The US$950,000 Hennessey Venom GT has perhaps the most spectacular set of numbers of any supercar: 1200 horsepower shoehorned into a mid-engined chassis that weighs just twelve hundred kilos (2,685 lbs).
It's a combination that no other supercar can match in terms of power to weight ratio. By comparison, it shades the world's fastest car, the 267 mph Bugatti Veyron GT, which has less horsepower (1184 bhp), and is 50% heavier, tipping the scales at 1,888 kg (4,162 lbs).
Only five of the carbon composite Venom GTs are built each year. Each vehicle is hand-built at one of Hennessy's three facilities (Texas, California and Silverstone, England) and the car is available in right or left hand drive, though right hand drive costs an extra US$28,000.
Indeed, the price list on the Venom GT also allows for a the car to be made with a "Naked" Carbon Fiber Exterior (a la Monsory) for the princely sum of an extra US$375,000 and don't forget to allow six months for delivery from time of order.
Interestingly, the car's balance is not at its optimum until it has a passenger and driver inside. When all fluids and a passenger are loaded, the car's 37-63 empty weight distribution becomes an ideal 44-56.
The 2012 Venom GT will make its first public outing in its homeland later today when it attends the McCall's Motorworks Revival at the Monterey Jet Center, the traditional first event of the Monterey / Pebble Beach weekend.
I suspect this is probably all power and no finesse, as some serious driver aids are needed to hold the reigns on this car, that might be where the Veyron has the edge?
I\'m pretty sure I\'ll never know unless some overpaid auto-journalist drives it for my vicarious enjoyment.
From Hennessy himself: 'started wondering, okay, what's next?' says Hennessey, who mulled over slightly lighter, even more powerful versions of both the Viper and Ford GT, but rejected them on grounds of being too race-car minimalist. 'I was joking one day about taking a Lotus Exige and putting our Venom 1000 engine in the back of the car. And we all laughed about it; laughed about it for a couple of weeks. 'But a preliminary sketch was followed up by a full set of renderings. When they came in, I looked at the car, and by that point I'd stopped laughing. I thought, we could build this car.
I'd be interested to see what Top Gear can do with it.
Not terribly practical - but nice none the less.
But with much of this high tech racer stuff....
It reminds me of that Bo Derek movie 10.
Where the older guy has the hots for a neurotic younger chick and the obsession or desire is muddied by the practicalities of the situation - that she can only have sex after smoking dope and listening to Vivaldies Ballero (or something) and there is a whole heap of wanky silly bullshit to put up with - and while it\'s only a movie and the script and all is just a script - in the end it seemed the older broad with her act together was much better value than the young silly thing and all her fanciful ideas.
So like some premium smoo - it\'s a great piece of work - aside from being horrendously expensive, and the global average road speeds and driving conditions - and the true value of the running costs, repairs, and the amount of stuff you can actually do with it - say compared to a pickup or utility (Ute) - aside from a race track - it\'s an incredibly wasteful $$$ per mile car.
Sure it\'s a great car - but pound for $$$ for the amount of day to day real world in average traffic and speed limits....
I\'d rather drive this - to be sure... but you can\'t do much with it - and I tend to hate climbing in and out of shoe box type cars...
That would be the world record holding and award winning Ultima GTR 720. I personally would prefer the Ultima to the Hennessy Venom GT, as it is far cheaper and just as effective and it has more original styling than the Venom GT.
Sounds like a \'Darwin Award\' to me!