Hennessy update venom GT

[DJW]

Hennessey Venom GT making official U.S. debut at Monterey

nice....but i'll keep on thinking...wouldn't the styling be nicer if based on the elise body....then it would look more like an porsche carrera GT...does anyone dare to paintshop it with the elise-clam instead of the exige??

[Westrock]

I'm still leary of putting anything I value anywhere near them. May be just internet here say though.

[Hello Kitty]

That car is so beautiful. Please fire baher, and put Hennessy in charge.

[HKFEVER]

If you give him your car for mod, do you know how soon you can get it back ?

[Conan]

Something about the proportions doesn't look right. Yes, I realize they extended the wheelbase by using a completely different subframe at the rear. It just looks ...... odd. The roof line is too short for the overall length of the car, I think.

I can appreciate the engineering. And I like the fact that it says they think the main chassis is a good base. It's a serious compliment.

[yellow99s]

It's rediculously cool but a million bucks? I think I could do that conversion in my back yard for a hundred grand, am I missing something?

[SwingLo]

I know the performance is supposed to be amazing, but....

- internet scuttlebutt says that the Hennessey guy is a bad dude and there are some very shady dealings.

- As good as it looks, it looks like a what it is - a stretched Exige. For $1M, I would expect something super fresh and super exciting.

- To me, it's 'cheating'. Sorry, but every other hypercar out there with a $1M price tag is engineered from scratch and, more importantly, has a body and interior created from scratch, not using another car and taking it the remaining 50 yards.

- $1M? Ok, so the performance is 2.5sec. Great. Jeff Schwartz at Schwartz Performance built, and can build you, an Ultima GTR with an LS6 engine that is (he claims) in the 2.1 realm/235mph top speed, for less than $100K. And it looks more exciting. Yellow99S parked next to his at a SuperCar Saturdays a few weeks ago.

- $1M - this is most likely a severely depreciating asset. Most have never heard of this car and I doubt it carries much resale value. It's not a McClaren. For $1M, you can purchase MULTIPLE collector level cars that will APPRECIATE in value. Will they have the same performance? Nope, but we are talking about a million bucks.

- $1M - do some math. You can buy a Gallardo Superleggera, a 458 Italia, an Aston Martin DBS, a great vintage car (say a '73 Ferrari Dino GTS), an Ultima GTR (with that comparably performance) AND have a some money left over for 2 or 3 2005 Elises! Think about that.

[Shine]

That's crazy money for that car and if I had crazy money to spend on a car, I'd just get one of these:

http://www.rileytech.com/PDF/TrackDayCar.pdf

Axis Of Oversteer: Riley Mk XXII: Ultimate Track day tool, tested

...and keep $750,000 in my pocket! My money says the Venom GT couldn't touch the Riley MK XXII on a track.

[Porcupine]

The proportions of the body are all wrong. They should have enlarged the side intake slit so that it looks proper for the larger rear end. Instead, they kept the intake vents the stock Elise size and the car's rear end looks swollen and disproportioned. They didn't even use the larger mohawk scoop roof of the later Exiges. Im thinking for 1 million you could track down one of those Lotus 300RR's and have a factory wide body Lotus track car that looks properly done. You'd also have enough cash left over for a few other supercars. The interior looks nice but not 1 million dollars nice.

Is there any reason a rational human being would pick one of these over an Ariel Atom 500 plus a couple Lambo's and/or Ferrari's? If this were around $150k, even $200k, and had some changes to the body work proportions I could see it, but not this...

[jimmyhoffa]

Originally Posted by SwingLo

I know the performance is supposed to be amazing, but....

- internet scuttlebutt says that the Hennessey guy is a bad dude and there are some very shady dealings.

- As good as it looks, it looks like a what it is - a stretched Exige. For $1M, I would expect something super fresh and super exciting.

- To me, it's 'cheating'. Sorry, but every other hypercar out there with a $1M price tag is engineered from scratch and, more importantly, has a body and interior created from scratch, not using another car and taking it the remaining 50 yards.

- $1M? Ok, so the performance is 2.5sec. Great. Jeff Schwartz at Schwartz Performance built, and can build you, an Ultima GTR with an LS6 engine that is (he claims) in the 2.1 realm/235mph top speed, for less than $100K. And it looks more exciting. Yellow99S parked next to his at a SuperCar Saturdays a few weeks ago.

- $1M - this is most likely a severely depreciating asset. Most have never heard of this car and I doubt it carries much resale value. It's not a McClaren. For $1M, you can purchase MULTIPLE collector level cars that will APPRECIATE in value. Will they have the same performance? Nope, but we are talking about a million bucks.

