I believe I can be forgiven for my quite negative preconceived notions going into this drive. See, at our annual Car of the Year brouhaha, we drove the non-V version of the CT5. We did not like it. It was one of the first cars we culled from the field, as I recall, and one that led to almost every judge muttering a version of, "What is Cadillac thinking?"

It's not like we're Cadillac haters, either. When the CTS—one of the cars the CT5 replaces—was new in 2014, we named it our Car of the Year. But when it came to the CT5, among the many things we dinged it for were its "overworked turbo-four engine" and "lackluster driving dynamics." Surely the upcoming V version would be the CT5's savior? Not the way Cadillac initially pitched it.

The new CT5-V does have a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6 that makes 360 horsepower and 405 lb-ft of torque. Thing is, the recently deleted CTS-V had a 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 that made 640 hp and 630 lb-ft of torque. Sacre Bleu!

Here comes a bushel full of caveats that I'm being forced to make on behalf of Cadillac. Although way too similar (especially for copy editors), the CT5-V is not a replacement for the CTS-V. The CT5-V is a quasi-replacement for the ATS-V and a replacement for the CTS V-Sport. Wut? Yeah, Cadillac never did a good job of marketing its middle-tier performance offering. In truth, it was the 420 hp, 430 lb-ft V-Sport model that won us over back in 2014. Had Cadillac just sent out the 2.0-liter turbo-four and 3.6-liter V-6 CTS trims six years back, we likely would have picked the Mercedes-Benz S-Class as our COTY.

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What's going on? Think German. Audi makes the A4, S4, and RS 4 (even though you can't buy an RS 4 in America). BMW makes the 330i, M340i, and M3. Mercedes-Benz makes the C 300, while Mercedes-AMG makes the C43 and C63.

It's those middle models that are worth comparing to the CT5-V. The S4 makes 349 hp and 369 lb-ft of torque. The M340i produces 382 hp and 369 lb-ft of torque. The C43 is good for 385 hp and 384 lb-ft of torque. I'm aware this has turned into a numbers-fest, but bear with me: The CT5-V's engine creates 360 hp and 405 lb-ft of torque. Not the most (or the least) powerful, but it's the torquiest by a healthy margin. As former GM vice chairman Bob Lutz said, "Americans buy horsepower but drive torque." Cadillac will be employing a similar strategy with the upcoming CT4, CT4-V, and unnamed range topper (probably CT4-V Max).

The CT5-V then becomes Cadillac's midgrade performance car, with a more powerful and yet-to-be-named range topper coming. That car (I'm guessing it will be called something like CT5-V Max) will be first seen in April at the New York auto show. Will it have the 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 and 10-speed auto powertrain combo currently powering the Chevy Camaro ZL1? Yeah. I'd guess power levels at around 650 hp/650 lb-ft, just like the big Camaros.

GM's President Mark Reuss caught a bunch of well-earned flak when he explained the drop in power from CTS-V to CT5-V, saying, "There were, frankly, some people who were intimidated by the cars." But see, he was just vamping, filling dead air because Caddy hadn't (and still hasn't) officially announced the big dog V Max car. Not to ever admit that an auto executive is right about anything (shudder), but anecdotally a buddy of mine is getting rid of his 2017 CTS-V because it's too much car for him.

Now that you have a crystal-clear, product-planner-level understanding of Cadillac's sedan naming strategy, let's talk CT5-V. Riding on the second generation of GM's game-changing Alpha platform—called simply Alpha 2—the CT5-V is stuffed to its funny-looking C-pillar with all sorts of go-fast GM parts. A performance iteration of the 10-speed automatic transmission co-developed by GM and Ford is the only gearbox for now, though don't act too shocked if a six-speed manual shows up for model year 2021.

The fourth generation of MagneRide handles damping at all four corners. Brembos do the braking via the same brake-by-wire system found on the new mid-engine Corvette. Traction control is handled by GM's unheralded PTM system—that's short for Performance Traction Management. GM's comically named (think drugs) but fiendishly effective eLSD electro-mechanical locking differential puts the power down out back.

