From the May/June issue of Car and Driver.In 1966, at the trade hall in Manchester, England, Bob Dylan played a two-set show. He started with his older folk tunes, on which he’d first risen to fame, and the reception was warm. Set two, however, was Dylan’s new stuff, richly layered electric compositions—and the heckling began. At one point, a voice from the crowd cried out, “Judas!” Unfazed, Dylan leaned into the mic and sneered, “I don’t believe you,” and then thrust the audience headlong into the electrified bombast of the now-legendary “Like a Rolling Stone.”If the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing were a Dylan album, it’d be his 1962 eponymous debut. Both the car and the LP are reverently old-school. The Caddy holds true to the traditional roots of the supersedan, with a massive pushrod V-8 out front and two driven wheels in the back. It feels like history, almost as if it’s on loan from a museum.The Audi RS7 Performance exists somewhere between the tried-and-true and what lies ahead, like The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. The RS7 stands as a sort of status quo, as many contemporary sporting machines rock the combination of a twin-turbocharged gas engine and standard all-wheel drive. What you see is what you get—no surprises here, just some solid folk music reflecting modern beliefs.The BMW M5, on the other hand, is a Stratocaster plugged into a wall of Marshall amps, a literal and metaphorical shock to the system. It’s the one-two punch of Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, which put electrification front and center in a genre where it didn’t exist before—and perhaps where it wasn’t wanted. Between its SUV-like curb weight and the addition of e-motivation, this supersedan may as well wear a name tag that says “Mr. Iscariot.”But just like Dylan on that one night in Manchester, the Bimmer hears your wailing protestations and chooses not to stay shackled to the moorings of convention. Will it eventually win over this driving-enthusiast audience? To find out, we headed into the mountains north of Ojai, California.
Interior and ExteriorThe M5 has always been larger than life, and the new one is also much larger than its competitors. This big blue Bimmer is almost five inches longer than the Cadillac, and it’s roughly three inches taller than either of its comparison-test mates.Throw in the added complexity and mass of a plug-in hybrid powertrain with its requisite battery, and it’s no surprise that the M5 crushed our scales to the tune of 5251 pounds. The 4830-pound Audi is leaner and meaner, and the 4127-pound Cadillac looks like Kate Moss in 1993 by comparison. Fun fact: The M5’s curb weight is higher than the CT5-V’s gross vehicle weight rating.Audi RS7 PerformanceHIGHS: Effortless hustle, hatchback versatility, svelte inside and out.
LOWS: Touchy brakes, park-bench seat discomfort, brittle at low speeds.
VERDICT: An all-wheel-drive motorpsycho dream.In addition to being the portliest, the M5 also proved the most aesthetically polarizing. Its baleen-like maw of a front fascia has enough open space to house a family of raccoons (or a day’s worth of gravel from State Route 33), and its two-tone rear bumper makes the diffuser look extra bulky. The RS7 and the Blackwing are decidedly less busy, though all three of our test models came shellacked with optional visual frippery. The BMW’s window sticker called out $3100 in carbon-fiber bits, while the Audi’s $3550 Black Optic visual package added larger 22-inch wheels and blacked-out trim. The Cadillac, however, took the cake with two different exterior carbon packages totaling $12,330. Sheesh.All three cabins are as uniquely styled as their exteriors, for better and for worse. The CT5-V shoehorns its infotainment into a single array of displays atop the dashboard with a few physical buttons beneath. The software looks flashy but isn’t difficult to learn. The RS7’s cabin