- $1M - do some math. You can buy a Gallardo Superleggera, a 458 Italia, an Aston Martin DBS, a great vintage car (say a '73 Ferrari Dino GTS), an Ultima GTR (with that comparably performance) AND have a some money left over for 2 or 3 2005 Elises! Think about that.

I think you miss the point when you get to a car of this price range. None of this matters. If you were considering spending 1M on a car, you are buying the car because you want it. The same person already has or could most likely buy all the cars listed as well.

If depreciation and performance mattered so much, then just buy a used Z06 and put some $$ into it and it will perform just as well if not better than all cars listed for a fraction of the cost.

[ItsThaMonsta]

This is irony in a reverse way. I like when my 60k lotus was a 150k car. I'm not gonna like when my 1M car is a 60k Lotus lol.

[shay2nak]

it looks funny with the puny 07 roof.

[SwingLo]

Originally Posted by jimmyhoffa

I think you miss the point when you get to a car of this price range. None of this matters. If you were considering spending 1M on a car, you are buying the car because you want it. The same person already has or could most likely buy all the cars listed as well.

If depreciation and performance mattered so much, then just buy a used Z06 and put some $$ into it and it will perform just as well if not better than all cars listed for a fraction of the cost.

Actually no, I don't think I'm missing the point.

To me, this is not a MILLION DOLLAR CAR - most obvious case in point - the Veyron. It's marketed/thought of as the ultimate dream car. The ultimate status symbol. The car the players and shakers must have in their stable. You could put the Pagani and Koenissegg in there as well perhaps. Also, the Enzo.

This is basically a kit car. It has no pedigree. It's from a company that takes other stock cars and customizes them. It doesn't warrant the $1m price tag. All of the other (albeit limited) cars in that range are engineered from ground up. This takes a stock car (ball at the 50) and moves it downfield.

Yes, the people who can 'afford' $1M can afford it, but I'm sure they DO care about depreciation. Many are collectors. These collections are investments - like art or furnishings. Knowing that a car appreciates in value is important to smart business people.

So, yes, I get that they people who buy them WANT IT - but I think that can be said about an Enzo or a Veyron, NOT a fancy 'kit car' built in Texas based on a $70K starting car.

[SwingLo]

Originally Posted by ItsThaMonsta

This is irony in a reverse way. I like when my 60k lotus was a 150k car. I'm not gonna like when my 1M car is a 60k Lotus lol.

Hence my disdain for the GTR and ZRI. Regardless of performance, the ZR1, to the layperson, is indistinguishable from a 'standard' Vette that is $75K less.

The GTR, for all it's amazing performance, looks like a $22K Altima witha body kit. It's a crime. That car SHOULD have amazing sexy lines (ala say an NSX).

That's what's amazing about our little plastic cars - many of us paid $30K for them and our neighbors think we are selling rock to buy our $150K cars!

Kinda like those 'Dress for Less' shows. Chick is wearing stuff from Target and H&M, but looks like a million bucks!

[yellow99s]

I'm curious about the insurance and registration costs, is it "legally" an Exige?

[sleeprfocus]

Overpriced, probably underengineered, and not that beautiful on top of it. For all the discussions on straight line speed, I haven't seen any footage or heard any legit comments about how it handles and whether it can sustain regular track duty.

I saw the car in person at CnC a little over a month ago (so much for the US debut ) and it doesn't look better in person. I like the structural design of the extended rear as they had the rear clam lifted at CnC and the bodywork is clean, but that's about it.

For that price, there are more than a handful of better options from both larger and smaller hypercar manufacturers. I don't know of the 6 or 7 that Hennessy's supposedly sold, but those buyers either have too much money that they don't know what the heck to do with it, or they need to get their heads checked.

[MotoGeek]

I love how the license plate is just tacked on to the back. It's like it never occurred to them while designing it, that somebody might want to have a plate on it.

[aschen]

I wonder which parts are still lotus? Just thr tub and interior? Im not sure the suspension arms or any other mechanicals are up for the 1200hp, 2500 lb, huge tire stresses. It is obviously a huge amount of work. I am guessing the engine is 50+k alone. The body and subframes must be pretty expensive to produce as well. 1 million is absurd but a few hundred K seems reasonable.

[Gizmo3000]

It's definitely priced so that Hennessy can make a sizable profit off of someone with more money than they know what to do with.
Probably priced a bit high, so perhaps if there's no takers someone will negotiate a lower price? guess we'll eventually find out.

As much as an abomination some might argue this car is, I think there's def a bit of a cool factor int he fact that at started off, and still looks a lot like our Lotuses.

[ChronosWS]

Do not want.