2023 Cadillac CT4V Blackwing | Last of the Manual Sedans

It is indicative of the times we live in that there are only three new rear-wheel drive sedans that you can currently buy with a manual gearbox. It is this CT4V Blackwing, its bigger brother, the CT5V Blackwing, and the M3 in non-competition guise. That is it, and that is truly a sad statement to make. If you asked me 10 years ago that we'd be in this place, let alone that a six-cylinder Cadillac would be one of my favorite cars currently for sale, I would have laughed at you in the face, but it's the truth. The CT4V Blackwing is brilliant, and we're going to talk about why both in the shop and in the drive segment a little bit later. But before we do that, let's talk about the interior space, starting with the pedal box and shifter assembly, because that's why you're buying this car. The pedal box is near perfect. Even with small man-lit feet, you should be able to heel-toe this thing. The pedals are perfectly spaced, and if you can't heel-toe, there's a rev-match function. The shifter assembly is mated to a TR6060. The throws are nice and short. They are positive, and the shift knob itself is nice and chunky, perfect for your grubby little hands. The other inputs, specifically the seat and steering wheel, are near perfect. The seating position is nice and low. You have a low dash or belt line, so you have good visibility. And the seats themselves, which these are the performance optional buckets, which are massaging, they have a ventilation function, and are heated, are very comfortable. They find a good balance between holding you in and not beating you up as you get in and out of these seats, something like the carbon buckets found in the M3 sedan. The steering wheel is nice and meaty feeling, and it has all physical controls. The steering wheel primarily controls your digital gauge cluster, which has performance tiles. It's an all-digital gauge cluster, and it has some tile screens with all of your auxiliary information, things like trans temp, water temp, oil pressure, oil temperature, and what your differential is doing. It is fairly gimmickless, and it gives you exactly the information you should want in a performance vehicle. The infotainment and HVAC controls are all physical and easy to use, and the infotainment display is nice and low. It's not a huge tact on display, doesn't actually affect your visibility forward at all. It has wireless Apple CarPlay, wired Apple CarPlay, and it plays audio through an AKG audio system. And the other thing to talk about is PDR, which is GM's performance data recorder. It is an option in this car that allows you to capture all of your track footage, and theoretically you could use it as a dash cam. When it comes to interior materials, this does not feel hyper expensive, something like an M3 manages to accomplish due to a lot of the lower plastics in this cabin feeling relatively cheap, but the core buttons and switches all feel expensive and nice to use. The drive mode controls are here on the steering wheel. Un-f***ing-believable. In the shop with the CT4V Blackwing. Mark and I have already done a very comprehensive video on this car and its bigger brother, the CT5V Blackwing, where we spoke to the chief engineer of this project, Tony Roma. So if you want to learn everything about these cars, and you want to see them driven on track, watch our original video. This is going to be a Cliff Notes version of that, where they focus on a street drive. So what do you need to know about the car from a high-level perspective? Well, this is on the Alpha platform, the same platform that its predecessor, the ATS-V, was on. However, they've given this car a broader performance bandwidth, and the way they accomplish that is by updating the electromechanical systems. The key one was the latest generation of MR, or magnetic ride dampers. These are built by BWI, and this is the fourth generation. Technology. It's found in things like the new C8, Z06, and C8, and the CT5V, and a lot of the actual SUV products. What they've managed to do is now separate wheel control from the body control. So it'll allow you to either prioritize handling, the wheel control, the shock control, or to limit the amount of NVH that makes its way into the central cabin. So tour is now softer than it used to be, and track is even more hardcore. The MR dampers now are also faster to react with faster computers, and the fluid is less likely to cavitate when you're driving this thing really, really hard. The e-diff is the other part of the performance story of this car. We've talked about it a lot at this point. It's GM's e-differential, which its values for lock and unlock and coast were basically entirely controlled by the computer in this car. So based on what drive mode you're in, whether it's sport, track, weather, or normal, and what PTM mode, your performance traction management mode you're in, it will change the characteristic of the rear differential. And thankfully, if you want to drive this like a total monkey, you can turn everything off and you're on your