32 APRIL 2020 ~ CAR AND DRIVER
Anyway, we panicked. We thought you’d
gone back to GM’s old playbook, the one
with sketches of Azteks and SSRs and big
black Xs drawn over cars like the Pontiac
Fiero, Cadillac Allanté, and Chev y SS, vehi-
cles that were killed just as they achieved
enlightenment. After all, next to the outgo-
ing CTS-V, the CT5-V is down 2 8 0 horses
and has a twin-turbo 3.0 -liter V- 6 instead
of a supercharged 6.2-liter V- 8.
Please don’t scare us like that. We have
feelings. Great cars are important to us.
Why’d it take you so long to tell us that this
CT5-V isn’t the replacement for the CTS-V,
despite its name implying otherwise? Would
it have been so hard to let us know that this
is actually the follow-up to the 420 -hp CTS
Vsport, a car that won three 10Best awards
between 2014 and 2016? Is there some rea-
son you couldn’t just tell us from the start
that there’d be another CT5-V, a real one
with a big V- 8 and big power?
Look, we really like the new CT5-V.
While it’s down on power compared with
last year’s Vsport, it’s nearly as quick, with
a 4. 8 - second 60 -mph time. We should point
out that it’d lose a drag race to an Audi S4,
BMW M 340 i, Genesis G70 3.3T, and Mer-
cedes-AMG C43. Good call on replacing the
eight-speed with this 10 -speed. In Sport and
Track modes, the autobox downshifts to
the right gear under braking and it upshifts
instantaneously. Possibly you could have
done a better job with the launch-control
system, which lets the engine rev to 2500
rpm before you release the brake. As repeat-
able as the system makes acceleration runs,
we beat launch control by nearly 0.3 second
in the sprint to 60 but still couldn’t match
your 4 .6-second claim.
We’re willing to forgive those tenths,
though, because the CT5-V’s $4 8 ,690 base
price is almost an entire Chev y Spark less
than the 2019 CTS Vsport’s $62,690 start-
ing price. Thank you for loading the CT5-V
with standard equipment like GM’s fourth-
gen magnetorheological dampers, which
control wheel and body motions better
than before by utilizing feedback from accel-
erometers at each corner. We noticed that
the old car’s staggered tire sizes are gone.
Every wheel comes wrapped in a Michelin
Pilot Sport 4S ZP sized 245/40ZR-19, but the
square setup enlivens the tail’s propensity
to wag. On the skidpad, we found an easily
exploited and sports-car-like 0.99 g of grip.
This isn’t just about numbers on a track
sheet, though. Taken as a whole experience,
the CT5-V is more fun and engaging than
the German competition. Danke.
Is it just us, or does
the 5 on the trunklid
look like an S from this
angle? The rakish
C-pillar was a nice idea,
but the resulting rear
quarter apparently
stymied the designers.