We've already mentioned that the company has a drag strip behind their main building but that's just the start of the Lone Star Motorsports Park racing facility they hope to build. The first phase of the track is set to be approximately 1.75 miles long with a 1.06-mile second phase and two small connections. The combined long track should have a maximum length of 2.54 miles of racing surface. One of the features they're hoping to build into the track is a separate entrance for celebrities (Nicholas Cage, for instance) who own the extreme cars but don't necessarily want to get hassled in the pits by dudes who totally loved National Treasure.

(also see our tour of Hennessey HQ, Hennessey Challegner SRT600 Exclusive First Look and Weird Hennessey Vehicles)

Very hard to get ZR1 Corvette 2009 - $350000 yes i have guaranteed myself to get three but only selling two who wants one ?dont wait till this summer there are only 2000 being made price will go up SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY 3476727911

LotNumber 1316 Year 2009 CarMake CHEVROLET CarModel CORVETTE CarStyle ZR-1 CONVERTIBLE

"From Rumor to Instant Legend in the Blink of an Eye. Chevrolet presents the very "First Retailable Unit Built" Corvette ZR-1 for auction at Barrett-Jackson on Saturday, January 19, 2008 with all proceeds from the auction will benefit The United Way."

Hennessey adds 78 horsepower to the 2008 Viper SRT10 to Combat Upcoming 2009 Corvette Blue Devil ZR-1

SEALY, TEXAS (December 20, 2007) - Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) today announced that it is introducing the company's first high-performance performance upgrade system for the new 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10. Known as the Venom 650R, the engine modifications increase by 78 horsepower giving the Viper the ability to accelerate from 0 to 150 mph 1.5 seconds quicker (15.5 sec. versus 17.0 sec.) than the already factory-fast 2008 Viper that offers a stout 600 horsepower.

The Venom 650R package consists of custom fabricated long tube stainless-steel exhaust headers with 1 7/8-inch primary tubes flowing into 5-to-1 merge collectors. From there, the spent exhaust gases flow through aftermarket catalytic converters before traveling through a full 3-inch stainless-steel exhaust system fit with high-flow stainless-steel mufflers. Other performance upgrades include: K&N high-flow air filter element, 2-piece light-weight cross-drilled brake rotors (saving 8 lbs per corner), professional installation, dyno testing, Hennessey Venom Power floor mats and exclusive Hennessey Venom 650R exterior badges. Each Venom 650R has a serial numbered plaque located in the cockpit and under the hood. Rounding out the package, the Venom 650R will carry a full 3 year / 36,000 mile Hennessey warranty that will cover the modifications performed to the vehicle.

HPE plans to build 200 units for the 2008 model year. Many of these cars will be available through an exclusive Hennessey dealer network comprised of high-performance minded Dodge dealers.

The Hennessey Venom 650R upgrade package gives 2008 Viper owners the option to fend off any Corvette Blue Devil ZR-1s that they might encounter in the coming New Year.

2008 Hennessey Venom 650R Specifications Available for all 2008 Viper SRT10 models including Coupe, Convertible and ACR.

Power:
678 hp @ 6,200 rpm; 645 lb-ft torque @ 5,200 rpm

Performance:
0 - 60 mph: 3.3 sec. 0 - 150 mph: 15.5 sec. (stock 2008 Viper = 17.0 sec.) 1/4 mile: 11.3 @ 131 mph (factory Michelin PS2 tires) 1/4 mile: 10.7 @ 132 mph (BFG Drag Radial tires) Top Speed: 211 mph (estimated for the Viper coupe)

Venom 650R includes:
1 7/8-inch stainless-steel long tube exhaust headers • Full 3-inch diameter stainless-steel exhaust system • High-flow catalytic converters • K&N Air filter • Lightweight 2-piece cross-drilled brake rotor upgrade (front & rear) • "Powered by Hennessey" valve cover badges • Hennessey and Venom 650R exterior badges • Hennessey windshield banner • Hennessey Venom Power floor mats • Serial numbered dash plaque and engine compartment plaque • Limited Production (only 200 650R Vipers will be offered for sale for the 2008 Viper model year) • Limited Warranty (3 years / 36,000 miles) • Lifetime headers and exhaust warranty for original owner (available from Hennessey / Dodge dealers or when installed at the HPE facility located at Lonestar Motorsports Park in Sealy, Texas) • Professional installation at HPE includes all necessary gaskets and fluids plus before and after chassis dyno testing plus up to 100 miles of road testing (mail order kit also available).