own. This car is also the most aero-capable Cadillac they've ever done. When you option in the optional carbon fiber front canards and big wing in the back, it produces like near VMAX, which isn't a lot, but the big thing it's doing is reducing lift. If you know anything about street cars, when you're on track at high speeds, the last thing you want to have is a parachuting rear end where the car starts to get unsettled at speed. This car does not have the problem due to the attention to detail when it comes to all of the aerodynamics. It also has real cooling. You have a trans and diff cooler. You have an oil cooler. You have a big radiator in the front to deal with the turbocharging of this car. The other thing I will talk about very quickly are wheels and brakes. You get 18s on this car, which is a godsend, which means tires should be cheaper to replace. And the brakes themselves are eBoost or basically brake by wire by Brembo. They're very good. They are well-cooled and unlike a carbon ceramic or even bigger rotor, should not cost you an arm and a leg to replace. Drivetrain. Well, you get two gearboxes. There's a 10-speed automatic, which you should not buy. It defeats the purpose of this car. And the Tremec, it's a TR6060. As I mentioned, it has rev match. It is not the same unit found in the Blackwing. It is a smaller, less torque capable unit, but it is still very, very robust. And then the engine itself is the 3.6 liter twin turbocharged V6, codenamed the LF4. It has titanium connecting rods if you get the manual. Another reason to get the manual gearbox. It's very stout. It produces 472 horsepower and almost 450 foot-pounds of torque. It's very linear and they've done their best to make it sound halfway decent. Yes, it does have fake engine noise, which is a little bit of a bummer, but it does have a valid exhaust. And in typical Cadillac and GM fashion, it pops and cracks to your heart's content. It does have a decent amount of character. With that though, I think it's time for Mark and I to go take this for a quick drive. Naturally, Mark, it wasn't snowing this entire week and in typical Midwestern fashion, it snows right before a drive segment. No, I'm tired of the excuses, Jack. Just make it happen. Your snow tire extravaganza in this car? I will say, you know, we have had some real snoozers recently on the channel and normally that is a con, but it was a nice reset for when I got into this thing. Because when we first did the video on this, we had the CT5 with it at the same time, and it's overshadowed by its V8 bigger brother. But when you drive it in the real world and you use it as a car, it's spectacular. So tell me about it. Like honestly, you spent a lot of time in this car because you like it. What is it doing on the road? Because we already covered the track part, which most people buying this don't care. What does it do on the street? Everything. It is a huge bandwidth, right? It is a car that is really comfortable. It's quiet. It rides well. It's got good seats. And then when you're wanting to have like 5% of fun that you can't have anymore in most cars like that, you can do it, right? It's just like this dual personality car that SUVs, they're trying to do this, right? All these OEMs are putting money into sporty SUVs like the Macan, the SQ5, the X3M, and they're never going to have the feedback and the personality of a sports sedan. You can get a manual gearbox. You can feel something from the rear and the front. I mean, you don't feel this anymore in cars. Yeah, I think this is a hard, this is becoming more and more difficult because as cars have gone up and up in price, this to me essentially just driving it and being in it is a four-door Cadillac Camaro. Really, the underpinnings, the way that it really is and mechanically with a much better trunk, with much more usability. But the argument is going to be with how fast SUVs have gotten and how capable they have gotten and how much more usable they are for their dollar that you're spending. The sedan has kind of died in favor of that. But you don't drive a spec sheet, you drive an experience, right? And that's what this car has over something like that MPC SUV that we're just driving. So, you know, how could you convince somebody to say, okay, don't get the mid-level performance SUV. You just have them drive this thing. That's all you need to do. Well, the manual transmission makes an enormous difference in here. You know, like a lot of, when we say this a lot, whenever there's a manual transmission that comes out, usually it's trash. Doesn't feel, it feels like a video game shifter. Everything about the inputs of this car, forgetting that it's a Cadillac and forgetting the badge is very, very good. Very good. So let's just walk through some of this. You have a really, really good gearbox. You can be smooth with it. You can be a total monkey. Like I want to be the power band. Yes. It's not an S58 or a B58, but it's LF4 engine is unbelievably fast. While the numbers, you know, 60 in the low fours don't sound that impressive. The in-gear acceleration