The luxury sedan is supposed to be extinct. The industry has held the memorial service, lowered the casket, and handed out little sandwiches to the mourners. Thankfully for everyone who enjoys driving, Cadillac forgot to attend.

Instead, it built the CT5-V Blackwing: a four-door luxury sedan with the temperament of a disgruntled executive who has discovered that the company wellness seminar is actually about feelings.

This is not a vehicle designed by people who believe the automotive future is a silent pod carrying commuters between approved lifestyle zones. The Blackwing is built around an old-fashioned idea that a car should occasionally make you grin like an idiot. It has a supercharged V-8, available manual transmission, and enough performance capability to make you question whether the engineers were given a budget or simply left unsupervised.

It starts with Cadillac’s CT5 midsize sedan, a vehicle that looks more like an old Nissan than a new Cadillac. Then it adds the usual go-fast dross attached to modern-day sports sedans. But the overall effect plays into the CT5’s adrenaline-fueled style, signaling its seriousness as a nuclear track weapon.

Certainly, GM has loaded it with its best performance goodies. The test car was fitted with the $18,000 Precision Package, a collection of hardware and software upgrades aimed squarely at extracting maximum performance on the track. The package adds stiffer front springs, revised bushings, a larger front stabilizer bar, and unique front steering knuckles and rear toe links to achieve a more aggressive track-focused alignment.

Stopping power comes courtesy of Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes, which deliver enormous bite while resisting fade during repeated high-speed track sessions. Their job is made easier by a set of ultra-high-performance Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires, essentially racing rubber with just enough street manners to avoid requiring its own trailer.

The package also includes recalibrated software systems, with retuned MagneRide dampers, steering, the electronic limited-slip differential (eLSD), and Performance Traction Management (PTM) all optimized to work with the sharper suspension setup and increased tire grip. The result is a CT5-V Blackwing that feels less like a fast luxury sedan and more like a road-legal track weapon that happens to have a back seat.

At the heart of the Blackwing is a supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 producing 668 horsepower and 659 pound-feet of torque. It’s large, powerful, and gloriously out of step with the modern obsession with making every object behave like a sensible appliance. A washing machine does not need character. A car with a V-8 and an available manual gearbox does.

And that gearbox matters. In an age where many cars are trying to remove the driver from the driving experience, preferably while adding another touchscreen, Cadillac hands you the controls and has you participate. It’s inconvenient, occasionally awkward, and vastly more rewarding than clicking a button and waiting for the car to decide you have earned acceleration privileges.

Power goes to the rear wheels, and buyers can choose a 10-speed automatic if they wish. The manual is the enthusiast’s choice, which is another way of saying it’s the choice made by people who enjoy adding unnecessary effort to something a computer could technically do faster. These are also the people who still own mechanical watches, and get up to switch the TV channel.

The Blackwing’s acceleration is dramatic, with 60 mph coming in 3.4 seconds with the automatic, 3.6 seconds with the manual. But the experience is more impressive than the stopwatch. The engine does not simply produce power; it announces its availability. The throttle response, the exhaust note, and the sensation of the rear tires negotiating with physics all combine into something that feels increasingly rare: a car with a fun personality.

The chassis is equally serious. The CT5-V Blackwing uses Cadillac’s performance expertise to deliver sharp handling, strong braking capability, and a level of composure that allows the car to transition from comfortable highway cruiser to enthusiastic back-road weapon without requiring a personality transplant from the driver.

That dual nature is the Blackwing’s greatest trick. It can behave like a premium sedan when you need to pretend that you’re a responsible adult. Then, with a conveniently empty stretch of road, it can remind you that the automotive engineers involved clearly had some unresolved issues with moderation. The remarkable thing is that the Blackwing is not merely a fast sedan wearing a luxury badge. It’s a genuinely sophisticated machine that can carry you through daily life without making you feel like you have purchased a very expensive punishment device.

Inside, the Blackwing provides the expected luxury appointments and technology. Pop for the $8,090 semi-aniline leather seats with custom quilting and carbon fiber seatbacks and you’ll be treated to seriously sporty, and form thrones that provide all-day comfort and support without feeling punishing. Overall, it feels as posh as expected, despite a notoriously cheap lower door trim panel.

Yet the main attraction is not the number of screens, electronic conveniences. Or its new for 2026 Performance Data Recorder. The highlight is the fact that Cadillac still built a car where the driver is part of the process rather than a passenger supervising the software.

There are compromises. Fuel economy is not the Blackwing’s hobby. Rear-seat space is useful but not limousine-like. And despite its impressive capability, the sedan market is shrinking, meaning this car exists in a category that has been abandoned by many manufacturers in favor of taller vehicles that make everyone feel like they are commanding a small apartment building.

But that is precisely why the CT5-V Blackwing matters. It’s not practical in the way a crossover is practical. It’s not efficient in the way an electric vehicle is efficient. It is not anonymous in the way so many modern luxury cars have become. It’s a machine built around the radical idea that driving should be entertaining.

Larry Printz is an award-winning international automotive journalist based in South Florida. He can be reached at TheDrivingPrintz@gmail.com.

2026 Cadillac CT5V Blackwing

Base price: $98,900

Powertrain: Supercharged 6.2-litedr V8

Horsepower/Torque: 668/659 pound-feet

EPA rating (combined city/highway): 15 mpg

Fuel required: Premium

Length/Width/Height: 195/74/57 inches

Ground clearance: 4.9 inches

Cargo capacity: 12 cubic feet

Towing capacity: Not rated

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