About Hennessey Performance Engineering:
For more than 17 years Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) has specialized in designing, testing, manufacturing and selling high-performance parts and services for Dodge/Chrysler vehicles including the Viper [fill in original Viper model name here] and SRT10, Chrysler 300C SRT8, Dodge Charger/Magnum SRT8, Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, as well as other exotic automotive brands such as Bentley, Mercedes AMG and Porsche Turbo. HPE operates at the company's new 30,000 square foot engineering and manufacturing facility located at the company's own Lonestar Motorsports Park located 45 minutes west of Houston, Texas. HPE is the only automotive tuning company in North America that operates its own validation, testing track, and proving grounds.

These are likely the best and maybe the last pictures of what is commonly referred to as the Blue Devil Corvette, before it's makes its official debut in January at the NAIAS in Detroit.

For the last two years the media has called the supercharged Corvette everything from Blue Devil to SS, Z07 and Sting Ray, but Motor Trend recently stated that it will officially be called the ZR-1.

At a quick glance this might look like an 'ordinary' Z06 with a vinyl-clad hood, but this Corvette is anything but ordinary!

Power for this beast will come from GM's new LS9 motor. The LS9 is a 6.2L, supercharged, small-block V8. This powerplant will put out anywhere from 600-650 horsepower. The supercharged V8 will utilize an integrated intake manifold intercooler, and it's expected to run a 0-60 in under 3.5 seconds. The 6.2-liter V8 will be built at GM's Performance Center in Wixom, Michigan. Our photographer reported that the exhaust note coming from this monster was "VERY mean....VERY angry."

The super-hot ZR-1 will weight even less than the Z06, utilizing more carbon fiber in the body (notice A and B pillars, and the roof), as well as polycarbonate "window" in the hood. The rocker panels, as well as other body panels, may be carbon fiber as well.

With speeds reaching, and possibily exceeding, 200mph, a wider, taller, lip spoiler has been added to the back of this Corvette. The spoiler now runs almost the entire length of the car to increase downforce and keep those massive tires glued to the road.

In the past few months, rumors have circulated that GM would be switching from Goodyear tires to Michelin tires for this Super Vette. We can now confirm this as this test car is sporting Michelin Pilot Sport ZP tires. The rear tires appear to be a whopping 335/25Z/20 size! A quick look inside the tires also reveals a huge set of cross-drilled rotors and an equally large set of calipers. We believe it to be a carbon-ceramic brake set-up.

Production of the supercharged Corvette will start in July of 2008 (as a 2009 model). Annual production numbers expected to be in the 1500-1750 range. When the all-new ZR-1 goes to production- expect the price tag to be in the $100,000 range.

Up to now, our rapidly growing Fantasy Garage has been devoid of American cars. This is a shame, as hundreds of USDA Choice machines await our consideration. Sure European rides are sexy and all that and the Japanese have built some heroes, but Uncle Sam invented the musclecar, bro. What to nominate? I have again returned to my youth and am presenting to you the upside of a vehicle I paid almost as much attention to as that one girl in French class with the black-and-white panties. Who am I kidding? I'm sure the pages of my Car and Driver with the cutaway illustration of that 5.7-liter 48-valve DOHC Mercury Marine-built masterpiece are still stuck together. Yes friends, I'm talking about the King of the Hill, the Corvette ZR-1 — this week's Fantasy Garage nominee. Now jump.