is impressive. The sound is the sound. It has too many burbles and pops, but at least it's trying something. Yeah. When you're in V mode, it just sounds like the overrun just sounds like somebody put a synthesized overrun tone through a subwoofer. That's like the base frequency that it creates. I mean, it's, it's a novel, at least they're trying to create an experience here. And I would say that's what this is. It is an experience. Is it a V8 experience? No, but it feels like a refined luxury sports car that has a lot of the luxury sedan or sports sedan inputs. Steering's good. The damper programming is amazing. Really. It's so good. It's so perfectly soft and comfortable in all conditions. And even when you're in stiff, the chassis communicates with you in a way that it doesn't. I think in the BMW, the BMW has isolated the driver more out of the experience where this, you have a better idea of what the front and the rear are doing. The steering isn't rich with feel like an E90 M3 or an older car, but it's good for a modern vehicle. Yeah. That you bring up a big, big point. I think that's the biggest thing for me with this is where the BMWs feel completely synthetic in terms of the way that the front end and the rear end talk to you through the steering wheel. You're, you're just approximating steering angle with the BMWs. You're like, you're turning a wheel and you're feeling things happen where this does feel more connected front and rear over the BMW products, which is a huge, huge benefit to me at least. And even when you're sliding it, it doesn't feel as like synthetic sliding this. It feels like, okay, I feel something through the tub of the car into the steering wheel versus just like, oh, it's moving. I like it. I really do like that about this car. Yeah. Mark. I mean, I'm really, I'm of two minds of it. It makes me sad that there are only three manual sedan, rear wheel drive sedans left in the market, but at the same time as a way to send it off, this is a pretty damn good car. All right, Mark, with that, let's head in the final thoughts, sir. All right. Final thoughts on the CT4V Blackwing. As I said in my prior video, God bless Tony Roma and his team. They have somehow managed to build two of my favorite sedans ever. In fact, it's bigger brother, the CT5V Blackwing is probably my favorite sedan ever. You want to know why? And that's because it has a V8, a supercharged V8, a manual gearbox, and just pure baboonery when you drive the thing like a lunatic. That said, what about its little brother, the CT4V Blackwing? It's an excellent car. It has tremendous bandwidth. You could take this to the track as we did in our original video, chase down dedicated sports cars, and then take this to work or on road trips or take your kids to school. It has great flexibility. It's a good daily driver and a fun weekend warrior car. How does this compare to the M3? Well, let's talk about price first. This car starts at $60,000, which is almost $15,000 less than the M3. When these cars are equivalently equipped with similar options, the price delta is between $5,000 and $15,000. This is a cheaper car. And in some regards, it should be. There are some things the BMW does better. First off, the engine. The S58 engine is one of the greatest six cylinders ever built in a more production-based car. It is incredibly powerful, very refined, and it pulls like a freight train. Even its lesser brother, the B58, is extremely impressive as well. That is a better engine family than this LF4. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with this twin-turbo V6, but that is just a fact. The other benefits the BMW has is body structure. It uses far more aluminum, and you can probably argue the interior space is both more usable, it has a bigger back seat, and has nicer materials. That said, in pretty much every other regards, I prefer this Cadillac. I think it has better steering, it has a better chassis, it has a better rear end, and the gearbox is leagues better. Plus, particularly now that BMW has moved into the next generation of iDrive with no physical controls, I think the infotainment and actual the control structure in this Cadillac is far superior. So please Cadillac, when you refresh this thing, don't get rid of all your physical controls. The next thing I want to talk about is sort of the elephant in the room, and that is the dealership experience. That again is going to be a con for the Cadillac over the BMW. As someone who has owned two high-dollar GMs and has had family members that have owned BMWs in the past, when you compare both dealer experiences, on no planet, at least on average, is the Caddy experience going to live up to a true luxury car dealership experience. And lastly, the Caddy dealers, at least according to all the forums, have been known to screw you when it comes to markups. Again, this car's value exists in its price, and purely out of principle, if this car gets marked up, go buy the BMW. You should not be paying over sticker for a Cadillac. With that in mind, thanks for watching, I hope to see you soon.