Check out the Hennessey HPE800 Tahoe RST hit the dyno to scream its little supercharged heart out.
We’re not sure if you’re aware, but SUVs are big right now, and performance SUVs are even bigger. Everybody has one, from Porsche to Lamborghini, and even Ferrari is going to have one by next year.
Here in America, we have things like the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk with its Hellcat engine, and the Chevrolet Tahoe RST with its… much less exciting engine. We know that Chevy is really trying to sell the letters “RST” as some sort of performance mark, but 420 horses from a 6.2-L V8 is just unimpressive no matter how you slice it, and especially for a big full-size SUV like the Tahoe.
Luckily, we have Hennessey.
The folks over at Hennessey Performance have taken the average, everyday Tahoe RST and given it the business. And by business, we mean a big, mean supercharger.
There are two versions of the Hennessey Tahoe RST, with the first being the HPE650 upgrade. As is Hennessey’s modus operandi, they slapped a 2.9-L supercharger into the 6.2-L EcoTec3 V8 to bring it up to 650 hp and 658 lb-ft of torque. Ish.
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We say “ish” because the latest video on Hennessey’s YouTube channel shows the HPE800 upgrade. Normally, Hennessey’s numbering system indicates the amount of horsepower the upgrade brings, so the HPE800 should have 800 stampeding ponies. However, at the end of the video, we see the power output graph maxed out at 662 hp and 640 lb-ft of torque.
Now, it could be that this is indeed the HPE800 but it wasn’t being operated at full power. Or it could be that Hennessey’s numbering system will no longer follow the number of horses the engine produces after it’s been given an enormous supercharger.
But even if that’s the case, this particular Tahoe is still plenty fast. According to the speedo, it went from 60 mph to 125 mph in just about 3 seconds.
So far the HPE800 upgrade is still not listed for same on Hennessey’s website, but if this video is truly for testing, we might see it unveiled sometime soon.