At the start of the 1980s, Corvettes were coming out of their own special version of the dark ages. Though the C3 started out righteous enough in 1968 when it was introduced to the world (much to the chagrin of the General) as the "Custom Corvette" Hot Wheel, the model eventually hit craptacular in 1975 when the base model limped out a sad 165 SAE net horsepower. Worse, the optional L82 mill stonked excreted just 205 hp. Even more depressing, at 7.1 seconds to 60 mph, the C3 'Vette was the fastest accelerating American car in 1976. Very little changed by the end of the production cycle in 1982, when the totally limp, 200 hp L83 was the only engine offered. Americans didn't care much, as 1979 marked the highest Corvette sales year ever (53,807 examples). Luckily for us Jalops and those who think like us, the engineers cared. They cared a great deal.

The year 1984 saw the introduction of the C4 (Chevy had so many issues with production in 1983 that they just skipped that year altogether) and enthusiasts were titillated. Instead of straight-line performance, the boffins decided to focus on left and right. Despite everything Jeremy Clarkson has ever said, the transverse composite leaf springs developed for the C4 were a major breakthrough. They weighed less, lowered the center of gravity, reduced unsprung weight and had much greater wear characteristics than the coils they replaced. Plus, as they span the entire width of the chassis, they acted as anti-roll bars. You know how the current Z06's LS7 engine dispels all myths about pushrods being obsolete? Same diff. Still choose to buy Jezzo's bull? I've been lucky enough to enjoy a few autocross laps in the C6 and the current Z06, both of which sport composite, transverse leaf springs – he's full of shit.

The ladder-frame and fiberglass blob that was the C3 got the boot and in its place Chevy devised a Lotus-inspired steel-backbone for the transmission/differential, then bolted the unit and the engine directly to a steel unibody then attached the fiberglass body to the structure. This saved 250 precious pounds over the C3. The C4 weighed it at a trim 3,220 lbs (for comparison, today's carbon fiber, titanium and magnesium appointed Z06 weighs 3,147 lbs). The C4 was much stiffer than its predecessor, too, so, handling was vastly improved over all other Corvettes (and most other production cars of the time). But what to do about that 230 hp engine? Exactly what we probably wouldn't do; they called Lotus.

As fate would have it, General Motors purchased Chapman's seemingly moribund Lotus in 1986. Corvette engineers approached their British brethren about the possibility of building the fastest car in the world. And while Lotus knows a thing or two about lightening cars and tuning Isuzus, word on the street is that they know bupkus about engines. But, like has happened many, many times in the past, an American/British partnership yielded spectacular results. Picture the Shelby Cobra, the Ford GT40, Patton and Monty, etc. This time the result was stunning, stupendous and totally spectacular: the LT5 V8 engine. As I partially mentioned up top, this all-aluminum wonder had four-overhead camshafts (just like the Lamborghini Countach) and 32 valves (just like the Porsche 928). True, it did have the same bore centers as the small-block in the regular C4 (350 cubes) but that's it. Also, the LT5 is the only non-pushrod engine ever to be installed in a Corvette. Ever. GM had a bit of trouble actually building the engine, so they outsourced it to Mercury Marine in Oklahoma. This move likely contributed to the LT5's legendary reliability.

What about power? How do 375 mean old horses tickle your fancy? By our deeply spoiled-rotten 2007 standards that may not sound like much, but please remember the Porsche 911 (964) Turbo of 1989 was making 360 hp, the 928 just 316 hp, the SVT Cobra 'Stang 235 hp and the much heavier Ferrari Testarossa made 390 hp with four-more cylinders. And for model year 1993, new cylinders and headers jacked the LT5's output to 405 hp. Only the maniac 25th Anniversary Countach had a significant power advantage over the LT5, with its bored out 5.2-liter 48-valve V12 (supposedly) spewing forth a blistering 455 hp. But the LT5 was a much better – and more important, cooler power plant – for one not-so-simple reason; it was a transformer.

