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It’s no secret how we feel about the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing around here. The CT5-V Blackwing was both The Drive’s Best Performance Car of 2026 and overall 2026 Car of the Year. It’s a winner in our hearts. The team at General Motors feels the same way.
On the latest episode of The Drivecast, Tony Roma, who is now the Executive Chief Engineer for the Chevy Corvette and Performance Cars at General Motors, told The Drive when asked how they see the brand value for a V8-powered luxury sedan with a manual transmission, “We’re not competing head-to-head with anyone anymore.” Roma also noted, “With Blackwing and with CT5 in general, we’re making a car that we want to buy.”
Listen below to the moment Roma addresses the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing and the justification of its existence.
Specifically, when asked how do you guys see the brand value of having Cadillac represent the manual stick-shift performance sedan versus Chevrolet, while also noting the CT5-V Blackwing are not big sellers, Roma said, “All I can say is we don’t necessarily look at it that way.”
Roma continued, “I think the Blackwing, the V-Series and the Blackwing, right, the Blackwing is really an extension of the V-Series, it’s not its own sub-brand, right? It’s V-Series Blackwing. We’ve been doing V-Series now, I’ve worked on almost every single sedan we’ve done certainly, almost every single one we’ve done for the last almost 25 years. It was pivotal in repositioning Cadillac as a modern luxury brand, I think, right?”
Cadillac’s been on a path towards trying to tackle the Germans for about 23 years, which is when the first CTS debuted. Roma was upfront about that reality, “We were kind of the last full-line luxury brand to not have a performance entry.” Interestingly, and worth noting, Lincoln stayed on the sidelines in the performance car war.
Roma continued, “We started, as you guys know, kind of chasing, trying to prove that we’re worthy, and now there was a pivotal point around the third-gen before we did the one that’s on the road now, the fourth-gen, where we looked around the market and said, ‘Well wait a minute, everybody else went all-wheel drive, they’re bigger, now they’re hybrids.’ I mean, gosh, you look at how heavy an M5 is now, I joke with people it’s the age-old story of the nimble, light, good-handling American car against the overpowered German imports, you know! It’s like, what world do we live in now that that’s kind of the way it is?” That world is one in which the CT5-V Blackwing, an American-made Cadillac, is dynamically sharper than the German competition.
Roma summed the situation up, which should be music to every enthusiast’s ears, with “But so really, with Blackwing and with CT5 in general, we’re making a car that we want to buy. That’s really the easiest way to look at it. So for Cadillac, that’s the luxury car that we like, that’s the flavor of ice cream that we want to sell to people, and people like our ice cream. So yeah, don’t overthink it, right?” The team at The Drive also loves Cadillac’s Blackwing-flavored ice cream. Editor Byron Hurd personally owns a CT4-V Blackwing.
“We’re not competing head-to-head with anyone anymore. Name me another rear-wheel drive manual, nimble sedan? There’s a lot of really fast cars, and it’s another example of it’s a great time to be an auto enthusiast, but I think that’s why the Blackwing resonates with people, it’s back to the point I’ve made a couple times: luxury is buying something unique and different, and this is becoming, in a weird way, unique and different. So yeah, I love it, I love the cars, I’m a fan just like you are, there’s a reason we make them and tune them that way. They’re really, really cool,” Roma said.
Fans should rest easy knowing Roma is in charge of the upcoming Blackwings (and Corvette). A next-generation CT5, CT5-V, and Blackwing have already been confirmed on a rear-wheel-drive platform. Even better? The CT5-V will get a naturally aspirated V8 and manual transmission option.
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As Director of Content and Product, Joel draws on over 15 years of newsroom experience and inability to actually stop working to help ensure The Drive shapes the future of automotive media. He’s also a World Car Award juror.
