Presented in 2010 at the Geneva Motor Show, the Venom GT was and still is a bit of an oddity. Designed and manufactured by a Texas-based tuner on the chassis of a British sports car, the Venom GT sure earned its keep. After all, it's a magnificent machine.
Only thirteen cars were ever built in six years of production, including the prototype. Six of them were coupes, the very first being bought by a gentleman known as Steven Tyler. You know, Aerosmith’s singer. The remaining six vehicles were finished by Hennessey in Spyder attire.
“Wait, so you’re telling me that’s it? No more hypercar from Hennessey?” Not quite. As per big kahuna John Hennessey, there’s a successor in the pipeline. “We look forward to introducing our next car, the Venom F5,” he said.
The pictured vehicle (chassis #13) is dubbed Venom GT Final Edition and it packs a 7.0-liter twin-turbo V8 rated at 1,451 horsepower. Top speed, as one might expect from that kind of output, is a blistering 270+ miles per hour. By comparison, the Concorde supersonic airliner needed 225 mph for takeoff. The numbers are definitely astonishing, but so is the car's retail price.
At $1.2 million, this is not exactly a tuned Lotus Exige with a 427 LSX shoehorned in its engine bay. The Venom GT, in hindsight, is more than the sum of its parts. After all, what Hennessey achieved is the stuff Bugatti can only dream of: to attain and exceed the power-to-weight ratio of 1-to-1.
“We’ve attained some pretty incredible achievements with the Venom GT,” declared Mr. Hennessey. “It was always my dream to build the fastest car and we did just that. Our Venom GT retires as one of the fastest cars on the planet along with being one of the most exclusive." Can't argue with that.
“Wait, so you’re telling me that’s it? No more hypercar from Hennessey?” Not quite. As per big kahuna John Hennessey, there’s a successor in the pipeline. “We look forward to introducing our next car, the Venom F5,” he said.
The pictured vehicle (chassis #13) is dubbed Venom GT Final Edition and it packs a 7.0-liter twin-turbo V8 rated at 1,451 horsepower. Top speed, as one might expect from that kind of output, is a blistering 270+ miles per hour. By comparison, the Concorde supersonic airliner needed 225 mph for takeoff. The numbers are definitely astonishing, but so is the car's retail price.
At $1.2 million, this is not exactly a tuned Lotus Exige with a 427 LSX shoehorned in its engine bay. The Venom GT, in hindsight, is more than the sum of its parts. After all, what Hennessey achieved is the stuff Bugatti can only dream of: to attain and exceed the power-to-weight ratio of 1-to-1.
“We’ve attained some pretty incredible achievements with the Venom GT,” declared Mr. Hennessey. “It was always my dream to build the fastest car and we did just that. Our Venom GT retires as one of the fastest cars on the planet along with being one of the most exclusive." Can't argue with that.