Page 72 - Motor Trend (May 2020)
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FIRST DRIVE I 2020 Cadillac CT5-V


               believe I can be forgiven for my negative
               preconceived notions going into this
               drive. See, at our annual Car of the Year
               brouhaha, we drove the non-V version
           I he CT5. We did not like it. It was one
               of t
            of the first cars we culled, and one that led
            to almost every judge muttering a version
            of, “What is Cadillac thinking?”
               It’s not like we’re Cadillac haters,
            either. When the CTS—one of the cars
            the CT5 replaces—was new in 2014, we             Riding on the second generation of           Identically sized and vehicle-specific
            named it our Car of the Year. But when it     GM’s game-changing Alpha platform—            Michelin PS4S rubber wraps all four
            came to the CT5, among the many things        called simply Alpha 2—the CT5-V is            wheels, clocking in at 245/40ZR19. An
            we dinged it for were its “overworked         stuffed to its funny-looking C-pillar with    all-season tire is available, but as a Cali-
            turbo-four engine” and “lackluster driving  all sorts of go-fast GM parts. The 3.0-liter    fornian I say, “Who cares?” For the first
            dynamics.” Surely the upcoming V version  twin-turbo V-6 makes 360 horsepower               time ever a Cadillac V product is available
            would be the CT5’s savior? We could be        and 405 lb-ft of torque. A performance        with AWD, but the fine folks at Cadillac
            forgiven for thinking, “No.”                  iteration of the 10-speed automatic           are quick to point out that they’re talking
                                                          codeveloped by GM and Ford is the only        AWD for bad weather (whatever that is),
                                                          gearbox for now, though don’t act too         not as a performance enhancer. As such,
                                                          shocked if a six-speed manual shows up        Cadillac claims the CT5-V will hit 60 mph
                                                          for model year 2021. The fourth genera-       in 4.6 seconds, with the AWD version
                                                          tion of MagneRide handles damping at all      coming in a touch slower.
                                                          four corners. Brembos do the braking via        Add this all up, and the CT5-V is
                                                          the same brake-by-wire system found on        now Cadillac’s midgrade performance
                                                          the new mid-engine Corvette. Traction         car (think Audi S4, BMW M340i, and
                                                          control is handled by GM’s PTM system—        Mercedes-AMG C 43). And a more
                                                          that’s short for Performance Traction         powerful, unnamed range topper is
                                                          Management. GM’s fiendishly effective          coming. Will that future car (I’m guessing
                                                          eLSD electromechanical locking differen-      it will be called something like CT5-V
                                                          tial puts the power down out back.            Max) have the 6.2-liter supercharged V-8











        WORDS JONNY LIEBERMAN
















































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