Hennessey : Unreal Hypercars from Tuning Company
You ever imagined just a car tuning company went so far to make
hypercars that it is constantly threatening Bugatti or Koenigsegg because they
are pushing their cars to achieve 300 mph! And no, it is not any Italian sexy
roadster or British elegant coupe, they are from USA. No, I am not telling about
French brandy distiller Hennessy, I am telling about Hennessey. Let’s dive in
the fastest production car from United States of ******* America!!!
John Hennessey made his hands dirty on his first car at the age of 15, in 1969. Early in his career, He got in Houston construction business which was
specialized in asbestos abatement. From a car article he came to know that, a crappy old all wheel drive AMC Eagle raced it up Pike's Peak. Then he decided to go for that too. He took his asbestos abatement
money and invested in his Pike's Peak endeavour. Now obviously he could not
take whatever he wanted at that young age for budget limitation, so he started
with a Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4. In 1991, finding parts for a new Japanese car in
Texas was not a good idea. So, he and his boys tunedthat 3000GT themselves . They tuned the
engine and everything to pump the stock 300 hp up to 450 hp . He finished the 91 miles
competition with average speed of 166.3 mph and yeah, he won that. He
took his car to Colorado to participate the big race " The Pike's Peak
Hill Climb". In spite of his limited offroad experience, he made it to a
10th place finish.
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| Hennessey's tuned GT3000 VR4 |
He drove his modified 3000GT out to Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and set the
F-production/supercharged class record with a two way average of 176 mph. It
was so insane that after the run, technical inspectors wanted him to verify
engine displacement as it seemed impossible to them to pull that off using a
3.0 L 6 cylinders engine.
Then he established Hennessey Performance Engineering in 1991. Hennessey
Performance got so good at making aftermarket Dodge Viper parts that Dodge
enlisted their advice while developing second generation Viper that came out in
1996. They came out with an amazing new tuning package for Viper, "Hennessey
Venom 650R". It made viper produce 650 HP along with 650 Nm torque at
that time allowing the car to perform 0-60 mph in 3.3 sec and quarter mile in
10.8 sec. When Hennessey came with Venom 800, Viper rocketed 0-60 mph in 2.9
sec.
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| Dodge Viper modified with Venom 650R package |
In 2004, Hennessey purchased Lonestar Motorsports Complex, which has not only enough
space for modifying car, but also came with an eight miles drag strip. Then
they continued to roll out their new packages not only for Vipers, almost any
car in the world exist. They
made a Cadillac Wagon 750 hp, pushed Demon to 1200 hp, Mclaren 720 to 1000 hp
and Hennessey Exorcist package for Chevy Camaro ZL1 pushed the car to 1000 hp.
But they were not satisfied with just tuning some other manufacturers' car.
So the debuted Venom GT and now the world is waiting to see the unreal car
Venom F5.
Off Topic:
Hennessey had also earned reputation as a disorganized
businessman. There are allegations, customers waited years instead of months for
tuning. Other allegations were more serious and there were plenty of them. When
Hennessey listed their drag strip for sale in 2016, it raised a lot of
eyebrows. Perhaps he is a better mechanic than businessperson, the world
has to live with that.
Venom GT :
Engineering: Venom
GT is the first car from them. It utilizes a heavily modified Lotus Elise
Chassis. It has carbon fibre bodywork, carbon fibre wheel, brembo brakes paired up with carbon ceramic rotors to pull off 1244 buff horsepower instantly. Its
curb weight is 1,244 kg that means 1:1 power to weight ratio after
koenigsegg one : 1. The brakes have Brembo 6-piston
calipers at the front and 4-piston calipers at the rear. The rotors are
15 inch carbon ceramic units provided by Surface Transforms.
The Venom GT is powered by a twin-turbocharged 7.0 L GM LSX V8 engine. The LSX
architecture incorporates specific design features such as reinforced internal
components and additional head bolts with aluminum heads including twin
Precision dual ball bearing turbochargers. The engine has a power output of
1,244 hp at 6,600 rpm and 1,566 N⋅m of
torque at 4,400 rpm.
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| Venom GT |
Records:
1. In 2013, the Venom GT set a Guinness World Record for the fastest
road legal car from 0–186 mph (0–300 km/h) with an average
acceleration time of 13.63 seconds.
However, Koenigsegg One:1 made 0-300kph in 11.92
sec in 2015.
2. In the meantime, the car set an unofficial record for 0–200 mph (0–322 km/h) acceleration at 14.51 seconds, beating the Koenigsegg Agera R's time of 17.68 seconds , verified by VBox GPS, making it the unofficial fastest accelerating road legal car in the world. However, in 2015, Koenigsegg One:1 regained the record by making it within 14.328 seconds, also verified by industry standard VBox data recorder. Yeah, it’s only a fraction of second difference.
3. In 2013, the Hennessey Venom GT crested 265.7 mph (427.6 km/h) over the course of 2 miles (3.2 km) during testing at United States Naval Air Station Lemoore in Lemoore, California. In 2014, on the Kennedy Space Center's 5.2 km shuttle landing strip in Florida, the Hennessey team recorded a top speed of 270.49 mph in an extremely limited distance of 3.7 km. As the run was in a single direction, and only 13 cars have been sold to date (to qualify for Guinness World Records a minimum of 30 cars are required to be produced), it does not qualify as the world's fastest production car in the Guinness Book of Records.The driver, Brian Smith stated that it could go 5–10 mph (10–15 km/h) faster than the recorded 270.49 mph if they had more tarmac available. However, Koenigsegg bagged this record too with Agera RS (277 mph) in 2017.
Venom F5:
The Hennessey Venom F5 was unveiled at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, on
November 1, 2017. It is successor of
Venom GT and still incomplete. The price of the car in the United States will be US$1.6 million with
the planned production of only 24 units. Hennessey is hoping to eclipse legendary Bugatti
Chiron and Koenigsegg on almost every measurable speed metric. The Venom F5 will be the first
vehicle to be developed and manufactured in-house by Hennessey completely
including the chassis, body work, engine, exhaust system and everything.
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| Hennessey Venom F5 |
Specifications: Venom
F5 will have an 7.6 L 1,600 hp engine that produces 1,763 N⋅m of torque. Pennzoil and Shell are
partnered with Hennessey to help the 301 mph (484 km/h) record
attempt promised by the manufacturer. The available transmissions will be a
7-speed single-clutch semi-automatic transmission with
paddle shifters, driving the rear wheels, making the car rear-wheel
drive along with a 6-speed manual transmission, both transmissions being
offered as an option to customers.
The chassis and body will be made almost entirely of carbon
fiber. Active aerodynamics are now paired with the body, a first for
Hennessey. The weight reportedly stands at 1,338 kg with fluids, setting
the power-to-weight ratio at 1,196 hp per ton, yeah, its more than one. Because
of the use of active aerodynamics and a sleek, new design it has an estimated
drag coefficient of Cd=0.33. The brakes are from Brembo, and the
car is fitted with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires
Expectations:
1. Top speed 301 mph.
2. 0-100 kph in 2.0 sec.
3. 0-300 kph under 10 sec.
4. 0-400 in 20 sec.
If Hennessey can deliver what they promised, it will be the fastest production car in the world along with fastest acceleration too. I don’t know what is coming in future, but I really enjoy this fight among Hennessey, Bugatti and Koenigsegg. Let's see who first hits 300 mph, Jesko, F5 or someone else. Till then, bye.
Source:
Wikipedia
Donut Media
Hennessey official website
Hennessey official website
