The Hennessey Venom GT will get even cooler in 2013 with the option to go topless.

The 1200 horsepower ultra-exclusive sports car will sell for a cool $1.1 million, $150,000 more than the coupe version. Even if you have the cash to swing one of these, you probably won’t be able to get one. Hennessey is only building five Venom GTs this year and you can bet the Spyder will be made in the same fashion.

Details about the car haven’t been released yet, but there will probably be some changes in store to compensate for the removable top.

[Source: Left Lane News]

Back in 1997, Germany’s Michael Schumacher was the man to beat in Formula 1. At the last race of the season, he was in a title battle with Canadian Jacques Villeneuve. The winner of the race would take the driver’s championship.

Villeneuve in his Williams-Renault was on pole, but Schumacher’s Ferrari got the better start and took the lead by the first corner. However, as the race progressed, Villeneuve started clawing back at Schumacher, and then on lap 48, took the inside line at the Dry Sack corner to take the lead. In an attempt to take out his opponent, Schumacher turned in and hit Villeneuve’s car. However, the hit proved more lethal to Schumacher, as he had to retire from suspension damage. Villeneuve’s car was damaged, he nursed the car for the next 22  laps and finished the race in third position, enough to give him the F1 Driver’s Championship.

For his actions, Schumacher was stripped off his second place in the driver’s championship by the FIA. So now while the Ferrari camp mourned, the Williams-Renault F1 team and its sponsors rejoiced and celebrated their victory in the hands of a Canadian hero.

One of their sponsors, cigarette giant Rothman’s wanted to give Villeneuve a very special present, and they did so with the car you see on this page. It is a 1997 Dodge Viper R/T10 Roadster, which has been modified by the American tuning specialists Hennessey. The end result is called a Viper Venom 600, the last digits denoting the horsepower figure it produces.

This car is capable of sprinting from 0-60 mph in a claimed 3.3 seconds, and onto a top speed of 205 mph. Perfect daily commuter for an F1 champ then.

Now this one-off special can be yours, as it has been listed for sale. This car has covered 23,000 miles, and while it did suffer mild damage at one point in its life, it has all been repaired properly since.

This car is located in U.K. at the moment, but the seller does mention that World-wide export is available, and the asking price is only $63,300. That might be a lot for a 1997 Viper, but considering it is a Hennessey and one that has a World Champion as its first owner, it might be the ultimate collector piece for an F1 fan.

[Source: Pistonheads]

Hennessey, the famous Texas tuner of Corvettes has just created the Frankenstein of Cadillacs. It’s called the V1000, and the 1000 stands for 1000-hp.

The twin-turbo CTS-V Coupe is fitted with a 427 cubic-inch LS V8 featuring upgraded internals like forged low compression pistons, forged steel connecting rods, forged steel crank and ARP main studs and head bolts. The Cadillac is also fitted with a set of dual ball bearing turbochargers packs compressed atmosphere into the combustion chambers, assissted by high-flow cylinder heads.

Additional goodies include 15-inch carbon ceramic brakes, a fortified transmission, lowered suspension and Hennessey’s CarbonAero widebody kit. The turbos will boost torque to 950 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. Hennessey has stated the V1000 can accelerate from 0-62 mph in 3.5 seconds, with a top speed of 230 mph. It will run an outrageously impressive quarter mile time of 10.9 at 136 mph.

Only 12 of these cars will be built and the lucky buyers will also receive a one day track experience with retired General Motors test driver supreme John Heinricy.

[Source: Autoblog]

Hennessey Performance is now producing the Ram HPE500 pickup truck, packing a 5.7L Hemi fitted with a TVS2300 Supercharger System and an HPE Air Induction System that is capable of producing 505-hp at 5,400rpm.

For comparison, the Ram SRT10 powered by a V10 Viper engine produced 510-hp. The rumble produced by this truck comes from a new stainless steel cat-back exhaust system, but to get the noise, you’ll have to fork over $12,950. Customers do have the option of buying the kit and installing it themselves for a mere $10,950, while a less powerful HPE425 kit is also available for $6,950 (installed) and 4,950 (DIY).

The Hennessey Venom GT is easily one of the craziest street-legal cars ever produced. It is based on the underpinnings of the lightweight Lotus Exige, but then beefed up in every conceivable way.

Instead of the Exige’s supercharged four-cylinder motor, the Venom GT has a twin-turbo charged LS9, displacing 6.2-liters and producing a barely believable 1200-hp and 1155 lb-ft of torque. All of that power is sent to the rear wheels through a Ricardo 6-speed gearbox.

Performance, as you’d imagine, is quite extraordinary. This 2,400 lb. machine can rocket from 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds and onto a proposed top speed of 267 mph. More impressively, it can sprint from 0-200 mph 15.9 seconds (a Bugatti Veyron covers that sprint in 24.2 seconds).

The Venom GT is truly an astonishing performance car, and the very first one ever made can be yours. Hennessey Performance has put the car up for sale, and are asking $1.3-million for it. So if you have the means, and have a neighbor who always beats you at the traffic lights with his Veyron, then this is the car for you.

