It’s easy to be jealous of Steven Tyler. The dude’s a rock star, he’s a judge on American Idol, and at 65 years old, he can still light up a room by his mere presence alone. Now it appears that we have one more reason to be green with envy at Mr. Aerosmith himself.
Word has it that Tyler has made a new automotive purchase, except that this particular vehicle isn’t something that you see on the road a whole lot. Known for his passion for sports cars, Tyler did himself one better this time by purchasing no less than the 800-horsepower Hennessey Venom GT Spyder.
Even more impressive is that Hennessey will actually build him a custom Venom GT Spyder, complete with distinctive customization details reserved only for this particular model, including an interior dressed in black leather with matching red accent stitching and a custom audio system that will be developed by David Frangioni, CEO of Audio One and a one-time audio engineer for Tyler and Aerosmith.
So how much did Tyler shell out for this one-of-a-kind Hennessey Venom GT Spyder? The buzz is that the Aerosmith front man and AI judge had to split with over $1.1 million for the car. It’s a number that’s beyond our reach, but for someone of Steven Tyler’s stature, $1.1 million is peanuts.
UPDATE 05/20/12: Steven Tyler’s Hennessey Venom GT Spyder is rounding into shape pretty nicely, so much so that the American tuning company even decided to give us a little tease of what the Aerosmith front man has in store for him when the 1,200-horsepower monster is delivered to him. Check out the Venom GT Spyder in the dyne after the jump.
Hennessey’s vehicles are smashing records after records. The newest one was established by a Hennessey Twin-Turbo Ford GT which established a standing mile record of 257.7 mph, officially becoming the fastest car at Texas Mile (for cars running on the Chase Field runway in Beeville).
Hennessey attempted to break the standing mile record last year with the Ford GT as well, but fell short at just 235 mph. The first day of the 2012 Texas Mile brought them up to 246.8 mph, but the second day was the true triumph with the 257.7 mph record. The victorious Ford GT by Hennessey is owned by Mark Heidaker and driven by Sean Kennedy.
Hennessey Performance CEO, John Hennessey, is confident that the Ford GT has even more to offer, so we expect to see some more amazing feats in the future. For now, we’d like to send a big congratulations to Hennessey and their team!
Think of February 14, 2012. To many, this is a day of chocolates, candy, hearts, and flowers, but to car enthusiasts, this is the day when Top Gear USA gets back into action. That’s right, Top Gear USA has moved to Tuesdays and its third season will commence on the most popular day for love.
As usual, the show will be hosted by comedian Adam Ferrara, rally and drift racer Tanner Foust, and motorsport analyst Ruttledge Wood. The new teaser video for the show’s third season, however, stars none other than their top secret racing driver, The Stig, as he sets a new "unofficial" lap record of 1:21.4 seconds for TopGear USA while driving a Corvette ZR1 tuned by Hennessey. A masked man with a super speedy chariot? This may be just enough for all the men in the world to convince their loved ones of staying in on Valentine’s Day to catch the first episode of the season.
The most impressive model in Hennessey’s line-up at this point is without a doubt the Venom GT, but with Hennessey, the best always seems to get one-upped by their next project. The vehicle ready to take on the challenge is the new HPE800 Concept based on the new McLaren MP4-12C. As its name suggests, the HPE800 will get a power upgrade to the tune of 800 HP - up from the current 592 HP. Next to this, the tuner will also be offering a more aggressive aero package, new wheels, and interior changes.
Hennessey was able to massage more power out of the McLaren’s 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 by adding an upgraded intercooler system, air intake system, and ball-bearing turbochargers, as well as ECU updates and, of course, a new Hennessey titanium exhaust system. These updates will allow the MP4-12C to push out the aforementioned 800 HP.
With a power update like the one provided by Hennessey, the super car also had to get a mini makeover for both the exterior and interior to balance itself out. For this, the tuner installed a new, center-positioned frontal air inlet with hood extractor that will allow room for larger heat exchangers for improved engine intercooling as well as transmission cooling. The new set of wheels are wrapped in Michelin Pilot Super Sport Tires, while the interior combines carbon fiber, Alcantara, and leather for a luxuriously supple feel.
New year, new cool cars in Jay Leno’s Garage. The very impressive Hennessey Venom GT has already stopped by the garage once in concept form, but now the Hennessey tuned Lotus Elise - as well as its creator, John Hennessey - is back in production form to wow the late night talk show host.
The Hennessey Venom GT was limited to only 10 units, each priced at a whopping $950,000. The Venom GT is powered by a supercharged 6.2 liter LS9 V8 engine, same used in the Corvette ZR1, that delivers a total of 725 bhp. And if this is not enough, the tuner will also be offering 1000 bhp and 1200 bhp twin turbo V8 engine variants. With a curb weight of 2,685 lbs, the 1200 HP Venom GT will hit a top speed of 275 mph. The latter, speedier version is the one Leno had the chance to test, of course.
We can think of many reasons why Jay Leno would go nuts over the Venom GT, but let us know what you think in the comments section below!
With one little teaser note - "Who Needs Reindeer When You Have an 800 HP Twin Turbo Sleigh?" - Hennessey Performance has given us even more reason to love the 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8. The American tuning company went bananas on the HEMI-powered SUV, releasing a comprehensive tuning program that includes aerodynamic and performance upgrades that will leave your jaws on the floor.
Talking about the former, Hennessey dressed up the Grand Cherokee SRT8 with a new carbon fiber front splitter, a lowered suspension system, a new set of light alloy wheels with 15.1" Brembo brakes, and a custom leather interior with a new Alcantara steering wheel. Pretty good, right?
It gets better.
