#Hennessey

Hennessey is at the 2015 SEMA Show with three vehicles pumping out a combined 2,875 horsepower.

Top Gear is a cultural phenomenon as much as it is a television show. Accordingly, vehicles and other props associated with this hugely popular program can command BIG bucks, like the Ford Raptor Jeremy Clarkson drove in season 22.

The official Ford F-150 Raptor might not arrive until next year, but Hennessey is taking matters into its own hands.

Everyone loves a good superlative. Whether something’s the biggest, tallest, longest or strongest, words ending in “-est” connote superiority and inspire awe. Of course in the world of automobiles it seems like everyone wants to be the “fastest.”

Hennessey has its eyes set on trumping the Bugatti Veyron’s top speed record.

It’s sleek, super-expensive and just set a new speed record in California, sticking it to the porky Bugatti Veyron.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.