Taking delivery of a new Cadillac Escalade is an event in and of itself. And now, you can do yourself one better with your new acquisition, thanks to Sealy, Texas-based hypercar tuner Hennessey Performance, which has a General Motors-approved supercharger upgrade now available: Not just for the Escalade, but also for large GM SUVs sharing the same platform ranging from the Chevrolet Tahoe to the GMC Yukon XL.
The Hennessey package takes the Escalade’s 6.2-liter V-8 and adds a 2,9-liter-capacity belt-driven supercharger, hardened chromemoly pushrods, a specific intake system, a high-flow intercooler and specific powertrain mapping to boost, literally, the GM V-8 from its standard 420 horsepower all the way to 650, which ought to help immensely with any high-speed on-ramp merge, just for openers. The supercharger kit lops nearly one full second off the Escalade’s 0-50 time, dropping it to around five seconds flat, and is backed by a full three-year, 36,000-mile warranty from GM. The conversion’s MSRP starts at $27,950.
Jim Donnelly On Wheels 