Considering that it entered production three and a half years ago, with the assembly taking place at the Arlington factory in Texas, there isn’t anything that hasn’t been said about the fifth-generation Cadillac Escalade. However, this premium big boy continues to make headlines on a constant basis.
Take the pictured example, for instance, which is anything but ordinary. It has an all-black appearance with darkened everything, sprinkled with privacy windows all around. But these aren't its selling points. Should you ask AG Luxury Wheels about it, as they'll tell you that the new alloys are.
Part of the AGL60 series, the wheels are something you'd normally expect to find on a Rolls-Royce. After all, they have been developed to work with the OEM center caps, and they have been fitted to numerous vehicles made in Goodwood, including the Phantom, Cullinan, and Wraith. They can also be found on other machines from Bentley, Mercedes, GMC, and, obviously, Cadillac.
On the said Escalade, the AGL60 wheels measure 26 inches in diameter at both axles. However, due to the SUV's large footprint, they're not on the OTT side at all. This is the largest size available when it comes to this set, which can also be ordered in diameters ranging from 19 to 24 inches, available with a standard or a concave profile, monoblock or dual block, flat or step lip, and multiple finishes.
Photo: Instagram | agluxurwheels
As we already mentioned in the title, this is not your run-of-the-mill fifth-gen Cadillac Escalade (as if there's anything dull about it), but the range-topping flavor that adds the V suffix. Therefore, it is a true predator that boasts 682 horsepower (692 ps/503 kW) from its 6-2-liter supercharged V8 shared with the CT5-V Blackwing and 653 pound-feet (885 Nm) of torque.
According to the premium car marque, the Cadillac Escalade-V takes only 4.4 seconds from naught to sixty miles per hour (0 to 97 kph), though with a little bit of work, it can drop into the three-second territory. It was only recently that this model paid a visit to Hennessey, and the tuner gave it a jaw-dropping amount of power.
With the H1000 package up and running, the Escalade-V has 1,005 hp (1,019 ps/750 kW) available via the right pedal and 882 lb-ft (1,196 Nm). The tuner hasn't said how quick it is to sixty, though we reckon it is in the three-second mark. Moreover, it probably needs ten or eleven seconds to run the quarter mile, considering that the stock variant takes less than thirteen seconds.
Pricing for the Cadillac Escalade-V starts at $152,295 in the United States, excluding destination, whereas the regular one comes from $80,795. The battery-electric Escalade IQ is expected to start at around $130,000 when it goes on sale next year.
After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s. Full profile
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