The 2015 Cadillac Escalade is, no doubt, a nice SUV – it has all of the creature comforts one could ever ask for in an SUV of that size. John Hennessey, President and Founder of Hennessey Performance Engineering, recently picked one up for his wife with intentions to turn it into a family hauling beast.
“The new 2015 Cadillac Escalade is the perfect platform for a Hennessey infusion of horsepower,” said Hennessey. “It’s luxurious, spacious and cries out for personalization and more performance. I plan on making this our next family hauler for our five teenagers and four Labrador Retrievers.”
With that being said, the crew over at HPE immediately got working on an “entry level” HPE550 kit for the Escalade’s new direct-injected 6.2L V8. Putting out 557 horsepower and 542 pound-feet of torque, the kit includes a high-flow supercharger, high-flow cooling system, and an HPE engine management calibration. The HPE550 kit also includes all of the fluids, gaskets, hardware, and of course, the badges and serial-numbered dash/engine plaques for authenticity. Being that the 2015 Yukon, Tahoe, and Suburbans come with the same engines, the kit will work on those as well.
While the Escalade isn’t for everyone, those who can justify buying one will definitely want the Hennessey HPE550 kit to show those Range Rover and Mercedes AMG drivers who’s boss in the in the car-loop while picking their kids up from school. All jokes aside, the Escalade is a big step up from its predecessor, and the 6.2L direct-injected V8 has plenty of potential for making a lot of power. Sadly, the kit is not compliant with California emissions – we don’t have any doubt that new Escalade owners will slap them on, though.
Below, we attached a video of John Hennessey accompanying his wife down the drag strip at Lonestar Motorsports Park as she lays down a baseline run in her new family-mobile. Keep in mind, this video is before the HPE550 kit went into development – enjoy!