December3
Hennessey has released two more sketches of its upcoming Venom GT supercar. Power for the Venom GT will come from a twin-turbo version of the Dodge Viper’s 8.4L V10 engine — rated at 1,000 horsepower — and will be mated to either a six-speed manual or sequential gearbox.
With a curb weight of under 2,700 pounds, the Venom GT is expect to go from 0-62 in less than 2.5 seconds and hit 300 km/h in 14 seconds.
Despite early comparisons to the Bugatti Veyron, Hennessey owner John Hennessey says that the Veyron is not the target of the Venom GT. “The Veyron is an ultra fast and ultra luxurious grand touring car which also happens to be quicker and faster than any other road car, except for our Venom 1000 Twin Turbo SRT which beat the Veyron earlier this year from 0-200 mph. The Venom GT will be a much more engaging sports car to drive by challenging the driver with 1000+ HP in a chassis that is nearly 1500 lbs lighter than the Veyron,” he said.
A concept version of the Venom GT could hit the auto show circuit in 2009 with a production version following shortly after.
Sweeet!
Stupid to compare this to a Veyron though. One is a rich man’s money pit, the other is a veritable race car.
The front end is the most blatant copy of a lotus I have ever seen
http://onemansblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/Lotus-Exige.jpg
OH LOOK THE CARRERA GT, LOTUS ELISE AND BUGATTI VEYRON GOT INVOLVED IN A THREESOME AND THIS IS WHAT THEY PRODUCED NINE MONTHS LATER
I’m curious as to who designed this. It’s remarkably similar, as everybodies already mentioned, to Lotus.
definatly a rip off of Lotus, Hennessey should stick to forced incduction mopar products.
Exactly how many different looks can a true “supercar” have. They are going to pick the most efficient body design. So what if Lotus was already there? At least Hennessey has the guts to put a real motor in it.
um, a true supercar should definatly have a unique look, copying another’s design is simply half-assing it/
If it’s the best design for performance, then not really.
It is looking very good.
But Hennessey is day dreaming thinking he will be able to build it and sell it.
There are simply too many difficulties these days for selling a street legal supercar.
Specs are awesome, while I can’t comment on an early “sketch” as too its styling. Anybody whos seen a Henessey body kit on viper knows body design isnt his forte. Its building huge power and tuning chassis to haul ass.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=464584&i=20
Not only are Mr. H’s business ethics questionable, but his “Supercar” is a direct rip-off.
Send your deposit today!!!
Wow, absolutely NO originality as everyone has already stated. You have to admit, however, it would look awesome nonetheless. Not to mention the beast of an engine it will have. I’m curious to see if LPE would come up with an answer to this.
CA36GTP,
I’d have to agree. But then this is just a drawing, There is not guarantee that the final car will look like that. But why mess with what works.
You can only do so much with a design that works at over 200mph, and is street legal, and reasonable economical to build (you still have to make a profit).
But, yeah that front end looks like a Lotus Elise/Exige. But I don’t really think it’s something to condemn anyone for. This is, as far as I know, Hennessey’s first “ground up” new car. Saleen has their S7. A super car that is more cliché (Lots of vents and race car styling - it looks like a GTP) than original. Now this.
I’ll consider judging it when I see a real machine not just a drawing.
Correction..
The whole drawing looks like a retouched drawing of the Exige.
We’ll have to wait and see if this is just deliberate misdirection. But one drawing does not define an actual product.
Sure it’s copied, but hopefully this will wake up other designers to realize that supercars don’t have to be ugly.
“You can only do so much with a design that works at over 200mph, and is street legal, and reasonable economical to build (you still have to make a profit).”
Exactly what I mean. And yea, preliminary sketches can end up meaning nothing when it comes to a final product.
I know it has already been said. But 2 nanoseconds after seeing this I thought “Wow that looks like a Lotus Elise/Exige on steroids.”
