Hennessey Performance Engineering is an American hypercar manufacturer and high-performance vehicle creator. In addition to building the Venom F5 hypercar, the company specializes in 'making fast cars faster' modifying

sports cars A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

from several brands including Chevrolet, Dodge, Cadillac, Jeep,

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

, GMC, and

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

. Established in 1991 by John Hennessey, their main facility is located 45 minutes west of Houston, Texas in Sealy, Texas. The firm focuses on mechanical component modification for creating high-powered cars. Besides performance automobiles, they also tune pickup trucks and

sport utility vehicle A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon defini ...

s such as the

Ford Raptor The Raptor is a nameplate used by Ford for its "high-performance" pickup trucks and SUVs. In use since the 2010 model year, the Raptor is designated as the highest-performance version of the F-150, Ranger and Bronco. Drawing its name from both ...

, the Ram TRX and the

Jeep Grand Cherokee The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a range of mid-size SUVs produced by the American manufacturer Jeep. At its introduction, while most SUVs were still manufactured with body-on-frame construction, the Grand Cherokee has used a unibody chassis from the ...

. They also work on

muscle car Muscle car is a description according to '' Merriam-Webster Dictionary'' that came to use in 1966 for "a group of American-made two-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving." The '' Britannica Dictionary'' ...

s like the Ford Mustang, Dodge Charger and Challenger.

Tuner School

In 2008, the Tuner School was founded by the company. It is a private institution dedicated to teach and train high performance vehicle tuner technicians. It is located at Lonestar Motorsports Park, near the Hennessey Performance headquarters. All instructors at this education facility are actual performance tuning

mechanics Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to object ...

Notable cars

Hennessey Venom 650R

The Hennessey Venom 650R is one of the first offerings provided from the tuning company. Available as a package to the 1996

Dodge Viper GTS The Dodge Viper is a sports car that was manufactured by Dodge (by Street & Racing Technology, SRT for 2013 and 2014), a division of American car manufacturer Chrysler, FCA US LLC from 1992 until 2017, having taken a brief hiatus in 2007 and from ...

, the Venom 650R was one of the fastest road legal cars in the world. Upgrades included a US$37,000 engine upgrade that utilised enlarged cylinder bores, and longer stroke to increase displacement from the stock to along with forged steel connecting rods (titanium rods were an extra $3,500) and forged aluminum pistons; the whole assembly was then balanced and blueprinted to bring the total power output to at 5,800 rpm and of torque at 4,500 rpm bumping the compression ratio up to 10.5:1. On the intake, a competition airbox feeds 70-millimeter billet throttle bodies and a port-matched intake manifold. On the exhaust, a set of tuned-length stainless steel headers sent spent gases back to a 3.0-inch stainless exhaust system that retained the stock catalytic converters, but allowed them to be easily bypassed for track day performance. New engine management software increased the idle to 1,000 rpm, disabled the 1-4 skip-shift transmission feature, turned the cooling fans on sooner, and packed recalibrated fuel and ignition curves. Completing the package was the VenomAero carbon fiber body upgrade that reduced weight, added functional brake cooling ducts along with a rear wing and optimized downforce. All of these modifications allowed the car to accelerate from in 3.3 seconds, complete the 1/4-mile in 10.8 seconds at a speed of and propel the car to a top speed of over . A Brembo race spec braking system and a Penske adjustable suspension system with 30 variable damping settings were available as an option. The total cost of the package stood at US$108,500 excluding the price of a stock Viper GTS.

Hennessey Venom GT

In 2010, Hennessey Performance revealed the

Hennessey Venom GT The Hennessey Venom GT is a high performance sports car manufactured by US manufacturer Hennessey Performance Engineering. The Venom GT is based on the Lotus Elise/ Exige. Speed records On January 21, 2013, the Venom GT set a Guinness World Rec ...

. The Venom GT is based on the

Lotus Exige The Lotus Exige is a British two-door, two-seat sports car made by Lotus Cars since 2000. Originally a more-hardcore coupé version of the Lotus Elise roadster, since the Series 3 the Exige has been the larger-engined model of the family - us ...

and has a

twin-turbo Twin-turbo (not to be confused with a twincharger setup, which is a combination of a supercharger and a turbocharger) refers to an engine in which two turbochargers work in tandem to compress the intake fuel/air mixture (or intake air, in the case ...

charged

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...

that is rated at . The car weighs and has a top speed of . Three "World's Fastest Edition" Venom GT coupés were produced in 2014 to commemorate the car's speed record run. A roadster variant dubbed the Venom GT Spyder was launched in 2012 on the request of Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler. It is based on the Lotus Elise and adds to the curb weight due to structural changes. The production of the Spyder was limited to five units with a one-off Spyder being produced as the "Final edition" model bringing the total to 6 units. The final edition gained a total of and was lighter than the regular Spyder.

