Rare Bird: A Blackwing V8-Powered, Non-V Cadillac CT6 Is for Sale
If a twin-turbo, DOHC V8 luxury sedan with AWD is what you want, then hey, check this out.
Cadillac is mostly about big SUVs these days, but it's still building some of the greatest sports sedans money can buy. Those performance cars owe their existence to previous models like the CTS-V, of course, though the CT6 and its twin-turbo V8 are what brought about the Blackwing moniker. The thing is, Cadillac made so few examples of the CT6 and its variants with this engine, and they're incredibly tough to track down. That's what makes this 2019 Cadillac CT6 Platinum for sale so noteworthy.
It's available at Miami Lakes Auto Mall in Florida, which isn't all that surprising. Sporting the Very Light Cashmere interior and white exterior, this one-owner CT6 Platinum has just 30,995 miles on the clock and will set you back $71,750 at the current list price. Good luck cross-shopping it with others, too, because there really aren't many out there for comparison's sake.
Under that sleek hood, the CT6 Platinum features the potent 4.2-liter, twin-turbo Blackwing V8, paired with all-wheel drive and a 10-speed automatic. The engine, known internally as the LTA, was purpose-built for the CT6 and its hotted-up CT6-V performance variant.
The LTA was actually the most sophisticated V8 engine produced by General Motors when it entered production in 2018. With an aluminum block, forged crank and connecting rods, and dual overhead cams with four valves per cylinder, it was a thoroughly modern lump in contrast to the pushrod designs that have proven so popular at GM. The clean-sheet design featured a full 550 horsepower and 640 pound-feet of torque in the CT6-V, while it was downturned to 500 hp and 574 lb-ft in the Platinum models. Not like that's puny.
The Cadillac CT6 was first revealed in 2016 as the company's premium rear-wheel-drive sedan. It was intended to sit at the top of the lineup, prior to the later CT8 flagship, also known as Escala, that never came to fruition. At the time, Cadillac President Johan De Nysschen backed the model as a part of Cadillac's bright and rosy future, only to see his time cut short with a perceived lack of focus on crossover models.
The CT6 launched with a range of four and six-cylinder engines, and the CT6-V did eventually get the handbuilt Blackwing engine in 2019, along with a slightly detuned version in the Platinum model. The company's high-tech V8 was supposed to show the company could run with the likes of Mercedes and BMW. And had it stuck around, it could've.
Sadly, the powerplant was expensive, and slow sales of the CT6 weren't helping to pay down the engine's rumored $16 million in development costs. GM nixed the sedan in short order, only producing the V8 CT6 models for the 2019 and 2020 model years. In the end, only around 1,500 cars were built with the Blackwing V8, the majority of which were CT6-V models, making this Platinum for sale even more exclusive in reality.
If you want a sedan that exemplifies a modern take on American luxury, with a potent yet obscure engine, it's hard to go past this CT6 Platinum. You'll be hard-pressed to find another one on the road.
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