I am also a little concerned how this will do in general driving. A problem that the Venoms have is heat dissipation. The intake has to be cooled with packs of ice between full throttle runs. That is one of the things that the engineers had to struggle with for the Veyron and ended up with 4,872 radiators to help get rid of the heat.
Looks like a pumped up meaner Lotus, but I guess they only cared about performance.
Veda - that gets me thinking—a Lotus with 1000 HP is pretty much a dream. Of course, an Extige with 1000hp would pretty much fall apart…
I like it. Although I totally agree that it has the front end of an Elise and the side profile of a Porsche Carrera GT. But yeah, it’s just a sketch and could end up looking way different by production. It’s def going to be crazy fast and hopefully affordable by means of being compared to a Enzo, Veyron, SLR, etc. But yeah compare all the supercars and they essentially have very similar shapes. Aerodynamically to reach speeds in excess of over 200mph it’s needed.
Uhh . . . that illustration is nothing but a widened Lotus Elise. I hope to god the production version has nothing to do with this illustration.
Arbiter beat me to it. Yeah, if I had the money and if this made production, I would be extremely hesitant to buy from him. A Saleen S7 Twin Turbo would be a much better buy from a more proven tuner. Not based at all on technical ability: mainly on getting fleeced.
it sucks that they’re not imaginative and have obviously just drawn a wider exige here, but with 1000+ hp shoe-horned into that thing….
that thing could travel back in time.
I’m looking for information on Steve Everitt, the guy who is supposed to have designed this car. If he designed the Elise/Exige body then it would explain this Venom GT design. But every site so far has either been pulled or his work was pulled for various gallery sites.
Hennessey page:
http://www.hennesseyperformance.com/hennesseyperformance/ItemDetail.php?Item_ID=319&cart=PSqLuagZ&DoThis=Hennessey+Venom+GT&ActionReq=Where
Still looking.
he even copied the little notch where the wiper arm pivots. the dimensions on the drawing doesn’t seem to be much more lengthier than the lotus, but rather wider. do they intend to put the engine transversely? because as far as I know, there ain’t no way you’re gonna put a viper v10 in the existing lotus’ wheelbase. you can just imagine an elise or exige with a butt sticking out 4 feet longer than usual. not to mention the gearbox… do they intend to develop one on their own? depending on the gearbox design that could mean up to another 2 feet added to the wheelbase. I want to see a profile sketch of how they intend to place this v10 in this same lotus design. Here’s what seems to be an older Steve Everitt model: http://www.vemaccars.com/e/rd180/main.html I think this guy just likes to reuse his designs.
I haven’t found anything putting Everitt as a designer for the lotus, although apparently he is British. As far as the series II lotus:
“Russell Carr is the Chief Design Engineer. He runs the Design Studio and according to Lotus, is a very talented chap. The other designer that worked on Series 2 was Steve Crijns.”
http://www.sandsmuseum.com/cars/elise/thecar/design/elisedesign.html
Look almost EXACTLY like a Lotus GT1
http://www.sandsmuseum.com/cars/elise/experience/competition/gt1tq.jpg
No,no. They have released sketches of the new car, but just not here.
However, for looking at this page, here is a nice picture of the next Lotus Exige 280 GT.
Enjoy.
On a lighter note, has anyone heard anything on the Ferrari F430 replacement, The F460???
Yeah, although Hennessey is a questionable tuner, you’ve got to admire this car nonetheless. I’d still buy a Viper over this though, and let Heffner’s Performance tweak the hell out of it…
Needs more power. 1,000 hp just doesn’t cut it these days.
Well, you can buy a used Elise now for $30K, so I’d imagine they’d take the front end, stretch the rear, and enclose the canopy. Throw in a V10 and lots of structural bracing, viola; ‘new’ supercar.
Great design concept: Lotus Elise only bigger
My thoughts exactly gtv6, glorified Lotus exige.
