Toward the start of his video test drive of the Cadillac ATS-V with HPE550 package, John Hennessey delivers his thoughts on the feisty ATS-V in stock form,
My personal opinion on the new ATS-Vs: I think they’re neat cars. They’re a great handling car, but they don’t do a whole lot for me performance wise – I mean, not for $70,000. No knock against Cadillac, I love Cadillacs, but I just think the stock setup doesn’t have enough get-up-and-go to push my button.
However, after the air filters were swapped, the new axle-back exhaust bolted on, and the ECU recalibrated to maximize performance, John finds the car much more entertaining – so much so that he refers to it as a “baby GT-R.” That’s high praise; the R35 Nissan GT-R is an undisputed performance heavyweight.
And with 453 horsepower and 433 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels, why wouldn’t it be entertaining?
The cost to make your ATS-V a little bit more Godzilla-like is $3,995 plus shipping, assuming you’re willing to perform the install yourself. Alternatively, you can pay $5,995 to have the pros at Hennessey Performance Engineering take care of installation for you. For more information on the package, click here.
All you window shoppers need only click play.
Comments
John Hennessey is a no-nonsense, pragmatic guy. He is not rude, respects his GM partner, but honest about the shortcomings of the Cadillacs.
We need more honest and straightforward people in this world.
I’d be all over this package except I have heard too many other horror stories on things going wrong after a tune. GM/Cadillac is looking hard for modifications and will flag the car for no warranty coverage and if you have someone else install the Hennessey package there is no warranty and no word back from Hennessey regarding any warranty provided if his shop does the install. I’d “waste” the $6K in a heartbeat for the 20% gains but losing the warranty on the $16K engine plus the tranny and rear diff? Not so keen on that one. I’d say I’d do after the warranty expires but I won’t keep the car that long.