feels the airiest, with a gigantic panoramic sunroof and large side glass, and its infotainment system is the easiest to use, but the seats will leave your glutes numb, as they have the padding of a park bench. By contrast, the M5’s cabin offers all-day comfort. But its high beltline creates driving-a-bathtub vibes, the ambient lighting has the subtlety of a Times Square billboard, and the infotainment is a hot mess of tiles upon tiles.The RS7’s rear hatch dramatically improves the sedan’s practicality, dwarfing the regular ol’ trunks in the other two cars. The Cadillac’s lower starting price is reflected nowhere more so than the rear seat, which is devoid of modern amenities, save for one USB-C port and a few vents. Meanwhile, passengers in the other cars get ports and climate zones aplenty. We’re surprised GM doesn’t add a surcharge for shoulder belts.Powertrain and Performance Engine downsizing? Not here, bub. All three supersedans carry the 20th century’s chosen engine configuration, but each car goes about power delivery in its own way. The Cadillac’s supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 has the most displacement, and it ships 668 horsepower and 659 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels via a 10-speed autobox. At 4.0 liters, the Audi’s twin-turbo V-8 is the smallest of the group, and its output is midpack, sending 621 horses and 627 pound-feet through an eight-speed automatic transmission to all four wheels. The BMW’s twin-turbo 4.4-liter V-8 technically has the least muscle, at just 577 ponies and 553 pound-feet, but the 194-hp electric motor housed within the eight-speed automatic bumps combined powertrain output to a lofty 717 horsepower and 738 pound-feet.BMW M5HIGHS: Physics-defying speed, added e-motivation, no concessions to economy.
LOWS: Overwhelming looks, overwhelming tech, overwhelming mass.
VERDICT: Heralds of the future don’t necessarily earn the warmest welcome.With a two-driven-wheel traction penalty, the Cadillac was the least efficient at converting muscle to standing-start hustle. The Blackwing’s 3.7-second run to 60 mph meant it trailed both the M5’s 3.0-second time and the RS7’s 2.9. Marc Urbano|Car and DriverBMW may have the power advantage, but its tremendous mass counteracts that. With its electric motor providing instant torque, the M5 did rise to the top of the 5-to-60-mph chart at 3.5 seconds, a half-second slower than from standing. On the other hand, the Cadillac’s 0.3-second delta (3.7 to 4.0 seconds) showed that its supercharger is more responsive than the turbochargers of the bunch.Aided by a set of track-focused Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2Rs, part of the Precision package, the Cadillac proved to be the grippiest around the skidpad at 1.09 g’s. The Audi on its Continental SportContact 7s wasn’t far behind at 1.06 g’s, while the heavyweight BMW, wearing Hankook Ventus S1 Evo Zs, played caboose as it mustered just 0.98 g.Marc Urbano|Car and DriverThe BMW also needed 324 feet to stop from 100 mph, sailing past the Cadillac (311 feet) and the Audi (288 feet). All the sedans featured carbon-ceramic stoppers. Driving ExperienceThe Cadillac’s downshifts weren’t just the hastiest but also the most violent. Whenever we mated throttle to firewall, or even reached the halfway point, the screaming V-8 would break the rear tires loose. Thankfully, Cadillac’s traction management did a great job of keeping the nose pointed in the right direction on the mountain roads overlooking Ojai, but steely-nerved hotshoes can add extra angular momentum by dialing back the nannies. BMW offers a rear-drive mode for playing drifter, but in the Audi, going sideways requires more effort.Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing with Precision PackageHIGHS: Brilliant handling, V-8 sound we never tire of, solid value.
LOWS: Chugs like a frat boy, least comfortable back seat, gets loose everywhere.
