Hennessey Performance Engineering

Did You Know?

• The Venom F5 features Hennessey's first in-house engine, a bespoke 6.6-liter twin-turbocharged V8 rated at 1817 hp and 1193 lbft of torque.
• The Hennessey Exorcist package for the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 costs US$57,455 over the standard ZL1 and enables a quarter-mile time of less than 10 seconds.
• The Hennessey VelociRaptor SUV is limited to 30 produced a year, but over 400 versions have been made since its introduction.

Notable cars

Hennessey Performance Engineering, or HPE, is an American company that tunes cars and builds its own sports cars. Founded in 1991 by John Hennessey, its main shop sits about 45 minutes west of Houston in Sealy, Texas. Besides making the Venom F5, the company modifies vehicles from Chevrolet, Dodge, Cadillac, Jeep, Ford, GMC, and Lincoln. Their work covers pickup trucks and SUVs like the Ford Raptor, Ram TRX, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and Cadillac Escalade, as well as muscle cars such as the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, Dodge Charger, and Challenger. In 2008, Hennessey opened Tuner School, a 14-week private program for training high-performance vehicle technicians, located at the Lonestar Motorsports Park Complex next to the main headquarters.

One of the company’s early offerings was the Venom 650R, a package for the 1996 Dodge Viper GTS. It came with a $37,000 engine upgrade that increased displacement from 488 to 514 cubic inches through larger bores and a longer stroke. Forged steel connecting rods (titanium rods cost an extra $3,500) and forged aluminum pistons were used, and the assembly was balanced and blueprinted to produce 650 horsepower at 5,800 rpm and 650 lb-ft of torque at 4,500 rpm, with compression raised to 10.5:1.

A competition airbox fed 70-millimeter billet throttle bodies and a port-matched intake manifold. Tuned-length stainless steel headers sent exhaust through a 3.0-inch system that kept the stock catalytic converters but allowed easy bypass for track use. New engine management software raised idle to 1,000 rpm, disabled the 1-4 skip-shift feature, turned cooling fans on sooner, and recalibrated fuel and ignition curves. The VenomAero carbon fiber body kit reduced weight, added brake cooling ducts, a rear wing, and optimized downforce.

The car hit 0-60 mph in 3.3 seconds, ran the quarter-mile in 10.8 seconds at 130.1 mph, and topped over 215 mph. Optional upgrades included Brembo race brakes and a Penske adjustable suspension with 30 damping settings. The total package cost $108,500, not including the stock Viper.

In 2010, Hennessey unveiled the Venom GT, based on a Lotus Exige, with a twin-turbocharged V8 rated at 1,244 hp. It weighed 1,244 kg and reached a top speed of 270.49 mph. Three “World’s Fastest Edition” coupes were built in 2014 to mark its speed record. A roadster version, the Venom GT Spyder, launched in 2012 at the request of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler; it used a Lotus Elise base and added 30 pounds due to structural changes.