The Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon is already a car that can get most enthusiasts drooling. Just about all of the boxes can get ticked off instantly with just a quick look. Luxurious leather interior? Check. Enough space to haul the wife, the kids, the dogs, and all of the useless knick-knacks they decided to bring on the family road trip? Check. A 556 HP supercharged, Corvette-sourced V8? Check.
For many enthusiasts, the Caddy wagon is just about all they could ask for in a car. Ludicrously fast, reasonably priced, and practical all at once. What more could they possibly want? Well, as Jeremy Clarkson would say, “MORE POWERRRRRRR!”
That’s right, folks. In true tuner fashion, Hennessey Performance near Houston, Texas decided that the CTS-V Sport Wagon needed just a tad more power.
More details on the Hennessey Cadillac CTS-V650 Sport Wagon after the jump.
UPDATE 05/07/2011: Here’s another tasty treat from the guys over at Hennessey. Their latest video for the CTS-V650 shows the Cadillac doing a few burnouts at Lonestar Motorsports Park. You may want to pump up the volume for this one.
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Hennessey has been laying out packages left and right for a variety of models lately, including the Dodge Ram HPE500, Cadillac Escalade, and now, the lusciously tuned Nissan GT-R. There was no time wasted fiddling with the exterior of the GTR because Hennessey went straight to work pumping up the standard 3.8L V6 engine to produce up to 800 HP.
We haven’t seen this many additions under the hood of a vehicle since the last Hennessey tuned project we encountered, so we’re going to focus on some of the more important ones for now. The standard 3.8L V6 engine was jacked up with the help of SUMO turbo, intercooler piping, and intercooler core upgrades, as well as high-flow fuel injectors and chassis dyno tuning and engine calibration. Other additions include a SUMO stainless steel midpipe exhaust, SUMO stainless steel turbo downpipes, and a SUMO high-flow cold air induction. These modifications allow the GTR800 to pack an 813 HP punch and sprint the car from 0-60 mph in 2.6 seconds. The 0-100 mph sprint is made in 6.2 seconds and the quarter mile can be had for 10.5 seconds at a speed of 136 mph.
If that’s not enough for your average consumer, then Hennessey is equipped with several different options, including a transmission clutch pack upgrade, a SUMO electronic exhaust cutout (75 mm), a KW variant 3 adjustable coilover suspension upgrade, premium wheel and tire packages, and carbon fiber body kits and accessories. Oh, and they’ll also throw in Hennessey and GTR800 exterior badges and serial numbered dash and engine plaques for good measure.
Hit the jump for specifications on Hennessey’s Nissan GTR projects.
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Hennessey isn’t just about creating uber-sexy vehicles like the Venom GT. In fact, a lot of their projects entail tuning up existing models and then slapping on an HPE title coupled with the appropriate horsepower number. The latest vehicle to be blessed with the alphanumeric title is the 2009-2011 Dodge Ram and its new HPE500 designation.
The Ram HPE500 is powered by a 5.7L Hemi that has been geeked up with a TVS2300 Supercharger System and an HPE Air Induction System to help cool the beast down. This setup can produce 505 HP at 5,400rpm when fueled with 93 Octane. Broken down, it gives the driver 422 HP at the rear wheels with a 20% boost providing the 505 HP at the engine. For comparison’s sake, the Ram SRT10 powered by the Viper’s V10 engine gets 410 HP at the rear wheels and 505 HP at the engine. The deep rumble of the truck’s new inner workings can be heard flowing out of the new stainless steel cat-back exhaust system.
If the engine upgrade isn’t enough to convince anyone of Hennessey’s involvement then the company’s badges found on the exterior of the car, as well as the floormats and the embroidered headrests will give onlookers the confirmation they need that this monster was tuned by the killer team at Hennessey.
Pricing for the installed kit is $12,950, but for those do-it-yourselfers out there, you can get the kit mailed to you for $10,950. A less involved HPE425 kit is also available for $6,950 (installed) and $4,950 (mailed kit).
Hit the jump for the full list of specifications for the Ram HPE500 and HPE 425 by Hennessey.
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On paper, a race against a Japanese buzzsaw called the Cadillac Escalade SUV and the ’Godzilla’ Nissan GT-R, doesn’t seem like a fair fight, especially when you consider that the ’fight’ is actually a 0-60 mph test to see which vehicle can hit the mark first. On one end, you have the Japanese buzzsaw called the Nissan GT-R, a car that has earned the nickname, ’Godzilla’. Can a three-ton SUV whose hulking mass is enough to drag itself down compete against the faster GT-R? Hennessey has made sure of it.
This mismatch was given a fair shake by the folks over at Hennessey, which gave the Escalade an HPE1000 performance upgrade, getting the 6,000lb SUV’s 6.2L engine a total of 1008bhp at 5,900rpm and 967 lb-ft of torque at 3,700 rpm. This was done with a forged & balanced 427 cid LSX engine, high flow cylinder heads, a Hennessey HPE1000 camshaft, an intake manifold upgrade, upgraded fuel injectors, an upgraded fuel system (pump, lines, and Rails), twin ball bearing turbochargers, and much more.
With the playing field somewhat leveled, the two protagonists took to an isolated country road to find out which vehicle can smoke the other. To our surprise, the Escalade, which is more than twice as heavy as the GT-R, managed to outpace the Japanese supercar by the slimmest of margins - one-tenth of a second - with a time of 3.3 seconds compared to Godzilla’s 3.4-second time.
While we’re not totally blown away by the result considering the ’assistance’ the Escalade got from Hennessey, the mere fact that a mammoth of an SUV can actually outpace a powerful Japanese rocket really got us thinking just how dementedly brilliant the people over at Hennessey are.
Check out the video to watch the proceedings and hit the jump to see the full specifications for the Cadillac Escalade by Hennessey.
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John Hennessey is no stranger to the world of auto tuning. After all, he does have a company that’s considered as one of the best in the business. The company, Hennessey Performance Engineering is so good at what it does that it was actually able to build it’s own supercar based on the Lotus Elise: the Venom GT. Not a lot of tuners can stake the same claim, too.
In this particular video, John Hennessey is sitting behind the wheel of another one of his company’s creations, the 2011 Hennessey ZR750 Corvette. Based on the Corvette ZR1, the ZR750 was born from a special tuning kit the aftermarket company gave to the ZR1, one that nets the American sports car an improved engine output of 755 horsepower, an increase from the standard model’s 638 horsepower output. The increased power of the Hennessey ZR750 also translates to improved lap times, including a 0-60 mph time of just 2.8 seconds compared to the standard ZR1’s time of 3.4 seconds.
Hit the jump to watch John Hennessey test driving the car.
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