Yeah that’s an Exige copy. CA36GTP, you statement implies that Lotus will never change the look of the Exige because it is the most efficient. That’s probably the dumbest thing I will hear all day. At least, I sure hope it is.
Pathetic IMO.
http://img2.putfile.com/main/11/32314074379.jpg
CA36GTP, you statement implies that Lotus will never change the look of the Exige because it is the most efficient. That’s probably the dumbest thing I will hear all day. At least, I sure hope it is.
——–
You can say my statement IMPLIES anything you want, doesn’t make it true. I’ve said no such thing.
johncui,
It would seem that the shape of that car, the Eixge/Elise, and Venom GT are a recurring theme for Everitt. AS far as I can see it, given the information we have now, this is just the side effect of having the same guy design two different cars. I’m guessing no one told him to come up with something different, so you get a car that is utterly identical to another, well-known, car.
Hopefully this does not turn out to be a serious problem for Hennessey.
They may yet opt for a different design. Personally, this isn’t a problem for me. Imagine the shock some one would receive thinking they were going take on a gnat only to get squashed by a giant.
Still a wider shift in style from the Exige/Elise would be very good. Or at least an explanation of where the Venom GT sketch came from.
Josh,
Not much on the 460 online yet. But early pics and design sketches show a car that looks a good deal less cheap and plastic than the 430, which was less cheap looking than the 360. Power is up. After getting schooled by the FORD GT, 500hp, or close to it, is standard now.
We should hear more about the 460 next year for sure, but don’t expect much more until most of the 430 orders are finally filled.
This must be a fake.
The front end instantly reminds me of a Camaro, But this could be the most stupidly fast production car ever. If the hype is right, The Vector WX8 will have a 10L V8 making around 1850hp with a top speed of 275mph.
http://www.vectormotors.com/
There is a stand at the LA Auto Show, but don’t expect much fanfare for a car company that died at least once and has made no big show for a while. But for a company that made cars like Boeing or Lackheed-Martin makes jets, they were tough to beat, despite reliability issues.
I’d like to SEE what it looks like. There’s just a blank box there
More down to earth numbers are coming in…
The engine may not be 10L, but a milled out Corvette Engine, making between 600hp and 750Hp, with supercharger (Shame not twin turbo this time).
Those headlights are from a Supra. But if that’s those are the only “cheap parts”, Who is gonna honestly complain. A Supra car built like a fighter plane sounds total awesome.
Given this guy’s history, I wouldn’t buy a turd from him
Is that a lotus Elise shell? hmmm, must be why it weighs so little. Perhaps lotus will be supplying the shell.
BLAKKAR, i always wanted a vector, that website is pretty darn cool.
how redneck is it naming a car after a snake? “look its a Dodge rattlesnake”
Almost all names other than number names can be pretty lame give hindsight.
I mean the Diablo was named after the devil. Which could be considered childish, being the essence of “badness”.
Ferrari Testarossa = Read Head.
what else is left? The super awesome gnarly cool?
Cool, now that we have updated shots of the rear, we can confirm that the rear is ALSO a duplicate copy of the Lotus. How original.
Yeah, LP640 is right for once. All Lamborghini’s were named after a fighting bull, which if you ask me is a lot of bull. Yeah that rear has Lotus written all over it.
Looks like one of those cars costing c1m+ in Gran Turismo
Wow, the back end looks like an elise copy too!
LOL @ Andre Neves
It’s an Exige on steroids.
LOTUS SHOULD SUE
Lotus Elise
In terms of design, I can’t see the difference between this Brandy-monikered upstart and all the Chinese companies that we get so riled up about on here. I really hope the potential customers for this car are as offended as we are.
the rear is definitely elise/exige, but when i saw the front it was more mc12…now i only see the exige as well.
LP640: don’t you ever have anything positive to say?! G-d damn…get out of your mommy’s basement sometime.
can anyone say ‘lotus’
who designed this thing?
Who will buy this car!?
Won’t the twin turbos burn up like the Audi’s ???