillac didn’t take lightly.
The CT6: The Perfect Full-Size Luxo Barge to Make Stupid Fast
Maybe it was fate that Cadillac’s best attempt at a full-sized luxury sedan in decades to that point debuted when it did. Certainly, with how things turned out in the end, you’d be inclined to think that. But in the beginning, the CT6 was a simple follow-up to the long lineage of full-size. Unlike similar Cadillacs of its size like the XTS, the CT6 was a standard rear-wheel-drive car based on GM’s Omega platform, with the option of all-wheel-drive, depending on the buyer’s choice.
Developed specifically for the 2016-and-on CT6 as well as the Buick Avenir Concept, the 122.3-inch wheelbase has as much as seven feet of overhang sticking out in front of and behind the cabin. That meant you got over 40 inches of rear legroom, and over 15 cubic feet of cargo space in the trunk. On top of an interior full of leather, a 10.2-inch central touchscreen with Cadillac’s User Experience infotainment suite, plus a digital gauge cluster, the CT6 really was a Mercedes rival.
Under the hood was a who’s who of GM powertrains: everything from a two-liter turbo four-cylinder in lower trims, the same engine paired with a plug-in hybrid system, two V6s—one with a turbo and one without—and even a 4.2-liter twin-turbo V8 developed exclusively for Cadillac. Under the GM RPO code “LTA,” Cadillac marketed the engine as the first in a line of exclusive powertrains, the Blackwing series.
As the spiritual successor to the Northstar V8s of old, its intercooled turbos were mounted inside the valley made by the cylinder banks. With direct injection and paired to a ten-speed gearbox, this clever “hot-V” arrangement was a real selling point over other GM V8s. In the range-topping Platinum trim, that engine produced 500 hp, but it wasn’t the absolute limit of the LTA’s abilities.
Cadillac CT6-V, A Ridiculous, Glorious, Wonderful Creation
Cadillac had no obligation to introduce a V-Series CT6. The XTS before never did, nor did any full-size Caddie before it, for that matter. Still, the fact it ever saw the light of day proves GM still employed car enthusiasts, not just accountants and lawyers, in the late 2010s. Instead of slapping on two more turbos or something ridiculous of the sort, Cadillac took the same LTA hot-V engine from the CT6 Platinum and started fiddling with its ECU, fuel mapping, and recalibrating the turbo’s electronic waste gate.
Satisfied that they’d squeezed all they could out of the original Blackwing engine, the engineers produced a finished product that made 550 hp and 640 lb-ft of torque. To match all that power with considerable braking and cornering, Cadillac fitted 14.5-inch ventilated Brembo brake rotors, a mechanical limited-slip differential, and, like the Platinum trim, it was all-wheel-drive with active rear steering as standard equipment. Suddenly, the lethargic, laughable Cimarrons and Cateras of years gone by looked far away in the rearview mirror, thanks to one of America’s all-time great performance sedans.
The five-link rear suspension was also well up to the job of fighting M Division: a track-tuned setup with Magnetic Ride Control (MagneRide) dampers and coil springs at all four corners. There was nothing that a big German super sedan like an M5 or S63 AMG possessed that the CT6-V didn’t. At 4,500 pounds and change, it was no ballerina, but it moved in a way more befitting an offensive lineman on a maximum dose of performance enhancement. That really showed when you put a CT6-V on a track. There, its talents were put on display in earnest.
Cadillac vs the World: AMG, M-Division, Lexus and Maserati
The CT6-Vs $91,795 launch price in 2019 placed it among some incredibly capable competition. Well, in truth, more like it undercut its rivals by as much as a third or more. Even in its 2020 model year, a CT6-V’s $94,895 sticker price undercut an S63 AMG of the same year by well over $50,000. Elsewhere, Lexus didn’t make a sports sedan even remotely as big as a CT6-V, but the V8-powered GS F was down over 100 horsepower from the bigger Cadillac.
In the BMW lineup, the M6 Gran Coupe, with its 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8, shared American roads as a new car for exactly one year, in 2019. Without its Competition package installed, the M6 made 560 horsepower to just the rear wheels, just ten more than the Cadillac. With its $119,900 sticker price, the Cadillac was in excess of $30,000 cheaper. In its totality, the CT6-V was one of the most under-the-radar performance sedan deals of the 21st century, and it was barely around long enough for anyone to notice.
By 2020, with a global health crisis looming and sales of luxury SUVs at all-time highs, there simply wasn’t room left in the market for a traditional, full-size Cadillac ICE sedan. For all the world knew at the time, the future of luxury sedans was commonly seen as all-electric, and it showed in the followup to the CT6, the Celestiq halo car. Meanwhile, the CT6 managed to live on outside the US, powered by a two-liter turbo four-pot in China. As for stateside, it’s doubtful whether a straight-gas-engine sedan even remotely that big ever sees the light of day again.
Epilogue: Gone is the CT6, and a Piece of GM With It
General Motors wound up shutting the plant in Detroit where the CT6 was built soon after it left production. Ostensibly, this was in an effort to re-tool it to build EVs in compliance with electric mandates which, at the time, seemed all but certain. Instead, giants like the Hummer EV, Silverado/Sierra EV, and the Escalade IQ have sold in decent numbers, but nowhere near what GM might’ve expected before mandates were scrapped.
Whether this means GM should’ve stuck to the script and carried on with big sedans is anyone’s guess. Still, one thing is for certain: the absence of performance luxury sedans in the Cadillac lineup feels like a piece of the company’s soul is missing as well. Perhaps eventually, a direct CT6-V replacement will come along. If you ask us, don’t hold your breath. In total, only 915 CT6-Vs were made, 504 in 2019 and 411 in 2020. With this in mind, it’s a guaranteed future classic, any way you slice it. On the used market, you can even pick one up for between $50,000 and $70,000. For how much performance you get, that’s pretty amazing.
Sorce: GM, Carsforsale.com
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