Four years after purchasing the first Hennessey Venom GT Spyder, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler is finally ready to let go of his baby after announcing his plan to auction off the Venom GT Spyder.->ke4149 Bids are currently being accepted with the minimum bid price set at $1.1 million, the amount Tyler spent to purchase the car back in 2012.
While there’s no indication that the car will be sold, it does have a couple of things going for it. One is that it was legitimately owned by Tyler himself, who admitted to FoxNews that he once took it up to 140 mph, a speed that’s the equivalent of a yawn for the Venom GT Spyder. Second and more importantly is the fact that the Venom GT Spyder is well and truly regarded as the fastest American-made supercar->ke177 in the world. The Lotus Exige-->ke525based supercar is powered by a Chevrolet-->ke199sourced 7.0-liter V-8 engine that spits out an incredible 1,200 horsepower and 1,155 pound-feet of torque. Those numbers alone allow the Venom GT Spyder to sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds to go with a top speed of 275 mph.
It’s unclear how many miles Tyler tacked on the Venom GT Spyder and the car’s overall condition could determine whether it gets sold or not. Neither Tyler nor his representatives released details on that regard so it might be best to contact the singer’s charity, Janie’s Fund, to get the actual numbers. Speaking of Janie’s Fund, the charity that helps support abused and neglected girls will be the sole recipient of the Venom GT Spyder’s sale.
Anybody who’s interested in the car and would like to know more about it are free to contact richard.shaw@janiesfund.org to get the full details. Bids on the car will also be accepted through the same e-mail address.
Continue after the jump to read the full story.
Why it matters
Wow. I could leave it at that and just be done with it because news items like this typically illicit one-word reactions. But I’m not going to do that because there’s a lot to talk about regarding the auction of this Hennessey Venom GT Spyder. There are still a lot of things about this auction that needs to be clarified but from what’s been brought to our attention, the car isn’t going to come cheap. Not by a long shot. That said, Tyler set the minimum bid price at that amount because he knows that there are people with bottomless pits of money that can write blank checks at a whim. For the record: I’m not one of those people.
Sure, it’s expensive as heck, but don’t drown in all the zeros in the car’s price. What matters is that whoever does end up taking ownership of this car will not only have one of the fastest supercars in the world at his disposal, but he can also lay claim to being the person that took the car keys off of Steven Tyler’s hands. Tyler himself even made a suggestion to the prospective owner on how to best enjoy the Venom GT Spyder. “Take it to an airport,” he said. That may involve a bit of negotiations, but if the new owned can somehow finagle his way into an open tarmac, that 140-mph speed Tyler got it to could be obliterated in a blink of an eye. Nobody wants to miss out on that opportunity, right?
And if there are any hesitations on spending that much money, interested buyers can take comfort knowing that all that money is going to a good cause. Quid pro quo, etiam?
Hennessey Venom GT Spyder
Read our full review of the Hennessey Venom GT Spyder here.