Cadillac really went hog wild with the CT6-V, and the end result set the foundation for the current era of incredible Blackwings. Only available in 2019 and 2020, the CT6-V with its bespoke 4.2-liter Blackwing twin-turbocharged V8 was produced in tiny numbers at a seriously high cost. You could get 550 horsepower and 640 lb-ft of torque at 20 pounds of boost, and standard all-wheel drive, but it cost an astonishing-for-the-time $92,790 before any options were tacked on. Just a handful of years later and this beauty popped up on eBay with a buy-it-now price of $53,900. You’d be silly not to buy that, right?
This glorious hot-vee turbo setup on a high-complexity engine with four camshafts was supposed to announce Cadillac as a proper competitor for the Mercedeses and Lexuses of the world. It was a smooth and domesticated way to deliver gobs of power, unlike the uncouth ways GM had built power in the past. It was the halo motor of the Cadillac brand as it continued its upward trajectory to re-take its laurels as Standard Of The World. In addition to the CT6-V, the Blackwing engine could be had in the detuned CT6 Platinum, but neither model sold in big numbers.
Allegedly just 600 CT6-V were built, and the Platinum sold in even smaller numbers. Maybe fewer than 1,000 of these engines were built in total, making the engineering efforts put into it a complete write-off for General Motors. Here’s one of those Blackwing engines for sale on eBay, in case you need a spare one. GM probably spent several hundred thousand dollars per engine to build these, and you can have one for just ten grand. A bargain!
Ultimately this engineering exercise was a dead end. The engine died with the CT6, and was never put in any other General Motors cars. Cadillac decided it couldn’t keep up with zee Germans, and went back to its roots with a supercharged LS in the CT5-V Blackwing, which turned out to be a pretty damn good car.
So with just 600 of these machines out there, would you be willing to settle for one with a Salvage Florida title at half the original price? According to the listing “this CT6-V had minor damage to the driver rear door only!! Nothing serious, no frame damage!! OEM parts was replaced from dealer!!” but we all know what statements like that are worth.
Is it worth taking a gamble for such a rare piece of GM history? Do you even care?