Known for being one of the best engine tuners in the country, Hennessey saw the enormous potential of the Grand Cherokee SRT8’s 6.4-liter HEMI V8 engine and decided that it could still get some more tweaking. And that’s precisely what they did. Additional modifications include an upgraded transmission system and torque converter upgrade, 15.1 inch Brembo brakes front and rear, a lowered sport suspension system, lighter alloy wheels, carbon fiber front splitter and a custom leather interior with Alcantara steering wheel. Thanks to an HPE800 Twin-Turbo engine package, an upgraded transmission system, and a torque converter upgrade, Hennessey managed to bring the output of the Grand Cherokee SRT8 from its ’regular’ 465 horsepower and 465 lb/ft of torque figures, all the way up to an eye-popping 805 horsepower and 823 lb/ft of torque. These numbers are good enough to drop the SUV’s 0-60 mph number from 4.8 seconds to a mentally disturbing 3.1 seconds and set the quarter mile at 10.9 at 130 mph.
Hennessey will only build 24 of these bad boys with the limited numbers reflecting the tuned-up SUV’s price tag: $235,000.
Jesse James is well-known for his romantic rendezvous behind the back of his then-wife and actress, Sandra Bullock, but before his sexual trysts became a topic of media concern, James was better known as the builder behind West Coast Choppers. Now it seems as though James is taking a break from infidelity and motorcycle builds to take his Hennessey GT1000 Twin Turbo for a bit of a rougher ride.
On a road that has been dubbed a "super twisty lane" by a source that was at the location, Jesse James lost control of his 1000 HP supercar and crashed it into a neighbor’s yard near his house in Austin, Texas. The funny thing about the incident is that Hennessey seems to be pleased with the incident. They spoke with fellow automotive site, Jalopnik, and stated, "It’s nice to know that Jesse drives his Hennessey GT hard enough to find the limit. After all, if you don’t crash or break every now and then you’re not going fast enough."
Jesse James seems to take a lot of things to their breaking point. At least his Henessey GT1000 is covered by insurance.
Reminder: The Hennessey GT1000 Twin Turbo is powered by a 5.4-liter supercharged V-8 engine that produces 1,000 horsepower at 6,600 rpm with a 0-60 mph time of 2.8 seconds, a quarter-mile time of 10.6 seconds at 142 mph, and an increased top speed of 245 mph.
We’re short of a month away from Christmas so we know that all of you are probably up to your necks with buying gifts for your loved ones. Never fear, we won’t ask for anything apart from your continued patronage.
But what we will do is provide some assistance on some cool gift ideas you can get for your family and friends, specifically that one dude that can’t seem to stop talking about cars.
Hennessey Performance Engineering, they of the Venom GT acclaim, has released their 2012 Performance Calendar. We can’t deny the coincidence of the release with the holiday season fast approaching so we’re just going to tell you that it’s a great present to give any gearhead that’s worth his automotive salt.
The calendar will feature some of the finest works that Hennessey has every created, not to mention its usefulness in telling you what the date is and what kind of activities or meetings you have in store for those days.
And for the affordable price of just $12.95, you can avail of this must-buy calendar. Whether you want one for yourself, or you’re thinking about giving it as a Christmas present, there are a few things in this world worth spending $13 on and this calendar is definitely one of them.
Hennessey has a way of doing business that makes you want to throw money at them, especially when it deals with automotive tuning. These guys know what they’re doing and if you have a car like a Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon and you’re not satisfied with its standard specs, the right thing to do is pick up the phone and have Hennessey give it the boost you’ve always wanted.
The American tuning company’s V700 program is a good choice for that. Not only does it have a few styling tweaks to make the car a little more eye-friendly, but more importantly, it has the perfect performance improvements that can turn your CTS-V wagon from a mild-mannered family ride into a snorting piece of action-packed mayhem.
Remember the Cadillac CTS-V Black Diamond Edition that we profiled a couple of months back? Well, it’s essentially the same program except that it doesn’t come with the special edition enhancements of the Black Diamond. So even if you ’only’ have a standard CTS-V Sport Wagon, never fear because Hennessey will give it the kind of engine nip and tuck that you’ve always wanted.
UPDATE 11/09/2011: Check out Hennessey’s new video release showing their CTS-V Sport Wagon achieve 10.69 seconds at 134.69 mph in the 1/4 Mile!
Find out more about the Cadillac CTS-V V700 Sport Wagon by Hennessey after the jump.
When John Hennessey points to a car and says he wants to make a performance program for it, magic usually happens.
There was no doubt that when Ford brought back the Mustang Boss 302 for the first time since 1969 - that’s a span of 42 years - Hennessey would be getting his picking finger ready. It just became a question of when the American tuning company would have a program ready for it.
Hennessey just introduced the HPE650 package for the Boss 302 and today, they’ve upped the ante with the release of the HPE700. Like most of Hennessey’s tuning programs, you won’t see a whole lot of extra decorations on the car. There are badges here and plaques there, but for the most part, what you see with the car is what you get. But when you open the hood, that’s when all hell breaks loose.
Just like the HPE650 program, Hennessey’s HPE700 program offers a mammoth horsepower improvement, which might seem over-the-top considering the Boss 302 already has 440 ponies in tow. However, anytime you can take that 440 and turn it into 700, we’re pretty sure that you won’t find a whole lot of people to complain about it.
UPDATE 10/24/2011: The 2012 Ford Mustang Boss HPE700 by Hennessey is all kinds of awesome and it just proved it by running the quarter mile in 10.9 seconds at 130 mph! Check out the video of the run by clicking on the image above!
More on the 2012 Ford Mustang Boss HPE700 after the jump
