Modern SUVs are more capable than ever. While they may not be as enjoyable to hustle around as a proper sports car, vehicles like the 707-horsepower Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk are helping SUVs enter a new era – plus, they are ripe for tuning.
The team at Hennessey Performance works its magic on all sorts of vehicles. The latest creation of the tuning company is a 800-hp Cadillac Escalade that has no problem showing a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 its taillights. But how does the Escalade compare against a stock Trackhawk?
That’s what the team tries to find out in the video below. This may seem like an unfair race, as the Escalade has 100 more horses than the Jeep. But the Trackhawk is lighter, which equals the field a bit, so it’s actually a fair battle.
Everyone knows the specs behind the Trackhawk – Jeep’s most potent SUV comes with a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 that generates 707 hp and 645 lb-ft of torque. It’ll sprint to 60 mph in just 3.5 seconds and has a top speed of 180 mph. Hennessey’s HPE800 Escalade, though, isn’t as well known.
The regular Escalade features a 6.2-liter V8 with 420 hp and 460 lb-ft of torque, which is nothing to sneer at. But thanks to Hennessey Performance, who tacked on a 2.9-liter supercharger, aluminum pistons, a high-flow intake manifold and a performance exhaust system, it now pushes out 805 hp and 812 lb-ft of torque.
You can watch this duel in the video that follows – and we won’t publish any spoilers, other the fact that the outcome was really close.