Cadillac planning supercharged V8 CT5

Cadillac might be about to lead General Motors’ electric vehicle charge but there’s one last petrol-powered hurrah coming from the current generation.

Reports out of the US are suggesting an ultra-high performance variant of the Cadillac CT5 is on its way using the 6.2-litre supercharged LT4 V8 from the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and now-defunct Cadillac CTS-V.

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Media and consumers were left underwhelmed by the recent reveal of the CT5-V, a quick car with 265kW/542Nm from a 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6, but a long way from the 477kW/855Nm offered by its previous CTS-V super sedan.

As it turns out, the CT5-V was just the entrée with the main course still to come, Cadillac telling US media that it has switched to a two-tiered line-up for its high-performance models, with the yet-to-be-named track capable models yet to appear.

It’s expected the CT5 will adopt the LT4 V8 while the smaller CT4 will use the 3.6-litre twin-turbo V6 from the previous-generation ATS-V which produced 346kW/601Nm. Cadillac offered a first look at these two new models when prototypes completed laps at the recent Detroit IndyCar Grand Prix driven by GM President Mark Reuss and Product Vice President Ken Morris.

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There was speculation that high-performance Cadillac variants would be powered by its new 4.2-litre twin-turbo V8 dubbed ‘Blackwing’, but that engine’s future is in serious doubt as the car it powers, the flagship CT6-V, was revealed and then almost immediately cancelled.

Jonny Liebermann from US outlet Motor Trend reported on his Instagram both the future CT4 and CT5 high-performance variants will be offered in both manual and automatic. The CTS-V and ATS-V were both available as a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic, however, the LT4-powered Camaro ZL1 uses a new 10-speed automatic.

GM revealed in its 2018 earnings report that “Cadillac will be GM’s lead electric vehicle brand and will introduce the first model from the company’s all-new battery-electric vehicle architecture” but apparently it’s still happy to keep at least one wheel in the traditional ICE camp for now.