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Identically sized and vehicle-specific Michelin PS4S rubber wraps all four wheels, clocking in at 245/40ZR19. An all-season tire is available, but as a Californian I say, "Who cares?" For the first time ever, a Cadillac V product is available with AWD, but the fine folks at Cadillac are quick to point out that they're talking AWD for bad weather (whatever that is), not as a performance enhancer.

With all these items working together, Cadillac claims the CT5-V will hit 60 mph in 4.6 seconds, with the AWD version a touch slower. Prices start at $48,690 for the rear-driver and $51,290 for the all-wheel drive version. Insanely, Super Cruise—Cadillac's game-changing, best-in-the-business, hands-free, sorta-autonomous driving mode—isn't available on the 2020 models. However, the 2021 CT5-Vs are coming sooner than you think, and they will have it. It's such a great technology that I recommend waiting.

A quick word about design before we get to how the thing drives. Certain cars look way better in the metal than in photographs. One recent example that leaps to mind is the Land Rover Defender. In pictures, the reworked icon appeared more toy car than macho off-roader. I finally ran into one and declare it much better and tougher looking than the press shots led me to believe.

Same story here with the CT5-V. First of all, Cadillac has a new exterior strategy where sporty models get de-blinged. I'm a fan. You can even see this at work on sport versions of the new Escalade. The brightwork is replaced with black trim, and aesthetically the cars are much better off. The CT5 was the first Cadillac to use the Escala concept car's design language, and the V version takes it a positive, though iterative, step farther. I like the front end of the CT5-V better than the Escala's. But of course there's that C-pillar.

I cornered GM's vice president of global design Mike Simcoe for 30 minutes just to pick his brain about the C-pillar. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's the area behind the rear door of a car. On the CT5, it's covered by a bent triangle-shaped black plastic graphic. I'm not going to quote him (he never, no matter how hard I tried to make him, said the word "compromise"), but essentially Cadillac wanted as large of a back seat as possible while at the same time maintaining the arcing, sloping, coupelike, hatchbacklike roofline from the Escala. Something had to give, and it was the C-pillar.

Why not just put a piece of glass there? Because the rear doors are so large (the CT5 has a 1.4-inch-longer wheelbase than the CTS, all of which goes to the rear seat) that Cadillac had to split the rear door glass into two pieces to ensure that the large piece lowered all the way down. Four panes of glass on a single side of a sedan would look frumpy. Did the design team try many other iterations before settling on what they settled on? Yeah, and I imagine they must have looked real bad. C'est la vie. I'm going to think of the C-pillar as a beauty mark. Feel free to pretend along with me because otherwise I dig the looks.

Now we drive. The big difference between a normal car and a performance car (especially a real performance car) is found during a corner. In a regular car you worry about the turn you're in. With a performance car, because it handles so damn well, you get to worry about the next corner coming at you.

I am happy, stoked, elated, and surprised to tell you that the CT5-V is squarely in the latter camp. This thing drives fabulously. Again, my surprise is simply due to how underwhelmed we were with the CT5 at Car of the Year. From behind the wheel, you would have a difficult time believing that the V version is in any way related to the standard car. We're talking vast differences in every way that a car performs.

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Breaking it down, the engine is sweet. Its 360 horsepower is plenty, especially because the CT5-V is relatively light. We haven't weighed one, but we have weighed the four-cylinder CT5: 3,693 pounds. Figure another 100-150 pounds for the V model. OK, light is the wrong word, but (probably) less than the 3,875-pound Mercedes-AMG C43 4Matic.

Really, though, it's the CT5-V's healthy torque curve that makes it feel so good, especially when coupled with the closely spaced gears of the 10-speed auto. Yes, there's a manual shift mode, but the 6,000-rpm redline is too low for that to be much fun, and in slower corners the computer still won't allow you to select second gear (it's a slushbox, not a twin-clutch). It's frustrating.

