The World Doesn’t Need A 1000bhp Cadillac Escalade, But We’re Glad It Exists

Subtlety is not something the Cadillac Escalade has ever been known for in its 26-year life so far, and that’s doubly so with the high-performance Escalade-V. Churning out 682bhp and 653lb ft of torque from a 6.2-litre supercharged LT4 V8, it’s a 2.8-tonne, chrome-laden statement piece, and that statement is “I’m completely out of touch with the world, and I don’t really care what you think.”

When there’s that much sheer excess involved, though, there’s only one logical course of action: take things even further. That, as is so often the case, is where Texan tuning outfit Hennessey comes in. In a fairly inevitable move, it’s got its hands on the Escalade-V, and turned up the wick. A lot.

It’s given the LT4 a proper tickle, with the list of upgrades including a new high-flow supercharger, uprated camshaft, ported heads, high-flow cats and a tweaked engine calibration. The result of all this is 882lb ft of torque, and 1005bhp. One thousand and five. In a Cadillac Escalade.

That sheer wallop of power and torque means the upgraded Escalade-V – a package Hennessey calls the H1000 – will claw its way to 60mph in 3.6 seconds. As a more visual demonstration of this accelerative potential, Hennessey has released a video of it leaving a Lamborghini Huracan Evo behind from a standing start (although we assume that’s a rear-wheel drive Huracan).

If you’re the sort of person who likes to set fire to $100 bills for fun, then you’re probably intrigued by the H1000. The bad news is that Hennessey has found enough people who apparently own their own personal oil refineries for the entire 2024 run to be sold out.

The good news, though, is that orders are being taken for another 100 of these monsters in 2025. You can even order one through certain Cadillac dealers, and Hennessey will throw in a three-year, 36,000-mile warranty. Although doing 36,000 miles in one of these will probably single-handedly use up the earth’s remaining oil reserves.