You would be forgiven for thinking that the manual transmission is the only fun, slightly archaic, quirk on the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. But if you look just to the left of the steering wheel, you’ll spot another blast from the past. An SD Card slot.
Those lots used to be everywhere, but most laptops ditched the format years ago. These days full sized SD cards are mainly purchased by people using older digital cameras. But why does your Cadillac have an SD Card slot? And is using it worth going to the bother of finding the right SD card?
The SD Card Slot is central to one of Cadillac’s key performance features
If you plug an SD card into the slot on your dash, you’ll unlock one of Cadillac’s most interesting performance features. That card is where the “performance data recorder’ stores its output.
So if you’re at the track, or on a particularly fun bit of road the PDR will use the vehicle’s front camera to tape your run. It will also overlay telemetry data so you can see exactly what you and the vehicle were doing during each corner. The display includes information like what gear you were in, the engine’s RPMs and the G-forces you were dealing with.
As the video and data are both recorded onto the SD card, you can just yank the thing out and watch your footage on a laptop or TV (provided you have an adapter or a device old enough to come with an SD card slot). Or, you can just watch it all right on the vehicle’s infotainment screen. The data displayed varies by mode, with “performance mode” showing things like 0-60 and quarter mile times, and track mode focusing on lap times. A “timing mode” can also break things down by sector.
Beyond that, you can also export the raw telemetry data and use something like Cosworth Toolbox for an in-depth analysis of your drive.
It’s a pretty cool addition to what is a very track-focused vehicle. Now you may be asking why Cadillac can’t just include a few GB of built in storage on a vehicle that costs north of $140,000? While memory prices are a bit wacky these days (thanks AI!), there’s actually a bit of logic behind the SD card slot.
As mentioned, you can easily yank the card out and transfer your footage to another device. It’s a lot more straightforward than using a USB, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi connection and navigating through the vehicle’s menus to start the transfer process. It also gives you the option of using multiple cards if you want to record a lot of footage without worrying about the memory cap.
Can you use any old SD card?
If all of this sounds fun, your mind may wander to that SD card rattling around in your junk drawer. The bad news is, you may not be able to use it. Because the Cadillac Blackwing’s front facing camera records in HD, you need an SD card capable of recording HD video on the fly.
Cadillac’s own requirements call for a class 10 exFAT-formatted SD card with at least 16 GB of storage. A Class 10 card is capable of maintaining a minimum sustained write speed of 10 megabytes per second (MB/s). This is basically what you need if you’re recording HD video directly to the card. Though 16 GB only gives you between one and four hours of HD recording space, so it may be worth opting for something a little larger.
The cards tend to retail at $20 to $30 at the time of writing. You can also use a Micro SD card and an adapter if that’s a better fit for you.