My advice is to leave it in manual or wait for the (maybe happening) manual. That said, acceleration is plentiful and strong, and thanks to all sorts of deceitful wizardry coming out the speakers, it sounds good, too. Yes, some of what you're hearing is fake. I'm too old to be outraged.

Ride quality is good. As typical with magnetic shocks, you don't feel too much of a difference between Tour and Sport modes, though Cadillac did mention that experiencing such a difference was one of the goals of the fourth-gen MagnaRide shocks. There's also a Track mode, which does feel noticeably flintier, but in a good, sports car way.

I'd like to take a second and praise the brakes. As mentioned, they are of the brake-by-wire persuasion, shared with the C8 Corvette. But they were developed after the C8's stoppers were finished, and these stoppers feel much, much better. Hard to believe you're not pushing fluid with your toes.

Handling is just sweet. Look, every single performance car built off the Alpha platform (ATS-V, CTS-V, Camaro) has been dynamically wonderful, and the CT5-V is no exception. This Cadillac V is just as great to drive as I should have expected. Sure, the new Bosch Premium EPAS (electric power steering) is probably a skosh better, but hammering this Caddy on a bitchin', twisting desert road felt not just great, but familiar. It felt like a proper Cadillac V. There, I said it. Happy? More ATS-V than CTS-V, but remember, this car is also effectively replacing the ATS-V.

The next day Cadillac turned us loose(ish) on the Desert Circuit at Thermal Motorsport Club just outside Palm Springs. The Desert Circuit is the 1.4-mile track with the green curbing at the northern most end of the facility. It's the curviest and the most technical. Last time I drove it was for the double-launch of the Subaru WRX STI Type RA and BRZ tS. It's that kind of track.

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I suppose this is a good time to talk about the all-wheel-drive CT5-V. Like Cadillac told us, the AWD ain't there to help performance. Braking distances felt longer, and the wonderful steering of the RWD car is gone, as there's now another 100 or so extra pounds on the snout. The car feels slower and sloppier. A bit of this showed up on the road the day before. But as is always the case on racetracks, all the warts were exposed once we were allowed to really push the cars. Northerners, I'd advise against the AWD version and just buy a nice set of winter tires.

The RWD CT5-V remained excellent on track. Actually, I liked it even better on the track than on the road. I tried out two of the five PTM settings. Sport 2 turns off most of the nannies. Race basically turns everything off, but after the rear end drifts past some rotation threshold, it brings it back in line before finally just turning everything off.

It is, frankly, criminal that Cadillac (and GM in general) is still burying all of this amazing functionality in its cars. Porsche and AMG have clearly marked scrolling wheels that let you click between modes while simultaneously being able to glance at the knob and visually confirm what mode you are in. Cadillac still uses a rocker switch that's confusing (Is it up? Or down?) and buried behind the gear lever. Worse, to use the five PTM modes, you need to double click the traction control button twice. But not just twice. You have to be in Track mode and then double click it just so. And the traction control button is even more hidden than the modes button. It's as if someone at Cadillac is embarrassed that the car has so much fantastic performance stuff on board.

Once I was able to navigate this traction control menagerie, with everything off, the CT5-V was a joy and sweetheart. Every single corner of the Desert Circuit is late apex, so odds were good (especially for me) that getting on the power too early would overcook the rear meats and send the V drifting. So what? With the trick eLSD doing its thing and an unflappable yet delicate chassis as my co-pilot, such hoonishness was easy to catch. Let me restate that: It was an easy joy to catch.

The Cadillac seemed to be perfectly specced for the track. Had we been on a bigger track, would we have craved more power? Yes, I know we would have. And that car is coming. Here's the thing: When you think about the cars the CT5-V is directly targeting—S4, M340i, and C43—you conclude that Cadillac's got them all beat, not just on price but also on what really matters in this segment: performance. None of those three Germans drives like this thing. Even though I shouldn't be, what with the recent history of Cadillac V lineup, I am impressed and surprised.

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