Watch as Cadillac's CT4-V Blackwing Brings the Heat at Virginia International Raceway

The hotly anticipated full-fledged V-series lapped VIR’s Grand Course in an impressive 2:52.5 seconds.

• With Cadillac’s hotshoe Bill Wise behind the wheel, the Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing lapped the Grand Course at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in 2:52.5 seconds.
  
• At Car and Driver's annual Lightning Lap, the CT4-V lapped the 4.1-mile circuit in 3:06.2 seconds.
  
• The CT4-V Blackwing is powered by a 472-hp twin-turbo 3.6-liter V-6 backed by a six-speed manual or 10-speed automatic transmission.

Remember in elementary school when paper chain-link countdowns were the buzz? Those simple craft projects counted down the most important days such as holidays and birthdays. For us, they're used to measure how many rotations around the sun remain before we arrive at the greatest days of our year: Lightning Lap. Cadillac just dropped a video of the CT4-V Blackwing lapping our home track, giving us 172 reasons to get excited for this year's event.

With Cadillac hotshoe Bill Wise manning the controls, the CT4-V Blackwing got around the 4.1-mile Grand Course in a speedy 2:52.5 seconds. For reference, we lapped the circuit in the junior CT4-V in 3:06.2. Development drivers have many talents, one of them being, of course, that they're extremely good at driving. Typically, we at C/D trail their times by a few seconds. Not because we're slugs, but because the sheer amount of seat time they have trumps the five or six sessions that we might get behind the wheel. The Blackwing's predecessor, the Cadillac ATS-V, spun a 2:59.8, and we expect to lop a good bit of time off that. What else did Bill Wise beat? Check out the list here.

SOURCE AND VIDEO: CAR AND DRIVER