[Source: DuPont Registry]

Now if you were just begging for a reason to head over to Las Vegas next week for the SEMA Show, and just really couldn’t find yourself one, we understand. Maybe modified versions of the Honda CR-Z, Chevy Camaro, Ford Mustangs and Hyundai Equus, are just not your thing. If you’re going to have to spend your hard-earned vacation days to check out some cars, you want to make sure it’s worth it. Well, now it is. Hennessey’s wickedly sick, fast, powerful and beautiful Venom GT will be hitting American soil to be seen by the public at this year’s SEMA show.

The $1 million dollar supercar (based on the Lotus Exige chassis and sporting a 1,200-hp twin-turbo V8) hasn’t really seen the public daylight, having been shipped straight from the production facility in England to UAE, home of its new owner. But it looks like it’s back in the United States for some fine tuning and will be heading to Las Vegas for all of our benefit.

For those that intend on heading to SEMA to check this bad boy out, we highly recommend sticking around whatever booth it is in on the last day. In any hopes they won’t push it out and onto a trailer, but actually fire it up to take it outside. We can only hope.

AutoGuide’s coverage of the 2010 SEMA Show starts November 2nd. Until then, check out our SEMA Preview here.

[Source: Jalopnik]

GALLERY: Hennessey Venom GT

Video of the car idling after the break.

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We’re probably missing something here, but clearly there’s a higher demand for armored vehicles than we ever thought. First was the Jaguar XJ Sentinel, that we just had to poke a little bit of fun at, and now Hennessey has gotten their hands dirty by armor-plating their modified Raptor and even adding the APV designation to the model name further reinforcing that this won’t be Hennessey’s only armor-plated vehicle.

The current render that we’re staring at (done by none other than Jon Sibal) is their Hennessey VelociRaptor APV which is based off of a Ford F-150 SVT Raptor SuperCrew. The rear has been modified to accommodate additional passengers in complete comfort and security.

This particular Raptor has been outfitted with Hennessey’s 6.2L supercharged V8 that puts out 575-hp. And while we have to question just who needs to have an armored SUV packing close to 600-hp, we’re glad Hennessey offers the non-armored version too.

We can’t wait to see the other variations of APV vehicles they’ll be working on. The future list looks to include vehicles from Nissan, Jeep, Land Rover and Land Cruiser.

GALLERY: Hennessey Armored Ford Raptor Supercharged SUV

Ladies and gentlemen, your Veyron-killer is here. Today marks the delivery date of the first production Lotus Elise-based, ZR-1 powered supercar known as the Hennessey Venom GT. While several engine configurations are available, including 725-hp and 1000-hp versions, chassis #01 packs the full 1200-hp punch. All that twin turbocharged madness has only 2,800 pounds to move around, which results in a power to weight ratio about 70% better than a Bugatti Veyron. The Ricardo 6-speed transmission, the same unit used in the Ford GT, is geared to 260 mph.  It’s also cheaper and rarer than the Veyron.  And it actually looks good.

Any guesses as to where Venom # 01 is going? If you said the middle east, you win obvious points. Hopefully some crazy shiekh wants to go mess around in public and put it on YouTube. We’re going to go take our Veyron posters down now. Venom GT mega-gallery after the jump.

[Source: Hennessey]

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If you want the performance of a Bugatti Veyron in an all-American package (that’s one tenth the price), look no further than Hennessey Performance Engineering’s HPE1000, a $65,000 upgrade for the Chevrolet Camaro SS.

The stock 6.2L LS3 engine is discarded in favor of a 7.0L LSX variant, and a complete twin-turbocharger system is installed. The LSX is essentially re-built as well, with new pistons, cylinder heads, crankshaft, intake manifold, exhaust and fuel management system. All of these systems, along with your choice of heavy duty manual or automatic gearboxes are necessary to handle the absurd 1000 horsepower the car lays down through the rear wheels. Helping to control the tsunami of power are KW Variant coilovers, Brembo brakes, Pirelli P-Zero tires and an HPE CarbonAero bodykit.

For the $125,000 price tag, Hennessey claims that “…you’ll be able to do burnouts at 100 mph!”. Only two questions remain: where do we sign, and do you accept organs as payment.

[Source: InsideLine]

For the most part Hennessey is known for their tuning prowess on American vehicles but they have dabbled on plenty of luxury European cars from the Mercedes-Benz SL65 to Audi’s R8 and even Lamborghinis. But now the power-hungry experts at Hennessey have turned their attention to Porsche‘s Panamera.

Starting with a Porsche Panamera Turbo, Hennessey did a baseline dyno, hitting 419-hp at the wheels. Hennessey aims to come close to doubling that number with their highest tier package, but will also offer more reliable and streetable systems. They will be fabricating their own exhaust systems, air induction mods, computer upgrades, turbo upgrades, intercooler upgrades and more. Basically they’ll be going through Porsche’s forced induction system, upgrading anything and everything they can until they’re happy with some vicious horsepower figures.

It’s clear that the Porsche Panamera is doing a fantastic job capturing the aftermarket. This luxury sedan has really garnered the right attention in the market. We can’t wait to see more fully built Panameras come out of the woodwork.

Check out the video of Hennessey dyno’ing the Panamera Turbo after the break.

[Source: TopSpeed]

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