The Cadillac CT6 won’t live to see the 2021 model year in the United States, but the limited-production CT6-V model’s twin-turbo 4.2-liter V-8 engine-known as the Blackwing-will likely find a home in another vehicle’s engine bay. Well, that’s if Cadillac‘s executive chief engineer, Brandon Vivian, has a say in the matter.
“Would I relish the opportunity to put [the Blackwing] in something else? Yes,” Vivian told MotorTrend in a phone interview. Which Cadillac product, then, might be the next recipient of this 500-plus-hp V-8? Vivian wouldn’t say. However, he noted that “[Cadillac] continue[s] to look for opportunities to use the engine,” adding that its future depends on the “right combination of the product [the engine] is going into [and] the segment it’s going to compete in. “
Hopes that the engine will make its way under the hood of the higher-performance CT4-V and CT5-V variants have largely been squashed by reports that indicate both models, as well as future variants of the Escalade, will forgo the engine for powerplants previously designed to fit their respective underpinnings. The Blackwing engine, meanwhile, was originally designed for use in the CT6’s larger Omega platform.
With the CT6’s demise, the Omega platform is currently out of use, and does not sit beneath any current Cadillac product. Nevertheless, it’s liable to return as the base of a vehicle that helps fill the gap between the BMW 3-series-fighting CT5 and the forthcoming, production variant of the Celestiq flagship electric vehicle concept.
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“There’s a desire for us to compete globally in every segment possible,” Vivian acknowledged. Although the brand may ultimately decide to ignore certain segments, it is noticeably missing a formal competitor to the likes of the BMW 5-Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class in the U.S. market. No doubt, a mid-sized luxury sedan based on the Blackwing-compatible Omega platform is certainly possible—albeit, it’s a possibility that even we’d be wary to gamble on.
Regardless, it seems the team at Cadillac is by no means ready to shut the door on the Blackwing. It just might take a few years for the luxury brand to find a product that’s right for the sweet engine’s potential return to the marketplace.