To discourage "Dad, can I borrow the 'Vette?" hoonage, GM installed a "valet key." With the safety switched on, half of the LT5's valves shut down, as did half of its 16 fuel-injectors. Rad. This allowed the ZR-1 to scoot about town to the sound and relative fury of 250 ponies — still 5 hp more than the base C4. Once father was in a position to know best, he could turn the valet key and reactivate all the valves and injectors, unleashing the full stable of beautiful horses. We love this. We love this so much it's silly. Modern cars are just starting to get into this bi-modal way of thinking. The new M5 is able to go from 400 to 500 hp at the push of a button and the Veyron needs a separate key in the floor to achieve its top-speed mode. Vishnu tuners up in Danville, CA will sell you their XEDE chip that lets you toggle between two performance modes. We love these kinds of antics too, of course, but somehow the LT5's valve trick is cooler. The feature was wholly unnecessary in 1990, what with gas costing $1.20 a gallon. Which makes it that much better. Look, if you put a gun to my head I'll admit that the Audi RS4's 4.2-liter is the best V8 in the world. But can I shut off half the valves? And why not?

As far as performance went, the ZR-1 was the fastest car in the world the same way the Lakers and the Dodgers are "World Champions." Moving on. Top speed was just about 180 mph, which is plenty fast considering the general state of tires and brakes back in the late 1980s. Our friends at Automobile said it reached 60 mph in 4.2 seconds (though most other sources quote 4.6). One quarter of a mile? 13.4 seconds. For some perspective, Ferrari Testarossas back in the early 90s were shuffling to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds and doing the 1/4 mile in 14.2. Even better, while the top-dog Ferrari could pull 0.87G, the ber-Vette was hustling 0.93G. Some claim much higher. But the best of all were the crazy international endurance records that a stock ZR-1 set in Texas on March 1, 1990. Three of these records are "irrespective of category or class" and still stand today unbroken by either the C5 or C6 Z06. Or any other car.

5000 km @ 175.710 MPH; 5000 Miles @ 173.791 MPH; 4,221.256 Miles @ 175.885 MPH

That's a hell of a friggin' engine. What's more, certain pistonheads (usually members of Corvette forums) claim that the LT5 is the most reliable engine ever made. Also, 5,000 miles at 174 mph means you could drive from New York to Los Angeles and back in 30 hours!! That's a hell of a friggin' car. We're not going to mention that the ZR-1 option essentially doubled the price of the car. What do we care — we're pretend rich! Nor will we mention how stupid the square/round taillights are. We are, however, going to state that anyone voting against the Corvette ZR-1 for induction into the Jalopnik Fantasy Garage is missing part of their frontal lobe. We'll take ours in yellow, thank you. Wait, we mean black. You know, we might just take two. – Jonny Lieberman

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

The Jalopnik Fantasy Garage appears every Tuesday. Readers vote the cars in or out. The idea is that we'll have 50 cars in our fantasy garage, the world's greatest mechanic and endless wads of cash. If you would like to nominate a car for our Fantasy Garage, email tips@jalopnik.com with the subject line "fantasy garage."

Jalopnik Fantasy Garage, So Far:
RUF RT12
Maserati Quattroporte Executive GT
1978 Aston Martin V8 Vantage
Honda 1300 Coupe 9
1931 Daimler Double Six 50 Corsica Drophead Coupe
Ferrari 288 GTO

Related:
Jalopnik Fantasy Garage; Lutz Says Corvette SS Project Safe, in Final Tuning Stage [Internal]

Okay, so we gave the C4 a round of the business yestiddy because of an absolutely craptacular ad that seriously, if you missed it, you have to go watch. Austin's sister told us she'd watch it later, but we swear she'll be kicking herself for not watching it sooner. Meanwhile, the only 'Vette to be named internally, informally for a Minutemen song, was really pretty goddamn shocking when it arrived on the scene back in 1990. A four-cam, Lotus-designed, Mercury Marine-built, never-before, obscenely cool-looking 375 (later 405) horsepower almost-350 with a different bore and stroke than the then-traditional L98 5.7?

Yes, please, very much yes. Ironically, less than a decade after the DOHC motor was phased out, the LS6 ended up matching it for horsepower. While still using pushrods. Still, LT5, you were a landmark motor, and you well-addled our brain as a youngster. You were the powerplant for the best and the brightest of the C4s, and well, we can't not salute you. Now we're gonna go back to sniggering at the world's first computer-activated manual transmission.

LT5 [Wikipedia]

Related:
Oh 'Eck. And We Wonder Why GM is in the Torlet: Early C4 Ad [Internal]