VERDICT: Classics endure for a reason.As we bombed our way through what felt like an endless stream of decreasing-radius, off-camber hairpins, the Blackwing’s latest trick—the new-for-2025 Precision package—proved its worth. Changes to the suspension, including new steering knuckles and stiffer bushings, pair with software revisions in just about every subsystem. The goal was to improve steering precision, and by golly, it worked: Logbook entries from all three drivers praised the CT5-V as the best-steering and best-handling car of the bunch. The Audi was also impressive in the canyons, with its all-wheel drive rocketing the car out of corners. In the high-speed sections, the Audi offered grip in spades, though we found the steering and the brake pedal a little too touchy. The RS7 felt like a mechanical cheat code: Point and shoot your way down the road and still feel like a total champion, even if you don’t know a corner apex from an apex predator. The optional 22-inch wheels contributed to a pretty brittle ride around town. We suspect you might be more comfortable with the standard 21-inchers.The RS7 is content to live well within the realm of mechanical physics. The CT5-V resides a little closer to the ragged edge. But the M5 straight-up defies it, feeling simultaneously like an M5 and, thanks to its sheer physical proportions, like the M7 that BMW never built. But once we adjusted to the girth and chucked this bright-blue brute into some corners, the M5 felt very nearly as agile as its lighter competition. That size hides speed well too; in the faster sections, it was frighteningly easy to get the M5 up to velocities that only aircraft could pace.And the Winner Is . . .The times may be a-changin’, but over a few days and several hundred miles, the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing showed that a classic can still jam. Sure, this car makes some sacrifices to keep its base price low, and ticking options boxes will destroy the value proposition, but the Caddy’s driving dynamics and overall packaging earned Detroit the win. Tail-happy rear-drive antics pair perfectly with the Blackwing’s huffing and puffing V-8. When it came time to fill out our ballots, the BMW proved that new technology isn’t always superior. The plug-in powertrain might scratch a tech-nerd itch, and it was a delight when the speeds approached triple digits, but simply tooling around town left us wishing the Bimmer felt smaller and lighter.The Audi, with its preternatural sense of the road ahead, came close to victory, but at the end of the day, the Cadillac was the car we wanted to hear and drive more than any other. We will miss the big Blackwing’s straightforward nature when electrification comes for it. Equipped with the new Precision package, the Cadillac manages to hold on to its supersedan title. It’s clear that the rear-drive V-8 performance sedan will not go gentle into that good night. [That’s Dylan Thomas, Krok—Ed.]SpecificationsSpecifications
2025 Audi RS7 Performance
Vehicle Type: front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door hatchback
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $131,195/$165,040
Options: ceramic brakes w/gray calipers, $8500; Bang & Olufsen 3-D sound system, $4900; Black Optic package (22-inch 5-Y-spoke design wheels, summer performance tires, black exterior trim), $3550; RS Design package plus, blue (Alcantara covered steering wheel with blue stitching, Alcantara covered shift lever and center console with blue stitching, carbon-fiber inlay with blue accents, blue seatbelts, RS floor mats with blue stitching), $3500; Executive package (leather package, head-up display, heated rear seats, soft-close doors, remote park-assist plus), $3050; black imitation-suede headliner, $3000; night vision assistant, $2500; driver-assistance package (adaptive cruise with lane guidance, side assist, intersection assist), $2000; RS sport suspension plus with dynamic ride control, $1250; RS sport exhaust system, $1000; Ascari Blue metallic paint, $595
ENGINE
twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection
Displacement: 244 in3, 3996 cm3
Power: 621 hp @ 6000 rpm
Torque: 627 lb-ft @ 2300 rpm
TRANSMISSION
8-speed automatic
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: multilink/multilink
Brakes, F/R: 17.3-in vented, cross-drilled carbon-ceramic disc/14.6-in vented, cross-drilled carbon-ceramic disc
Tires: Continental SportContact 7
Size: 285/30ZR-22 (101Y) AO
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 115.3 in
Length: 197.2 in
Width: 76.8 in
Height: 55.9 in
Passenger Volume, F/R: 51/44 ft3
Cargo Volume, Behind R: 25 ft3
Curb Weight: 4830 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 2.9 sec
100 mph: 6.9 sec
1/4-Mile: 11.1 sec @ 125 mph
130 mph: 12.0 sec
150 mph: 17.0 sec
Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec.
Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 4.0 sec
Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 2.4 sec
Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 2.9 sec
Top Speed (mfr claim): 190 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 143 ft
Braking, 100–0 mph: 288 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 1.06 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 15 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 17/14/21 mpg
—
2025 BMW M5
Vehicle Type: front-engine, front-motor, rear/all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $123,275/$146,225
Options: carbon-ceramic brakes, $8500; special-order color, $5000; Carbon package (M Carbon exterior package, mirror caps, carbon-fiber-reinforced-polymer roof, spoiler), $3100; M Driver’s package, $2500; Executive package (front ventilated seats, interior camera, power rear sunshade and rear side-window shades, front and rear heated seats, BMW Iconic Glow kidney grille, parking assistant plus), $1850; Driving Assistance Professional package, $1700; carbon-fiber silver-thread high-gloss trim, $300
POWERTRAIN
twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V-8, 577 hp, 553 lb-ft + AC motor, 194 hp, 207 lb-ft (combined output: 717 hp, 738 lb-ft; 15-kWh lithium-ion battery pack; 7.4-kW onboard charger)
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: multilink/multilink
Brakes, F/R: 16.5-in vented, cross-drilled ceramic disc/15.7-in vented, cross-drilled ceramic disc
Tires: Hankook Ventus S1 Evo Z
F: HL285/40ZR-20 (111Y)★
R: HL295/35ZR-21 (110Y)★
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 118.3 in
Length: 200.6 in
Width: 77.6 in
Height: 59.4 in
Passenger Volume, F/R: 57/45 ft3
Trunk Volume: 17 ft3
Curb Weight: 5251 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 3.0 sec
100 mph: 6.7 sec
1/4-Mile: 10.9 sec @ 130 mph
150 mph: 15.0 sec
Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.2 sec.
Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 3.5 sec
Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 2.1 sec
Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 2.3 sec
Top Speed (mfr claim): 190 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 157 ft
Braking, 100–0 mph: 324 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.98 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 18 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 14/12/17 mpg
Combined Gasoline + Electricity: 50 MPGe
EV Range: 25 mi
—
2025 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing with Precision Package
Vehicle Type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $117,090/$135,920
Options: Typhoon Metallic paint, $625; Super Cruise package (Super Cruise, Driver Attention Assist, leather-wrapped Super Cruise steering wheel), $2600; 10-speed automatic transmission, $3675; Carbon Fiber 1 package (carbon-fiber front splitter, front wheel-well deflectors, rear extra aero spoiler), $5600; Carbon Fiber 2 package (carbon-fiber grille header, rocker moldings, rocker extensions, rear valance diffuser), $6730
ENGINE
supercharged pushrod 16-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection
Displacement: 376 in3, 6162 cm3
Power: 668 hp @ 6500 rpm
Torque: 659 lb-ft @ 3600 rpm
TRANSMISSION
10-speed automatic
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: struts/multilink
Brakes, F/R: 15.7-in vented, cross-drilled ceramic disc/14.7-in vented, cross-drilled ceramic disc
Tires: Michelin Pilot SPort Cup 2R
F: 285/35ZR-19 (103Y) M01
R: 305/30ZR-19 (102Y)
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 116.0 in
Length: 195.5 in
Width: 74.1 in
Height: 56.6 in
Passenger Volume, F/R: 54/44 ft3
Trunk Volume: 12 ft3
Curb Weight: 4127 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 3.7 sec
100 mph: 7.7 sec
1/4-Mile: 11.7 sec @ 124 mph
130 mph: 12.8 sec
150 mph: 18.8 sec
Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec.
Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 4.0 sec
Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 1.8 sec
Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 2.2 sec
Top Speed (C/D est): 205 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 162 ft
Braking, 100–0 mph: 311 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 1.09 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 17 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 15/13/20 mpg
C/D TESTING EXPLAINED
Cars are Andrew Krok’s jam, along with boysenberry. After graduating with a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, Andrew cut his teeth writing freelance magazine features, and now he has a decade of full-time review experience under his belt. A Chicagoan by birth, he has been a Detroit resident since 2015. Maybe one day he’ll do something about that half-finished engineering degree.
Source: caranddriver.com
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