RE: Video: Venom GT On The Road

[Adrian W]

Someone please tell me why pH keep pushing this thing. It's a messed about Elise/Exige with a big lump stuffed in it, and it isn't that fast!

[mybrainhurts]

PH said:

Curb weight is very light at 2,400 lbs,

So they curbed the kerb weight to 2,400lbs, did they? Good work...



Did I say YUM...?

[Gary C]

DonkeyApple said:

Non UK manufacturers tend to try and make a profit, so will factor in projected unit sales against tooling, marketing, labour, tax, property costs etc.

A Ford Mondeo would cost several million if you planned to sell 50 a year and turn a profit.

And nobody would buy them either !

For £300K this needs to be perfect to stack up against the competition, but it looks far from that. Now if it was £50-70K, that would be an interesting prospect.

[Riggers]

mybrainhurts said:

PH said:

Curb weight is very light at 2,400 lbs,

So they curbed the kerb weight to 2,400lbs, did they? Good work...



Did I say YUM...?

It wasn't PH who said that, it was Mr Hennessey - two countries separated by a common language...

[Riggers]

Adrian W said:

Someone please tell me why pH keep pushing this thing. It's a messed about Elise/Exige with a big lump stuffed in it, and it isn't that fast!

We don't keep pushing it. If there's something new to report on (for any new performance car) we report it. Simple as that really

[nadirv8]

MrTappets said:

Very nice, but so much money. Ultima makes more sense to me.

Agreed, and for far less you can have aftermarket paddle shift 'box & forced induction

[hairykrishna]

Is it really going to cost 300+ thousand pounds?

[DonkeyApple]

Gary C said:

DonkeyApple said:

Non UK manufacturers tend to try and make a profit, so will factor in projected unit sales against tooling, marketing, labour, tax, property costs etc.

A Ford Mondeo would cost several million if you planned to sell 50 a year and turn a profit.

And nobody would buy them either !

For £300K this needs to be perfect to stack up against the competition, but it looks far from that. Now if it was £50-70K, that would be an interesting prospect.

But that's the point, it doesn't need to be perfect to stack up against the competition. Once you get into this kind of price bracket, where there are plenty of people who can afford to chuck £250k at a toy then it's a different set of parameters that come into play. It basically boils down to whether you like it or not.

It's not like contrasting a Vectra with a Mondeo. It's down to whether it floats your boat.

As for building it for £50k, why are people still living in economical cloud cuckoo land? It baffles me along with comments like 'If TVR made a car for £30k it would sell by the bucket load'. Do people really have such a limited understanding as to the basic costs involved in securing a premisis, tooling it up, staff costs, taxes and marketing?

I'll agree that £250k seems steep but once you pass a key pricing threshold you are into the realm of Giffen good economics where price sensitivity essentially reverses.

In my eyes £150k would seem a logical price but I'm not the target client.

[BBS-LM]

TankRizzo said:

It's a great conversion, but there's no way I would buy a car from John Hennessey given some of the horror stories about him and his company.

Well I hope his cars are better then his website because the site is amateur day on an epic level.

[vz-r_dave]

Adrian W said:

Someone please tell me why pH keep pushing this thing. It's a messed about Elise/Exige with a big lump stuffed in it, and it isn't that fast!

And you call yourself a petrol head tut tut, go to the Prius forum

[ctallchris]

Adrian W said:

Someone please tell me why pH keep pushing this thing. It's a messed about Elise/Exige with a big lump stuffed in it, and it isn't that fast!

I though 1200 bhp would make it pretty fast. I was under the impression they were aiming for the top spot of fastest production car

[Steve_M]

Adrian W said:

Someone please tell me why pH keep pushing this thing. It's a messed about Elise/Exige with a big lump stuffed in it, and it isn't that fast!

I agree, there are a lot of people on here that say they love it. And checking profiles, most are Saxo, Ka & Fiesta owners (No offence intended, we all start somewhere), but I haven't seen a single 430 Scuderia, Gallardo superleggera, Carrera GT or Ascari owner comment on here about how great it is. Why not? These are the cars it will be competing against, and will cost way more than I might add.

