Hennessey Performance Engineering is like the home on the range for hypercars like the Venom series, stratospheric muscle car madness (think Exorcist), as well as novel SUV and truck craziness – such as the VelociRaptor family. But no worries, GM's SUVs are also invited to participate in the Sealy, Texas-based festivities.
Frankly, if you love Americana stuff and money is no object of concern, you could ask Hennessey to modify and enhance a vehicle from every major US manufacturer, including Ford, Ram Trucks, Dodge, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Jeep, and GMC. And they also love to touch base with just about every nameplate – from the C8 Chevy Corvette sports car to the Ford Bronco (Raptor) off-road SUV and from Challenger muscle cars to 6x6 TRX and 6x6 Raptor trucks.
As far as General Motors is concerned, they can also do a comprehensive upgrade – called H650 – for the fifth generation Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESC luxury SUVs and their brethren, the Chevrolet Tahoe, Suburban, as well as the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL. These behemoth SUVs get the engine and exhaust package to boost the 6.2-liter naturally aspirated V8 from 420 to no less than 650 horsepower, a 55% increase, "entirely transforming the acceleration and driving dynamics of GM's full-size SUVs."
As such, the successful L87 EcoTec3 V8 gets a 3.0-liter supercharger and other hardware and software modifications, plus a stainless-steel cat-back exhaust system, with the result showing 650 ponies and 658 lb-ft (892 Nm) of torque on the dyno. According to Hennessey, a Caddy Escalade H650 is quite close to the Escalade-V, as the zero to 60 mph sprint time drops from 6.1 seconds to a sportier 5.3s dash. By the way, speaking of sportiness, Alex from Hennessey's YouTube channel recently put that proud claim into the proper perspective with help from a white Cadillac Escalade Sport.
However, the catch is that the latter was stock and featured the untouched, naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V8 engine under the hood. On its side on the tarmac at the Pennzoil Proving Ground, on the other hand, was an equally humongous and decidedly white GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate, the flagship trim level of the fifth-generation full-size SUV. And this was the one featuring the H650 upgrade pack, which has a total cost of $27,950 (excluding the base GM SUV) and a three-year or 36,000-mile limited warranty.
Hopefully, it did not get voided by their quick drag-and-roll race shenanigans, as Alex and a teammate decided to compare the bone stock Caddy Escalade Sport against the H650 GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate on the quarter mile. First came the head-to-head race, where the additional 230 ponies showed their worth by putting about three bus lengths between them by the yellow quarter-mile marker. On the return path, they also concocted a quick roll race where the Escalade got the jump, but the Yukon still jogged right past its SUV cousin by the end of the track!
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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