I Didn’t Know The Escalade Was The Most Powerful SUV In The World, Did You?: Quickie

Cadillac dominated hip hop culture in the 2000s thanks to spinners, the Lincoln Navigator, and this, the Escalade. This is where bling culture essentially boomed.

But did you know that it was also the most powerful SUV in the world? At least that’s what a corporate training video claimed when it launched the then-new generation of the Cadillac Escalade for 2002. Thinking about it, this makes sense. 4WD models used a 6.0-liter V-8 producing 345 horsepower and 380 pound-feet of torque. Codenamed Vortec HO 6000 — or VortecMAX in later models — this was initially designed as a Cadillac-only engine before it was shared with its chassis siblings in Chevrolet and GMC.

So, to claim it as the most powerful SUV in the world back then wasn’t specifically a testament of the Escalade’s capabilities, but just so Cadillac could say it. Performance SUVs that came with track-hugging suspension and pulled down supercar-like numbers didn’t start to come around until later in the 2000s before they bloomed in popularity in the 2010s. Naturally, we have Porsche to thank for that.

The YouTube car algorithm means this landed on my radar, and let me tell you, the intro slaps. Enjoy the first 70 seconds of peppy beats to go with your morning coffee before white collar corporate America intervenes.

-TA