F@test c@r in the world – Hennessey Venom GT
F@test c@r in the world – Hennessey Venom GT
The Venom GT is a tuning creation from Hennessey based off the Lotus Elise. Their kit was limited to only five units. The Venom GT is powered by a supercharged 6.2 liter LS9 V8 engine, same used in the Corvette ZR1, that delivers a total of 725 bhp. And if this is not enough, the tuner will also be offering 1000 bhp and 1200 bhp twin turbo V8 engine variants. With a curb weight of 2,685 lbs, the 1200 HP Venom GT will hit a top speed of 275 mph. The supercar features lightweight carbon fiber bodywork and carbon fiber wheels, a programmable traction control system, CFD (computational fluid dynamic) tested bodywork, an active aero system with adjustable rear wing, and an adjustable suspension system.
First, an insane person builds this car. John Hennessey has spent his career modifying sports cars to accelerate faster, and that’s pretty much it. This is a man who steps out of a Dodge Viper and concludes that what it really needs is 700 extra horsepower. At least it worked: The 1200-hp Hennessey Venom 1000 Viper beat the Bugatti Veyron to 200 mph by 4 seconds—and somehow managed not to kill its pilot.
Horsepower is easy to come by today. A few short years ago my own 500-hp Corvette was a force to be reckoned with at the dragstrip; now it’s slow by comparison. Despite the hp boom, though, not everyone is building a Hennessey, and that’s because modern supercars are behemoths. Even the land yachts of the 1950’s were lighter. A Nissan GTR weighs 3800 pounds, 344 more than a 1957 Chevy Bel Air wagon.
Hennessey realized this and went to battle with what really matters: power to weight ratio. In doing so, he looked back to the formula of another famous Texan, Carroll Shelby. By taking a lightweight British sports car (the AC Bristol) and dropping in the biggest American engine he could find, Carroll Shelby created the Cobra, a car so fast for its time that its performance numbers are still impressive 50 years later. Mr. Hennessey decided that he would also use a lightweight British car—the Lotus Elise, the lightest full-body car on the market today.
Naysayers would argue that John Hennessey is ripping off people by selling them a Lotus with a V-8 in it for a million dollars. But the Venom’s entire body is handmade out of carbon fiber, save the original doors. Hennessey redesigned the entire front and rear subframes from scratch to support the longer wheelbase and weight of the engine. The suspension, a height-adjustable Penske coilover setup with front-end lift to clear driveways and speed bumps, is unique to this car. There are additional radiators, cooling lines, and ductwork to keep the massive engine cool, not to mention 24-karat-gold-leaf heat shields in the engine compartment, just like the McLaren F1 has. And the entire car is hand-built.
Now, the engine. It’s based on the GM LSX block, but the Venom GT gets a unique casting unlike a standard LSX crate motor. It’s stroked to 7 liters, with fully forged internals. From the driver’s seat you can adjust the two 67-mm Precision Turbos to spool 10, 13, or 20 pounds of boost, depending on how much road you have, or how quickly you’d like to die. Low boost means the engine will crank out a mere 800 hp. Medium bumps the madness to 1000 hp. The full boost setting puts out a fire-breathing, grim-reaper-welcoming 1244 hp into a car that weighs about as much as a Scion FR-S. Oh, and the Venom Spyder has no airbags, no traction control, and no roof. The good news is that the Venom GT makes 1050 pounds of downforce at 150 mph. It’s not exactly slippery, with a drag coefficient of 0.43, but at least it will stick to the ground.
Because every Venom GT built is presold, an official top speed run hasn’t been attempted. (Hennessey says top speed was never a priority with this car, simply a side effect.) Theoretically, the CFD engineers say it will do 272 mph. We do know the Venom will make 200 mph from a dead standstill in just 15.3 seconds.
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