As one of the few remaining holdovers from the days when SUV’s ruled the world, the Cadillac Escalade is something of an enigma in an age of high gas prices and increasing fuel economy mandates. But if you’ve got the money and inclination, you can still buy the ultimate status symbol SUV. And if you’re going to own an Escalade, shouldn’t you own an Escalade with a supercharger?
We certainly think so, and famed tuning shop SLP is more than willing to oblidge those who seek supercharged status symbols. Edmunds Inside Line recently had a chance to test the more-powerful Escalade, and the track results are intimidating to say the least.
Tipping the scales at between 5,500 and almost 5,800 pounds, the 2012 Cadillac Escalade is a large vehicle, to put it mildly. While GM’s excellent 6.2 liter V8 provides ample power and torque, SLP’s supercharger upgrade kicks things up a notch to an estimated 525 horsepower. That’s enough to help the Escalade to garner some rather impressive track times.
In the quarter-mile, the supercharged SLP Escalade notched a 13.9 at 101.2 mph. 0-60 mph flies by in just 5.6 seconds (5.3 seconds with a rollout), and bringing everything to a stop from 60 mph took just 118 feet. That’s comparable to many factory stock muscle cars from the Big Three…though you can carry a lot more people in an Escalade than a Camaro, know what we mean?