Hennessey Venom GT History

The Venom GT was Hennessey's first complete car — a hypercar built on a heavily modified Lotus Elise/Exige chassis, stretched and reworked to take a mid-mounted, twin-turbocharged 7.0-liter (427-cubic-inch) GM LS7 V8. In its highest state of tune the engine produced 1,244 horsepower, in a car weighing well under 1,250 kg, making it one of the most extreme power-to-weight machines of its era. It was first assembled in 2010, with deliveries from 2011.

On February 14, 2014, on the 3.22-mile Space Shuttle landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a Venom GT recorded a top speed of 270.49 mph (435.31 km/h), exceeding the verified top speed of the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. Because the run was made in a single direction, and because Hennessey built fewer than the 30 cars then required, the figure was not recognized by Guinness as the official 'fastest production car' record — but it cemented the Venom GT's reputation. The car had earlier set a Guinness World Record for the fastest 0–300 km/h (0–186 mph) acceleration in 2013.

Production was deliberately tiny: Hennessey originally planned up to 29 cars but built only 13 in total — 7 coupes and 6 open-top Spyders — before ending production in 2017 to focus on the ground-up Venom F5. The Spyder set its own record on March 25, 2016, reaching 265.57 mph (427.4 km/h) at Naval Air Station Lemoore, billed as the world's fastest open-top car. Prices ran into the seven figures, with cars asking from roughly $1.2 million.