It transforms the Escalade-V from a sedate but rumbly luxury touring SUV into one that, while not exactly what you’d call athletic, is far more capable out on fast and twisty two-lane blacktop.Īcceleration is fierce, as one might expect, but it comes on in a smooth rush - there’s no gut punch like you get in some electric vehicles, but it’s still a hang-on-for-dear-life experience for you and your passengers. Push the button just ahead of the shifter for the configurable V-Mode and you can have all the vehicle settings at their maximum insanity, boosting response for throttle, suspension, shifting, exhaust - all of it.
According to Cadillac, this seven-seat truck-based SUV can rocket from 0-60 mph in less than 4.4 seconds, which is an incredible time for a vehicle this size. It’s big, stupid fun - and I love it.Ĭonsider that noise fair warning for what this massively powerful engine does for the Escalade, itself a portly boulevard cruiser that was never really meant to be a canyon-carving sports machine or a drag-strip warrior. Your neighbors will immediately begin phoning the local HOA the day after you bring it home.
It’s a noise you just don’t expect from an SUV like this.
Escalade v 2023 skin#
But what accompanies the Escalade-V’s power is “the roar” - the earth-shaking basso profundo bellow that the thing produces on startup (especially when it’s cold) that will make you leap out of your skin when you remote-start it in an airport parking garage that’s good for a thousand laughs when the valet at the hotel starts it at a busy stand and makes everyone standing behind the beast jump like a bomb went off in the driveway. In the Escalade-V, it produces a whopping 682 hp and 653 pounds-feet of torque, a bit more than the 668 hp the CT5-V Blackwing makes but slightly less than the sedan’s 659 pounds-feet of torque. Nestled under the long hood of the Escalade-V is a hand-built, supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 engine that’s related to the one found in the CT5-V Blackwing sedan, though it features a larger supercharger. The Escalade-V is apparently meant to fly under the visual radar of passersby, and it does so successfully … until you put your foot down.Ģ023 Cadillac Escalade-V | photo by Aaron Bragman OMG, That Noise The only unique features seem to be the subtle V badging on the doors, and slightly different front and rear bumpers, all of which is easily overlooked. Looking at it, there’s not much to distinguish it as something special - it looks pretty much like an Escalade in the Sport Platinum trim, with big wheels, a slightly lower stance, and blacked-out and body-color trim instead of chrome. I’ve had my brain melted behind the wheel of a Cadillac CTS-V, been mightily impressed with the latest CT4-V and CT5-V Blackwings, and now I’ve experienced what Cadillac has wrought in their big daddy SUV, the Escalade-V.
Escalade v 2023 series#
The V performance series is what Cadillac uses to designate their high-performance, track-capable models, ones that look only subtly more aggressive but which often possess massive power increases and tons of suspension technology meant to blow the doors off competitors (usually German) on roads and race courses.
You Wouldn’t Know It to Look at It, But … I had several days with the Escalade-V in the urban wilds of Los Angeles motoring around the traffic-choked highways, but I also made sure to take it up into the beautiful canyon roads through Malibu out to the coast, where I could see just how capable this sports truck was at providing an entertaining driving experience. Related: 2023 Cadillac Escalade-V: The New Boulevard Race ChampĪnd it’s hard to top the kind of bang you get from this beast, powered as it is by a 682-horsepower, supercharged V-8 engine and swaddled with an ultra-posh cabin. I guess they decided that if they’re going to start sunsetting their gas-powered offerings, why not go out with a bang? We don’t know why it’s taken Cadillac this long to actually get a V performance version of the Escalade out the door, but they finally have - and you’d better enjoy it now, as it just might be the last new internal-combustion-powered Cadillac you ever see given Caddy’s stated strategy of going fully electric in the next few years. In the sage words of social satirist Julie Brown in the 1988 science-fiction cinematic masterpiece “Earth Girls Are Easy,” “I like ‘em big and stupid.” And when it comes to SUVs, well, they don’t come any more big ‘n’ stupid than what we have right here: the new 2023 Cadillac Escalade-V.
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