After a seemingly never-ending teasing campaign, Cadillac is just about ready to finally present its 2022 CT4-V and CT5-V to the world in even higher-performance Blackwing format. Before that happens on February 1st, there’s still time to ponder if a CTS-V with Hennessey’s HPE1000 isn’t the better choice.
The performance house is now making it even harder for Cadillac fans to choose between the upcoming and very official Blackwing options and the exuberant aftermarket take on the model that once reigned supreme on top of Cadillac’s sedan family.
That’s because the Texas tuner and small-scale automaker just took the 1,000-hp Cadillac CTS-V HPE1000 on a roaring visit to the Pennzoil Proving Ground. Once there, the CTS-V was able to properly unleash (this is where the full-throttle roaring and rumbling should always take place, not on the street) all its untamed ponies in a clear show of unrestrained strength.
Words falter when trying to describe the “sights and sounds” extracted from this track visit, so we’re going to invite you to watch the official video embedded below for that. Instead, let’s talk for a second about the HPE1000 supercharged engine upgrade offered by the Sealy, Texas-based house since late 2018.
It’s available for the 2016 to 2020 Cadillac CTS-V high-performance sedan, taking the stock 6.2-liter supercharged V8 engine from the standard values of 640 hp and 855 Nm (620 lb-ft) of torque to no less than 1,000 hp and 1,310 Nm (966 lb-ft).
It does so through an exceedingly long list of enhancements, which includes a high-flow supercharger system, a custom HPE camshaft, ported cylinder heads, high flow intercooler and catalytic converters, HPE engine management adjustment, and a TCM software upgrade, among other things.
We’re not sure if the Hennessey plaques, badges, and premium floor mats also make a difference, but overall, the HPE1000 CTS-V is perfectly capable of sprinting to 60 mph (96 kph) in just 2.7 seconds. For the record, that’s a full second faster than in stock form. It’s also going to “eat up” the tarmac for a 10.1-second quarter mile at a trap speed of 135 mph (217 kph).
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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