Photos: Hennessey Performance

Hennessey Performance has prepared chassis #4 and the twin-turbo, 6.2-liter engine that went into it was dyno tested last month. For initial break in, we presume that the lower boost settings are used. You know, the ones that only produce 800+ horsepower.

In the short time of the dyno run, you’ll see in the lights-out segment that the exhaust is starting to glow from the exhaust gases. Assuming that the exhaust is stainless steel, you’re seeing temperatures of about 750 F when the glow just becomes visible, to about 900 F by the time the run is complete.

The Venom GT’s engine is force fed by a pair of Garrett ball bearing turbochargers. Starting from a base compression ratio of 8.8 to 1, the 16 psi of boost is sufficient to drive the 2,685 pound car from 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds and 0 to 200 mph in 15.9 seconds. That’s almost a third faster than the Bugatti Veyron, which clocks in at 24.2 seconds.

The Hennessey Venom GT design is based on the Lotus Elise/Exige product. The Venom GT starts life as a base Lotus Elise / Exige and utilizes components including but not limited to the roof, doors, side glass, windscreen, dash, cockpit, floor pan, HVAC system, wipers and head lamps.

The rear structure of the car is enhanced to handle the aluminum block engine and Ricardo 6-speed manual transmission.