Looks like Hennessey Performance Engineering — the tuners of all things Mopar and SRT — are not going to sit back and kick up their heels with their twin-turboed Viper — the Venom 1000 SRT. No, they've just revealed their suspected new concept super car, the Venom GT — and yes, it's mid-engined. The Steve Everitt-penned light wight chassis Venom GT will incorporate Hennessey's massive Venom 1000 Twin Turbo Viper V10 powerplant and all thousand of it's snake-spookin' horses and still tip the scales at just under 2,700 lbs. That gives the GT an astonishing 2.7 lbs per horse — and a purported 0 to 62 mph time of less than 2.5 sec. Even more important however would be the 0 to 186 mph time — which Hennessey's claiming is a quick-as-a-cobra-strike 14 seconds. But company CEO John Hennessey's claiming this car isn't a "Veyron slayer" — oh, no — he already lays claim to that title with his Venom 1000 Twin Turbo SRT. No, according to Hennessey, this isn't a car for a Veyron driver — no, it's much more of an "engaging" drive than the Bugatti uber-car because of the 1500 lb weight differential. We'd have to agree — this car looks insane. We'll take two please, one for us and one for our tame race driver. Full press release after the jump.
HENNESSEY VENOM GT Concept Car
1000 BHP + 2700 lb Mid-Engine Chassis = New Benchmark of Sports Car Performance
HOUSTON, TEXAS (November 20, 2007) - Hennessey Performance Engineering today announced that it is introducing the company's first concept car - The Venom GT.
Penned by British auto designer, Steve Everitt, the Venom GT would incorporate Hennessey's potent Venom 1000 Twin Turbo Viper V10 powerplant into a light weight mid-engine chassis weighing "under 2,700 lbs". Power would be run through a 6-speed transmission or optional sequential gearbox.
With a power to weight ratio of just 2.7 lbs per bhp Hennessey estimates that the Venom GT could attain 0 to 100 km/h times in less than 2.5 sec. and a 0-300 km/h time of around 14 seconds. Company founder, John Hennessey, is careful to point out that the Venom GT is not being built as a "Veyron Slayer". Hennessey point out, saying, "The Veyron is an ultra fast and ultra luxurious grand touring car which also happens to be quicker and faster than any other road car, except for our Venom 1000 Twin Turbo SRT which beat the Veyron earlier this year from 0-200 mph. The Venom GT will be a much more engaging sports car to drive by challenging the driver with 1000+ HP in a chassis that is nearly 1500 lbs lighter than the Veyron."
Hennessey said, "The company already has existing Venom 1000 Twin Turbo clients interested in ordering the lighter, mid-engined Venom GT. "Right now are taking a serious look at building 2 concept cars that could be shown to the public sometime in 2009. If there is enough demand we may consider doing a very limited production run of the Venom GT."
If the Venom GT goes into production, it would be built at the company's facility at Lonestar Motorsports Park which is located just west of Houston, Texas.
About Hennessey Performance Engineering
Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) specializes in designing, testing, manufacturing and selling high-performance parts and services for the Dodge Viper SRT10, Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, Chrysler 300C SRT8 and Dodge Magnum SRT8 as well as other high performance and exotic brands such as Bentley, AMG Mercedes and Porsche. HPE is completing the construction of the company's new 30,000 square foot engineering and manufacturing facility at the company's Lonestar Motorosports Park - a 1/4 mile dragstrip located 45 minutes west of Houston, Texas. HPE is the only aftermarket tuning firm in North America that owns and operates its own vehicle testing track / proving grounds. The company will move to its new facility at the end of 2007.# # #