Some preproduction test models of the upcoming track-focused Cadillac CT5-V — these apparently with muscular V8 engines — showed up at a Michigan car show this past weekend, and they sounded extremely supercharged.
The new Cadillac performance models have been a bit of a mess. First, they’ve been renamed from ATS and CTS to now be quasi-numerical. The old CTS-V is now the CT5-V. But that’s not all — the CT5-V is already on sale, but it’s been powered down from the previous CTS-V and is consequently very different.
Now Cadillac is working on a hotter version, but it’s not even getting the company’s new Blackwing V8. So what do these cars have, then?
The current CT5-V is powered by a twin-turbo V6 that makes 360 horsepower and 184 kg-ft of torque, which would be fine if its predecessor with a nearly identical name hadn’t made such a big splash in having a whopping 640 horsepower. Of course, the new car’s price has dropped substantially compared with the old V models, but so did the performance. Cadillac claims it’s because owners found the previous cars too “intimidating.”
But Cadillac knew the newer, cheaper, lower-powered and “less-intimidating” V cars wouldn’t satisfy everyone, so we’re also getting hotter, more track-focused models, like these prototypes at the High Octane Cafe & Bakery in Michigan this weekend.
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The second clip of the two cars taking off down the road appears to confirm that the engine will at least be supercharged. That alone lends a lot of credence to the idea that Cadillac is still working with the old V-car’s 6.2-litre LT4 V8, as the rumours suggest, which was supercharged in the old CTS-V. Previous reports also seemed to show a prototype with a manual transmission like the earlier version, which is good news.
The current CT4-V, confusingly sized between the old ATS and CTS sedans but slightly smaller than the CT5-V, starts at $US45,500 ($62,385), and the current CT5-V with rear-wheel drive starts at around $US49,000 ($67,184). The previous CTS-V was priced around $US89,000 ($122,028), so figure these more track-oriented V-cars will be somewhere (hopefully) under or around that more substantial wad of cash.