The Most Rapid American V8 Sedans Ever Made, Ranked By Quarter-Mile Times

The sedan may be slowly dying in the American car market, but the V8 sedan already has one foot in the grave. Once ubiquitous on dealer lots across the country, the pickings have become truly slim, and if you want that sedan to be American? Well, you’re left with just one model: the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. Take a look back just a decade ago and the situation was much better, with brand-new high-performance V8 American sedans crowding car shows and dominating drag strips.

In their honor, we wanted to take a look at the fastest V8 American sedans ever made, ranked by quarter mile times. Why not 0-60 mph? The real measure of a vehicle’s rapidity is the power it still makes once you’ve hit triple-digit speeds. Unsurprisingly, the list is dominated by sedans created in the past 20 years, and we’ve decided not to include duplicate models, otherwise almost half of this list would just be variants of the Dodge Charger.

10 2006 Chevrolet Impala SS

14.2 seconds

The first car to make this list is a bit of a wildcard, but despite its odd nature, it puts down a respectable quarter mile time of 14.2 seconds at 101 mph – respectable, at least, for 2006. While the Impala is an iconic nameplate, the ninth generation of the model was anything but sporty, yet we have to admire the company’s determination to turn the W-Platformed car into something special. The car looked better thanks to some exaggerated looks, but Chevy didn’t go as far with this model as Pontiac did with the Grand Prix GXP, which was the better of the two cars in our opinion, despite being a smidge slower.

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9 2012 Chevrolet Caprice PPV

13.9 seconds

While the Caprice was never officially sold to the public, it was sold in America to law enforcement agencies, and many have found their way to private hands, so we think it counts. This big RWD sedan was based on the Holden Statesman which sat on the GM Zeta platform, essentially making it a stretched Pontiac G8. The V8, which first came standard but then became an option, was the same as the one in the G8 GT and put down respectable numbers. What’s more, it was packaged in a vehicle that could legitimately handle, which must have been a rude awakening for all those agencies that moved to the cars after decades with the Ford Crown Victoria.

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8 2006 Cadillac STS-V

13.2 seconds

The STS-V was Cadillac’s first flagship V model, providing performance more in line with the BMW M5 of the time and slotting above the CTS-V. Instead of sporting a Corvette engine like the CTS-V before it, this time around Cadillac was dedicated to its own Northstar power plant, which wasn’t as raw as the LS6 but was the most powerful ever produced at the time. The looks were massaged, with larger mesh openings in the front and a new spoiler, but overall the vehicle was rather subtle, at least when you weren’t slamming on the throttle.

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7 2009 Pontiac G8 GXP

13.2 seconds

The Pontiac G8 GXP deserved better, but unfortunately, the recession and mismanagement had it out for the once-great American car brand. Only available for the 2009 model year, the G8 was everything you could have wanted out of the V8-powered sedan, complete with attractive looks inside and out, and perfectly complimented by the LS3 under the hood. If the company hadn’t gone under, the conversation around high-performance American sedans may have been different today, but it was just never meant to be.

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6 2015 Chevrolet SS

13 seconds

Alright, some may consider this one cheating, but since it’s a different model with a different name, we’re counting it. As many know, the Chevy SS is essentially the second generation of the Pontiac G8 GXP, as it’s again based on the Holden Commodore. The engine is the same, which means you still get a little over 400 horsepower, but thanks to GM’s excellent adaptive suspension, and the general improvements given to the Zeta platform, it proved to be an excellent V8 sedan that everyone took for granted until it was gone.

5 2013 Chrysler 300 SRT8

12.7 seconds

Many people tend to forget about the existence of the Chrysler 300 SRT8, but not us. One of the ultimate sleepers of its time, the model made it through two generations before bowing out, but it’s the second one with the 6.4-liter HEMI that is the real gem. When this generation debuted, it was sleek and modern, then when you added in the big dark-chrome wheels and burbling exhaust note, it turned into something really special. Unfortunately, it wasn’t priced competitively, and we can’t help but think the lack of a manual hurt its cause, forcing it to bow out for the 2015 model year. We can’t help but dream of what a Hellcat version would have looked like however.

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4 2019 Cadillac CT6-V

12.2 seconds

Is the CT6-V the most underappreciated sedan of the 2010s? Possibly, because how often do you hear about a single model receiving a bespoke double-overhead-cam, twin-turbo V8 in the highly complicated hot-V configuration? Nicknamed the Blackwing V8 by its engineers, it’s the most advanced engine Cadillac has ever produced and only saw production for two years before it was discontinued. Signifying just how profound of an engine it was, its name is now utilized to designate the hottest vehicles Cadillac has on sale.

3 2019 Cadillac CTS-V

11.7 seconds

This was the sedan that proved without a doubt Cadillac could produce a sports sedan just as good, if not better, than its European counterparts. The supercharged LT4 shared with the C7 Corvette Z06 was a revelation, with near unlimited power, expertly sent to the rear wheels thanks to the lightning-quick Eight-speed automatic. Thanks to the excellent adaptive suspension and Cadillac’s Performance Traction Management software, you could change the character of the vehicle in the blink of an eye too, from comfortable highway cruiser to a deadly nuclear track weapon in the blink of an eye. How on earth was Cadillac going to top this?

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2 2024 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

11.3 seconds

The Cadillac CT5-V is everything we’ve ever wanted out of a performance sedan: gobs of power to the rear wheels, fantastic looks, and a slick six-speed manual in your right hand. It’s the apex of Cadillac sports car engineering. A rocket ship that can rip burnouts as easily as it can dominate the nearest racetrack. Its driving experience is truly special, because it’s genuinely the last of its kind in the US, and its supercharged V8 isn’t long for this world, much like the vehicle it sits in. It’s more fun than anything coming out of Europe and it can haul your whole family. Don’t take this one for granted.

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1 2023 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody

10.8 seconds

No matter how you feel about the Charger, there’s no denying that, in its top Redeye Widebody guise, it’s an absolute monster of a muscle car in a straight line. Many have never been able to get over the fact you’re really getting the looks and interior of a $40,000 muscle car for the price of a BMW M3 Competition, but those who get it, get it. This is the rawest example of American muscle in sedan form. Unabashed, loud, and fast as hell in a straight line. The Hellcat models were a revelation, and despite how you feel about them, they’ll be looked at more, and more fondly, as the years roll on toward electrification.