Thursday 15th April 2010

Video: Venom GT On The Road

Hennessey's 'hot-rodded' Lotus struts its stuff at Silverstone

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The Hennessey Venom GT

Hennessey Performance has sent us a link to this short YouTube clip of the Venom GT supercar on the roads around Silverstone.

Company boss John Hennessey drove the car for the first time last week, describing it as a 'magical' experience.

"This is a vehicle that I have dreamed about since I was 12 years old," he says, before offering us some of his own insights into the car's performance.

"It is quick, as you would expect. Curb weight is very light at 2,400 lbs, and our prototype is powered by a mildly-tweaked 6.2L supercharged LS9 V8 producing 725bhp, so naturally I was expecting it to feel fast. But what shocked me was how docile the car is to drive at any speed."

"It was just as happy to meander along at 20mph through English country villages as it was to effortlessly accelerate to 120 mph. The sense of driver confidence it gave me was astounding. Cornering speeds on street tires felt as good or better than some race cars I have driven on full race slicks. The aerodynamic package is truly amazing."

Well, it's probably fairer to let other less, er, 'partisan' reviewers provide the verdict on all that in the fullness of time. Meanwhile here at PH we're happy to raise a glass to one man's dream reaching fulfilment, and say we're liking what we've seen so far - a lot!

Hennessey Venom GT video:

[ellisd82]

Finally a a decent video of one! Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!!!! Didn't think it was going to stop at the end lol - braking issues? lol
Now just need video of it performing in the Alps or somewhere. Just the sound is tempting enough.

Edited by ellisd82 on Wednesday 14th April 20:48

[rix]

news? advertorial?

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[ellisd82]

rix said:

news? advertorial?

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Advert obviously lol, specially looking at that nice list of previous news updates

[SpunkyM]

Doesn't look like 60mph.... watch out, the fun police are everywhere!!!

[rottie102]

Well small manufacturers have sth in common.

This video is as good as Bristol's website

[wackojacko]

Looks like a good toy to have in the garage

[BlueEyedBoy]

So "Testing at Silverstone" equates to "Driving on some public roads at over the limit outside Silverstone"

And my son with the camera on his laptop could make a better video than that.

[turbo-ww]

Interesting......

[Viper]

spinning the wheels, speeding expect a knock on the door soon..

[vz-r_dave]

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.

[Chris-R]

rix said:

news? advertorial?

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

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Our site traffic stats are pretty mega already - but thanks for helping out!

[BlueEyedBoy]

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....

[Jonboy_t]

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....

I think the car speaks for itself from a looks, handling and statistical point of view. In other words, fk the quality of the video.

[Viper]

Chris-R said:

rix said:

news? advertorial?

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

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Our site traffic stats are pretty mega already - but thanks for helping out!

trying to borrow it for Le Mans ?

[sl55amg]

So driving up and down, not particularly quick. No serious braking manoeuvres, no cornering "at speed" shots?????

I've got better phone videos than this.

fk me, how much are you charging for this car? Show us what it can fking do, don't drive around like my mum.

[BlueEyedBoy]

Jonboy_t said:

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....

I think the car speaks for itself from a looks, handling and statistical point of view. In other words, fk the quality of the video.

I think it looks good, better in the still photo than reality, but where have you got the handling and performance stats from? I would love to see this be a success, but it has all the hallmarks of a company similar to TVR after the Russian took over.

Edited by BlueEyedBoy on Wednesday 14th April 21:27

[[AJ]]

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....

But it was done by a bloke and his mate. But who cares?! Well you obviously, but if you were planning to buy one, you wouldn't give a stuff. It's great to see this project on the road and despite how some people feel about John, I wish him all the best with this.

[BlueEyedBoy]

[AJ] said:

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....

But it was done by a bloke and his mate. But who cares?! Well you obviously, but if you were planning to buy one, you wouldn't give a stuff. It's great to see this project on the road and despite how some people feel about John, I wish him all the best with this.

For a 30K kit car I agree, this is not one of them.

[GTRene]

lovely car, great work! nice to see and hear it.
would love to own one...
tomorrow I start digging and drilling in my back-yard truing to find a oil-well

[[AJ]]

BlueEyedBoy said:

[AJ] said:

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....

But it was done by a bloke and his mate. But who cares?! Well you obviously, but if you were planning to buy one, you wouldn't give a stuff. It's great to see this project on the road and despite how some people feel about John, I wish him all the best with this.

For a 30K kit car I agree, this is not one of them.

If this was an official promo, then I'd likely agree with you, but it's just a teaser. So many other manufacturers give us 'spy' vids from a guy stood at a petrol station and several other convenient places along the test route. At least this isn't as bad as those. I like it that John's giving us updates on the project and it's a damn good way for them to receive valuable feedback from the public. No doubt there will be some fancy top gear style official track footage with filtered sky, fancy lighting and a dubbed sound track in the near future.