Looking over the specs of the all-new 2018 BMW M5 is unquestionably fun. A 600 hp high-performance luxury sedan that’s also a more than suitable daily driver and family hauler? Sign us up. But there’s another sedan, a direct M5 competitor in fact, that also checks those family-friendly boxes as well as providing blistering performance. And yes, it’s more powerful and lighter. That would be the Cadillac CTS-V and its Corvette Z06-sourced V8. Let’s look at some numbers.
The new M5 delivers a total of 600 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque, and blasts to 62 mph in a mere 3.4 seconds. Not even a decade ago these were supercar figures. But the CTS-V has the M5 beat. Its supercharged 6.2-liter V8 spits out 640 hp and 630 lb-ft of torque. Right, the M5 features a 4.4-liter twin-turbo, so neither sedan has the honor of claiming its naturally aspirated, but there’s just something about supercharging that screams ridiculous (literally, superchargers have a genuine shriek sound). Jaguar abides by this philosophy as well, and God bless them for that. Is the new M5 more refined than the CTS-V? Perhaps. It's German-made.
Those Germans love refinement, and they’ve mastered the art of balancing refinement with over-the-top performance capabilities. So let’s think of the CTS-V as the hot rod sedan that’s (probably somewhat) less refined than the new M5, but not nearly the punch to the gut that is the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. Another, and always important factor to consider is weight, and it’s very likely the CTS-V has the M5 beat here. For some reason, BMW hasn’t released an official figure, but Car and Driver estimates it tips the scales at around 4,300 pounds (and this is after BMW dropped the heavy dual-clutch for a single-clutch automatic, and a number of other weight-saving methods). The CTS-V weighs around 4,140 pounds.
We’ve reviewed the CTS-V before and were beyond impressed, thanks to its magnetorheological dampers, incredible Brembo brakes, and also insane performance (0-60 = 3.6 seconds). No doubt the new M5 will blow our minds away once we get some wheel time. The added grip provided by its all-wheel drive system will likely make it faster around the track than the RWD- only CTS-V. But at the end of the day, those dead set on a BMW will take the M5. They may not even bother cross shopping. But for anyone else in the market, the CTS-V is just as ludicrous for less dough.