Hennessey Venom F5

The Hennessey Venom F5, successor to the Venom GT, was unveiled at the

SEMA Show Sama ( tr, Sema, Persian, Urdu and ar, سَمَاع - ''samā‘un'') is a Sufi ceremony performed as part of the meditation and prayer practice dhikr. Sama means "listening", while dhikr means "remembrance".During, J., and R. Sellheim. "Sam ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

, on November 1, 2017, with high expectations of its intended world-beating speed record, having a projected 2.0 second acceleration time and top speed. The Venom F5 features a bespoke proprietary 6.6-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine, making this the company's first in-house engine. It is rated at and of torque.

Pennzoil Pennzoil is an American motor oil brand currently owned by Shell plc. The former Pennzoil Company had been established in 1913 in Pennsylvania, being active in business as an independent firm until it was acquired by Shell in 2002, becoming a bra ...

and

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

are partners with Hennessey for the project to help reach the top speed mark. The top speed is claimed to be through a V-MAX speed-tracking system. Hennessey predicts the car can accelerate from in a time of under 10 seconds and in a time of under 20 seconds. Only 24 will be built with each car costing US$1.6 million.

VelociRaptor SUV/Off-Road Truck

The Hennessey VelociRaptor SUV is a luxury off-road full-size SUV modified from the Ford SVT Raptor. The SUV is limited to 30 produced a year, however since its introduction over 400 versions have been made. It uses the same engine Ford uses for the pickup truck version. The second generation version is a Luxury off-road heavy-duty SUV modified from the 2015 Ford Super Duty Lariat Version, with design cues from the

Ford Excursion The Ford Excursion is a heavy duty ( Class 2), full-sized SUV that was produced by Ford. The longest and heaviest SUV ever to enter mass production, the Excursion was marketed as a direct competitor of the 2500-series (-ton) Chevrolet Suburba ...

. As of 2015, the first generation model has been discontinued. In 2018 the Hennessey Ford VelociRaptor 6×6 option was made available, with a 30-inch extended frame and extra axle for a total of six driven wheels.

Hennessey CTS-V

The Hennessey CTS-V is a 2016

Cadillac CTS-V The Cadillac CTS is an executive car that was manufactured and marketed by General Motors from 2003 until 2019 across three generations. Historically, it was priced similarly to cars on the compact luxury spectrum; but it has always been siz ...

tuned by Hennessey to produce 1000 horsepower.

Hennessey Exorcist

The Hennessey Exorcist is an upgrade package for the

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 The Chevrolet Camaro is a mid-size American automobile manufactured by Chevrolet, classified as a pony car. It first went on sale on September 29, 1966, for the 1967 model year and was designed to compete with the Ford Mustang. The Camaro share ...

offered by Hennessy Special Vehicles. The package includes a high-flow supercharger and intercooler providing 14 psi of boost pressure, custom camshaft, ported cylinder heads, upgraded valvetrain with new springs, lifters, pushrods and valves and long-tube stainless steel exhaust headers with high-flow catalytic converters. The cars equipped with the automatic transmission will require an upgraded transmission at the cost of US$9,950. The optional drag pack includes 315/30-20 rear tires, modifications to the drive shaft, floor jack and tool kit for faster acceleration at the drag strip at the cost of US$8,995. The optional road race pack includes a set of 20 inch light weight Hennessey wheels with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires at the cost of US$6,995. The upgraded engine with the standard package is rated at at 6,400 rpm and of torque at 4,400 rpm, enabling the vehicle to accelerate from in 3.5 seconds, complete the quarter-mile in less than 10 seconds and attain a top speed of , over that of the original ZL1. The package is available at an additional cost of US$57,455 over the cost of the standard ZL1 for both the manual and automatic versions of the car. The vehicle can directly be ordered from Hennessey Special Vehicles, Chevrolet dealers or the vehicle can be sent to Hennessey Special vehicles by the owners for conversion.

Divisions

Hennessey established the Hennessey Special Vehicles division in 2017, in which it builds the

sports car line-up. The division is tasked to learn from its experiences with the Venom GT and apply it to the newest variation, the

Hennessey Venom F5 The Hennessey Venom F5 is a sports car developed and manufactured by the American vehicle-manufacturing company Hennessey Special Vehicles which was established in 2017. Hennessey has contracted with Delta Motorsport of Silverstone, England for ...

, which will succeed the Venom GT. All vehicles sold under the division are branded as a regular Hennessey model, despite being built by the division.

References

External links

*
Hennessey Performance Engineering official websiteTuner School official websiteHennessey Special Vehicles official websiteVenom GT official website
{{Automotive industry in the United States Automotive motorsports and performance companies Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1991 1991 establishments in Texas Companies based in Houston Hennessey vehicles American companies established in 1991 Auto tuning companies