"A ROMANCE THAT BUILDS WITH SPECTACULAR PASSION. THE LONGER YOU DRIVE IT, THE BETTER IT GETS."

When the history of the sports sedan is written, the late-narrative plot twist that few would have seen coming is the emergence of CadillacCadillac!-as the keeper of the flame. And yet, that's exactly what's happened.

- K.C. COLWELL

The brand's two Blackwing sedans are the truest expression of the genre, and both were a slam-dunk as fourtime 10Best winners. The Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing is a seriously potent sports sedan with a standard manual transmission, and we are here for it. In fact, we were here for 40,000 miles of it during a long-term test, and our affection for that car, with its poise and balance, held strong.

"This is General Motors chassis tuning at its alltime best," said senior editor Ezra Dyer. To those who say the interior looks dated, he added, "The screen on this dash is as big as it needs to be." If the CT4-V Blackwing is a 10Best-winning sports sedan, what is there to say about the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing with its 668-hp supercharged V-8? Plenty. This is a monster that has won a 10Best award every year since its debut.

By conquering all the four-doors from the Fatherland and beyond, the senior Blackwing established itself as the best ultra-high-performance sedan in existence. Deliciously visceral and unequally involving, it's more than just a numbers car (that 11.4-second quarter-mile, though). This year it benefits from a new dashboard with bigger screens and a Precision package that includes a host of chassis tweaks to even more fully exploit the tremendous track potential of this platform.

That new package helps the CT5-V Blackwing deliver even greater poise, stability, and grip, and yet the track-focused upgrade doesn't degrade the big Blackwing's on-road livability. This car's dominance continues.

Speaking of keepers of the flame, small, affordable sports coupes once peppered the 10Best list. Cars like the Honda Prelude, the Toyota MR2, the Acura RSX, the Ford Probe GT, and the Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo served as an on-ramp to automotive enthusiasm for young drivers.