And if so much good R&D has gone into this are you telling me the best video they have available from all that testing to shut up the "Keyboard Warriors" is a few dodgey shots around the A43, don't make me laugh.

[roi354]

ThatPhilBrettGuy said:

Hhhmm from some angles it does look like a stretched limo Exige though



Doesn't make a great deal of noise generally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NBlHc5SBaQ&fea...

They didn't like getting out dragged on the Brunters main straight by 2 fat blokes fully grown men in my Noble.

Nice to see someone building their dream. It isn't mine though....

But to be fair, yours isn't just a Noble is it. Slightly worked over is an understatement!!

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

roi354 said:

But to be fair, yours isn't just a Noble is it. Slightly worked over is an understatement!!

More like they weren't really trying to be even fairer. I've no idea what state the Venom is actually in at the moment.

[Ed]

BlueEyedBoy said:

vz-r_dave said:

What makes me laugh more than anything is people commenting on the fking quality of the video haha. I thought it looked fantastic and the sound well it speaks for itself doesnt it.

How could you tell, there was just a lot of jirky photography and crap fade outs. This is meant to be a professional company, not a bloke and his mate. If thats the effort that goes into the videos....

This is meant to be some cheap and cheerful teaser shots akin to a spy shot...to be honest you shouldn't top and tail them with your company logo if you are aiming for this effect as a marketing stunt, but that makes them st at marketing rather than poor cinematographers.

[mybrainhurts]

Riggers said:

mybrainhurts said:

PH said:

Curb weight is very light at 2,400 lbs,

So they curbed the kerb weight to 2,400lbs, did they? Good work...



Did I say YUM...?

It wasn't PH who said that, it was Mr Hennessey - two countries separated by a common language...

I know Americanese screws around with spelling but, surely, it doesn't employ a word to replace another...or does it?

[Supervet]

custardtart said:

My version of this would be slightly different and more in keeping with how I believe Colin Chapman would approach development.

Same lotus chassis.

Lightweight body, ie. plexiglass windows, thinner fibreglass body.

2.8 litre Hartley V8 (the 550bhp version)

Quaife sequential box.

All up weight of 550KG.

Power to weight - circa 1000bhp per ton.

Just gotta build it now

Oh YES YES YES! That's my dream car! Well nearly, you forgot the supercharger!!

[PiB]

The video wasn't that bad. Just a teaser to see it in the flesh.

However, not thrilled by it. I would like to see the detail work up close. It does look like it might be a bit pastied together. A bit of a badonkadonk rear end that the matt color hides. A Ultima/Stealth B6 might be where I would go given the opportunity

They need to take it racing and earn some credibility!

[mybrainhurts]

PiB said:

Just a teaser

If anyone says that in my presence, I'll rip his face off....

[custardtart]

Supervet said:

custardtart said:

My version of this would be slightly different and more in keeping with how I believe Colin Chapman would approach development.

Same lotus chassis.

Lightweight body, ie. plexiglass windows, thinner fibreglass body.

2.8 litre Hartley V8 (the 550bhp version)

Quaife sequential box.

All up weight of 550KG.

Power to weight - circa 1000bhp per ton.

Just gotta build it now

Oh YES YES YES! That's my dream car! Well nearly, you forgot the supercharger!!

Oh OK then if you insist we can Supercharge it

It's not as daft as it sounds though.

A mk1 Elise can be picked up for 7-8k.

They weighed in at around 700kg dry

The Hartley V8 costs about £15k and is about 20kg lighter than the K series

The sequential box about £10k and about 10kg lighter than the K series box

Lighter wheels and tyres - £3k saves you at least 10kg

A nice set of Reverie Carbon seats - £2k again saves a surprising 10kg over the standard ones

Replacing the glass with polycarbonate stuff costs about £3k and saves 20kg

The big unknown for me is how much would it cost to produce a set of lightweight panels but you should easily save 30kg - They may exist from the various race series???

So OK we need to find another 50kg but we haven't touched lightweight dampers and brake calipers, carbon discs etc

On the downside, when you add it up you can easily see how you might spend upwards of £75k but as a project taking a few years it's got legs, now I've just gotta clear that space in the garage.....