Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) 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 type of automobile that is 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 1910s and ar ...

from several brands including

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence, Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

Jeep Jeep is an American automobile brand, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with other assets, from its previous owner, American Motors Co ...

, Ford, GMC, and Lincoln. Established in 1991 by John Hennessey, their main facility is located 45 minutes west of

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

in Sealy, Texas. The firm focuses on mechanical component modification for creating high-powered cars. Besides performance automobiles, they also tune

pickup trucks A pickup truck or pickup is a light or medium duty truck that has an enclosed cabin, and a back end made up of a cargo bed that is enclosed by three low walls with no roof (this cargo bed back end sometimes consists of a tailgate and removabl ...

and sport utility vehicles such as the Ford Raptor, the Ram TRX, the

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

, and the Cadillac Escalade. They also work on

muscle car A muscle car is an American-made two-door sports coupe with a powerful engine, marketed for its performance. In 1949, General Motors introduced its 88 with the company's OHV Rocket V8 engine, which was previously available only in its lux ...

s like the

Ford Mustang The Ford Mustang is a series of American Car, automobiles manufactured by Ford Motor Company, Ford. In continuous production since 1964, the Mustang is currently the longest-produced Ford car nameplate. Currently in its Ford Mustang (seventh ...

, Chevy Camaro,

Dodge Charger The Dodge Charger is a model of automobile marketed by Dodge in various forms over eight generations since 1966. The first Charger was a show car in 1964. A 1965 Charger II concept car resembled the 1966 production version. In the United Sta ...

and Challenger.

Tuner School

In 2008, Hennessey opened a Tuner School, which is a private institution dedicated to teach and train high performance vehicle tuner technicians over the course of 14 weeks. It is located at the Lonestar Motorsports Park Complex, adjacent to the Hennessey Main Headquarters. All instructors at this education facility are actual performance tuning

mechanics Mechanics () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among Physical object, physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in Displacement (vector), displacements, which are changes of ...

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 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 Brembo N.V. is an Italian manufacturer of automotive parts that most notably produces braking systems, for high-performance cars and for the sim racing series Gran Turismo. Its operational head office is in Curno, Bergamo, Italy, while Amst ...

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 Venom GT is based on the

Lotus Exige The Lotus Exige is a sports car made by the British company Lotus Cars from 2000 until 2021. Originally a coupé version of the Lotus Elise roadster, since the Series 3 the Exige has been the larger-engined model of the family, featuring a V6 ...

and has a twin-turbocharged

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. Origins The first known V8 was the Antoinette, designed by Léon Levavasseur, a ...

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 Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of lead vocalist Steven Tyler, bassist Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton, drummer Joey Kramer, and guitarists Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry and B ...

lead singer

Steven Tyler Steven Victor Tallarico (born March 26, 1948), known professionally as Steven Tyler, is an American singer and songwriter. Tyler is best known as the lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the keyboards, h ...

. 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 in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, 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 Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

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. 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 tuned by Hennessey to produce 1000 horsepower.

Hennessey Exorcist

The Hennessey Exorcist is an upgrade package for the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 offered by Hennessy Special Vehicles. The package includes a high-flow

supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement (engine), displacement. It is a form of forced induction that is mechanically ...

and

intercooler An intercooler is a heat exchanger used to cool a gas after compression. Often found in turbocharged engines, intercoolers are also used in air compressors, air conditioners, refrigeration and gas turbines. Internal combustion engines Mo ...

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 Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...

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 Hennessey Venom GT 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, 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.

Special Vehicles line-up

* Venom GT * Venom F5 Coupe * Venom F5 Roadster * Venom F5 Revolution Coupe * Venom F5 Revolution Roadster * Venom F5-M Roadster

Controversy

Hennessey has been the subject of numerous lawsuits and

Better Business Bureau The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is an American private, 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization founded in 1912. BBB's self-described mission is to focus on advancing marketplace trust, consisting of 92 independently incorporated local BBB organizati ...

complaints throughout the years, with many BBB complaints left unresolved and, according to court records, many judgements entered against Hennessey. Jalopnik published an article outlining Hennessey's many customer service and potential fraud issues. Thetruthaboutcars also wrote a similar article where Hennessey stole a customer's money without producing a car.

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