This is your best look yet at Cadillac’s CT4-V Blackwing

Earlier this summer, spy photographers caught a glimpse of Cadillac’s upcoming CT4-V Blackwing testing near Milford. Much to our delight, our camera-wielding comrades snagged additional, close-up shots of Cadillac’s top-rung small sports sedan earlier this week. Have a gander.

Nomenclature has never been more confusing at Cadillac, which is busy converting its lineup from alphanumerics to names that, for reasons too exalted for our mortal minds, end in -iq. Devotees of the brand will recall that the Blackwing nameplate has supplanted V as tip of the performance spear. (The CT4-V will sit a rung below the Blackwing variant.) Accordingly, the test mule captured here has a subtly racy look to it. Mesh grilles on the front boost airflow to various radiators and heat exchangers, while finned side intakes are sculpted to manage the airflow to and around the brakes and front wheels. Out back, we can spot an edgy spoiler mounted on the trunklid.

This prototype is wearing the ten-spoke wheels currently available on the ATS-V. The wheels and tires look wider than those found on non-Blackwing CT4-Vs, which will surely boost grip and handling ability.

Though they share a name, there are no plans to fit the 4.2-liter DOHC twin-turbo V-8—dubbed the Blackwing engine—into the CT4-V Blackwing. As we previously reported, the engine simply doesn’t fit in the bay of a car as small as the one pictured here. Instead, look for an updated version of the same twin-turbo 3.6-liter V-6 that powered the ATS-V to make its way into the CT4-V Blackwing. In its original application, the engine was good for 464 hp, but we’re anticipating a figure closer (or perhaps over) that 500-hp mark here in this high-po CT4-V Blackwing.

Rumor has it there’s a three-pedal configuration in the works for this car. Apart from that, expect the existing eight-speed automatic to disappear in favor of GM’s 10-speed automatic used in everything from the Escalade to the Camaro ZL1 1LE. The outgoing ATS-V was a poster child for American luxury performance, and we expect the CT4-V Blackwing to carry on that same tradition.