The Best Car I Drove in 2022: Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing

Typically, I see a name like the Cadillac CT4-V V-Series Blackwing and I immediately get suspicious. That name is too long. Why does it have so many parts? What is it hiding? Turns out, nothing. The CT4-V Blackwing won me over the second I hit the ignition button, and that's why it's the best car I drove this year. The Blackwing is fun to drive, exciting to look at and a great value for the money. This is an incredible achievement because the regular CT4 sedan is completely dreadful.

The regular CT4 — upon which the CT4-V Blackwing is based — is simply unpleasant. It’s slow, it’s awkward and it’s bumpy in all the places one does not want to be bumpy. It feels like a million mechanical parts refusing to work together. So how in the world did Cadillac take that compromised platform and turn it into absolute magic? Because magic is what you get in the CT4-V Blackwing.

This is a car for tackling the daily commute or wrangling twisty roads with a shovel-full of attitude. The manual transmission beckons, the steering feels communicative and direct, and the barking twin-turbo V6 engine is its own reward. The entire car works cohesively to speak, listen and deliver what you ask of it. The CT4-V Blackwing commands you to have fun while driving. I said it commands it!

We made quite a fuss over the bigger, more powerful CT5-V Blackwing this year. And deservedly so, because that car is a riot. But personally, the smaller CT4-V is my jam. Give me an engaging shifter, that fantastic MagneRide adaptive suspension and six cylinders of fury any day. That’s what Cadillac has done, and you know what? They can go ahead and add some more words to the name. I left my suspicions somewhere on the other end of those tire marks.