Hennessey has set its tuning sights on the 6.2-liter V8 found in various GM SUVs and given it a list of upgrades to push power to 650 horses. It will be available for the Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Suburban, Chevrolet Tahoe, and GMC Yukon, because who doesn't want to pick the kids up in a 7-seater, land-yacht missile?
Hennessey has been in the news a lot recently for all the right reasons. Its new hypercar, the Venom F5, has been stealing the show wherever it appears, and the company aims to attempt a 300 mph run in the car at some point later this year. It also announced that a track-focused version of the car, the Venom F5 Revolution is also on the way. When it's not focusing on becoming a low-volume hypercar maker, the company returns to its roots, turning everyday cars into wildly different, and wildly fast, vehicles.
Apparently, Hennessey took a look at what the mad scientists at Cadillac had done with the new Escalade V and thought they should take a stab at it, which led to the H650 upgrade. It's a pretty extensive list of parts that starts with a 2.9-liter supercharger that's backed up with a high-flow intake system, a high-flow intercooler, and a crankcase ventilation system.
On top of that, Chromoly pushrods are installed and the engine management software is updated with an HPE engine management calibration. To top it all off, a stainless steel cat-back exhaust with the stock tips from the factory exhaust is installed to help it sound even better. This whole package is good for 650 hp and 658 lb-ft of torque, which is quite an improvement over the stock engine's 420 hp and 460 lb-ft of torque.
When they were developing the Hennessey Supercharged H650 Escalade, the car was able to achieve a 0 to 60 sprint of just 5.3 seconds, which is almost a full second faster than the stock Escalade's 6.1-second dash. The quarter-mile was then completed in 13.5 seconds, which was a full second faster than the stock vehicle.
"Our team is very excited about this supercharging development for GM's 6.2-liter V8, as it offers a huge audience of GM SUV owners the ability to bump power by an impressive 230 horsepower," says John Hennessey, Founder, and CEO. "The H650 upgrade literally transforms sedate family SUVs into performance vehicles."
The best part about the upgrade is the rest of the car is still completely usable, including all the suspension modes, drive modes, and all-wheel drive modes. The package is backed by a 3-year/36,000-mile limited warranty to give owners some peace of mind with the $27,950 purchase.
This is obviously on top of the base price of the vehicle, but it does create an interesting proposition if you don't want to pony up for the $150,000 Escalade V. If you wanted a budget rocket, you could get into a Tahoe RST with the 6.2-liter V8 for about $65,000, then with this upgrade, you have a vehicle that's comparable to the V, for about $50,000 to $60,000 less. Now that's what we call a deal.