You’ll hear it before you see it, and it sounds like something that could only come from America.

It took until the end of Cadillac’s gas-powered era, but the automaker finally built a sport sedan that drives better, and is more fun, than anything you can get from Germany: the 2022 CT5-V Blackwing.

Cadillac built a dynamics benchmark, but it won’t be here for long as the automaker is going all-electric.

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

With a blown V-8 under the hood, an available manual transmission, a suspension worth writing home about, and rear-wheel drive, the 2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing will go down as more than a footnote in history. We’ll tell our grandchildren about it someday. Well, I will at least.

Here’s what I learned carving California canyon roads in the 2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing as the sun rose above the Pacific Ocean.

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

Hit: V Mode hits the spot

Cadillac offers myriad ways to configure the CT5-V Blackwing’s vehicle systems. From the exhaust to the dampers to the traction management, to the steering, and even the brakes, everything can be tailored to the driver’s taste or changed via pre-set configurations like Sport mode. But one mode stands above them all: V mode. It’s a take on the available My Mode but supercharged with the ability to also change engine/shift calibrations and the Performance Traction Management system. It delivers the calibrations and settings Cadillac engineers felt bring the best performance when driving hard. They’re right. Set via a button on the steering wheel, V mode hits the sweet spot with controlled body motions, not-to-heavy but not-too-light steering, and the ideal brake engagement point. It also loosens the reins of the PTM system (Performance Traction Management integrates the traction control, stability control, magnetic ride control, and electronic limited-slip differential) to allow the car more sideways slip without ever getting bent out of shape. It’s the Ronco Set It And Forget It mode for the CT5-V Blackwing for aggressive driving. But, due to the changes it makes to the PTM settings, it has to be chosen each time the engine starts.

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

Miss: Base brake travel

The CT5-V Blackwing’s optional $9,000 carbon ceramic brakes don’t instill confidence in the default Comfort mode, which can be alarming for a car with 668 hp. The brakes are fine around town, but start hauling any real speed and the excessive pedal travel can start to fray your nerves. Cadillac offers three levels of brake engagement, and cranking the settings up a notch or two fixes the issue. Simply toggling the system to Sport or V mode will accomplish this, or drivers can save one of those settings in MyMode.

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

Hit: The head-up display

The CT5-V Blackwing’s head-up display provides a special experience, though it’s kind of by accident. It’s a color display like many other systems. But, slide on a pair of polarized sunglasses, which GM does not recommend using while viewing the display, and the entire view turns a monotone neon green. It’s unlike any other HUD I’ve experienced, and what I imagine a fighter jet HUD looks like. The reason this happens is because of the type of optical filter, or polarizer, used in the display and the wavelengths it filters combined with the wavelengths filtered by some polarized sunglasses. Your seating angle, sunglasses, and experience may vary.

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

Miss: I can’t see

With 668 hp from its supercharged 6.2-liter V-8, the CT5-V Blackwing can sprint to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds and top 200 mph. It’s fast, But its headlights are fixed, so they don’t point into corners, and the car can outrun its headlights. The high beams are the inner lighting elements, and they create a distinct hot spot in the center of each headlight’s beam pattern. Taking corners at a high rate of speed, which the CT5-V’s very capable of, can feel like driving blind.

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

Hit: It all gels

The CT5-V Blackwing strikes me like a dream build: the entire package just works. The 6-speed manual has short, satisfying throws. The throbbing V-8 has all the power and then some, with meat in the low and mid ranges, though the redline is a relatively low 6,500 rpm. The exhaust emits a battle cry that can only come from America. To top it off, the adaptive dampers are the star of the show. Their sublime tuning is never plush, but is still comfortable on Los Angeles’s 405 freeway while being firm enough to provide excellent control on canyon roads.

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

Miss: Interior isn’t up to snuff

My tester had a sticker price of $112,545 thanks to $27,555 in options, including the leather-lined interior with carbon-fiber front seat backs. But the interior didn’t feel like it matched the price. A comparably priced M5’s interior shames the Cadillac in terms of fit and finish. In my tester, the way the leather met the carbon-fiber front seat backs looked like it might have been assembled at 5 pm on a Friday. The leather on the dashboard seemed like it could be out of a Chevrolet Equinox, albeit a top model. It doesn’t feel like a six-figure interior and it all comes down to the precision of the fit and finish. That said, the carbon-backed front buckets are gorgeous and quite comfortable.

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

The 2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing is the unicorn enthusiasts have been screaming for. Everyone who gets their hands on one will own a piece of history because it will be gone before you know it. I look forward to telling my grandchildren someday I drove a Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing as the sun rose above the Pacific ocean.

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2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

Base price: $84,990, including destination
Price as tested: $112,545
Powertrain: 668-hp supercharged 6.2-liter V-8, 6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
EPA fuel economy: 13/21/15 mpg
The hits: Just right V mode, great head-up display, sublime suspension, it gels
The misses: Interior’s the low point, too fast for headlights in corners, brake calibration in base settings