RE: How fast is the Hennessey Venom GT? Err... very

[the ronin]

A little 1.8 ltr. isn't spikey when done right with compound charging...
The Henessey has zero downforce when it needs it, that air brake isn't doing anything at 60-80 mph so all you have is wheel spin..

[Dagnut]

chuntington101 said:

Dagnut said:

Yeah but would you rev to 7k?... plus we don't how where the turbo's are most efficient ..it's all complete guess work with out a dyno graph but to me it ins't unreasonable to assume the Hennessey could be making peak power @ 5500 and shifting @6000 might be the best way to keep it on song...from what limited knowledge I have of LS engine there's no need to redline them

1200bhp worth of turbo is going to take a little while to spool up / hit full boost even on a LS7 sized engine. You are probably talking about 4.5-5Krpm for something like a 3-4gear pull. So the longer you can rev the engine the ,longer you get to enjoy the boost you have been waiting so long to make (and obviously you have far too much power in the lower gears to load the turbos anyway). That why small high reving engines are soo great to turbo, you a much wider RPM band to play with.

The advantage of these big CC V8 engiens is that even when the turbos are spooling up they make cracking power. so you get a nice soft flowing power and torque curves, not the hughley spiky ones you may assosiate with smaller boosted engine. This often leads to people not wanting to rev the nuts off the V8s as you dont 'need' to!

Also if you want the engine to last then as someone mentioned before, adding a little more boost presure and knocking the rpm down (assuming you have deptination / pinking under control) will help the engine last that bit longer.

THanks,

Chris.

Did you look at the graphs I posted?

[OlberJ]

chuntington101 said:

That why small high reving engines are soo great to turbo, you a much wider RPM band to play with.

[Herman Toothrot]

OlberJ said:

My 1.8 makes good* power from 3500rpm and keeps building with no let off to the redline at 7200rpm, quite a decent power band. I don't have any experience of bigger turbo engines though to comment, although I can't see why a correctly sized turbo couldn't keep making power on a big engine.

• not even similar league but then it's substantially smaller.

[OlberJ]

Oh no, turbos on big engines do make good power.

You need CC's to spin them up early and get the best use out of them.

[the ronin]

The problem is there is too much torque and no grip in the Hennessey Lotus...

[PaulFontaine]

You got a pretty sick car Ronin it is more than enough. It is nice to see machines like the hennessey if for no other reason than the sheer craziness of it though. While i love the lunacy that car might as well be called the widowmaker I am sure it leans towards being more of a purpose built machine rather than a usable car and to be fair you can't compare the massive engineering effort of the VAG to a guy in a tuner shop.

[the ronin]

PaulFontaine said:

You got a pretty sick car Ronin it is more than enough. It is nice to see machines like the hennessey if for no other reason than the sheer craziness of it though. While i love the lunacy that car might as well be called the widowmaker I am sure it leans towards being more of a purpose built machine rather than a usable car and to be fair you can't compare the massive engineering effort of the VAG to a guy in a tuner shop.

Hennessey is just a tuner shop. What purpose does a car like the Hennessey Lotus have ? It can't go around corners in the real world and there are no roads to use it's claimed straight line speed....

If you are refering to me as the guy in a tuner shop you have it wrong..... My garage is more like it..

And I'll put my engine bay up against anyone..fit, finish, function.....

[Dagnut]

doogz said:

Yeah, your car's real nice. We get it.

It's completely relevant to the thread but...

[Mr Whippy]

I'm sure the Venom will have traction control

In any case, it's probably a car best enjoyed with the more subtle levels of engine tuning!

Dave

[Herman Toothrot]

Dagnut said:

It's completely relevant to the thread but...

I think in a way it is quite relevant, its another modified Elise - that in all honesty is probably quicker everywhere except on a good surface drag race to 200mph. It also highlights how overpriced the Venom is, $1,000,000 - hold on the the fact it is a modified Elise that starts at £26K. Franks said he'd sell his for £150K,.. or was that $?

[Herman Toothrot]

doogz said:

It is relevant, i agree, i didn't mean to suggest it wasn't.

Just more than Ronin loves himself.

Oh we know that, but he is just using his car as an example to demonstrate how overpriced the venom is and remind us that in the USA Hennessey is seen as a crook - in the thread in the Lotus forum he cut and paste an article from an american mag detailing all the lawsuits against Hennessey - damning stuff.

[chuntington101]

the ronin said:

Hennessey is just a tuner shop. What purpose does a car like the Hennessey Lotus have ? It can't go around corners in the real world and there are no roads to use it's claimed straight line speed....

If you are refering to me as the guy in a tuner shop you have it wrong..... My garage is more like it..

And I'll put my engine bay up against anyone..fit, finish, function.....

Ronin, is your car the compound boost ltous i have seen on the net? looks VERY nice! love the exhasut maniolfd in the pic. Can i ask who did the work? have you got any build pages / pictures?

Chris.

[PaulFontaine]

dear ronin
I didn't articulate myself well I was saying that you car is actually wonderful and as scary fast as it probably is it is still far more usable and a far better option than the hennessy. "sick" is slang for amazing in my juvenile parlance

[the ronin]

chuntington101 said:

the ronin said:

Hennessey is just a tuner shop. What purpose does a car like the Hennessey Lotus have ? It can't go around corners in the real world and there are no roads to use it's claimed straight line speed....

If you are refering to me as the guy in a tuner shop you have it wrong..... My garage is more like it..

And I'll put my engine bay up against anyone..fit, finish, function.....

Ronin, is your car the compound boost ltous i have seen on the net? looks VERY nice! love the exhasut maniolfd in the pic. Can i ask who did the work? have you got any build pages / pictures?

Chris.

Yes it is, the work was done by myself and my buddy Mike Stafford..
I'm glad you guys are finially geting the point about a $1,000,000.00 vs a home built special that could be built for a small fraction of the Hennessey..
Still there is no real dyno video showing the Hennessey Lotus and the dyno screen... If he wants to claim top speed he should show a video of a Vbox in the car instead of the crap Lotus speedo that is off 8% at 100 mph.

[Mr Whippy]

Does the Lotus use an ECU signal to generate the speedo reading?

If so I doubt they kept the same bad calibrations... you never know I guess

Tis also easier to DIY anything, and often end up better than low factory build stuff... take a look at TVR's Speed Six vs TVR Powers Speed Six!
Go further and you see people with LS7's in a TVR. Also people re-working chassis and suspension to work better.


Not trying to put down what you have done, I love it! BUT, Hennessey are not exactly unique to the issue of value for money not looking so great for what you get.
They have also built lots of new panels in CF for very low volumes, which can't be cheap. I guess some buyers like the idea of it being a bit 'exotic' etc etc...


All in, I'd take one if I had the cash, but it'd be the ~ 700bhp supercharged one...

Dave

[OlberJ]

Seriously?

Think of the cars you could buy for £800k

[cheddar]

OlberJ said:

Seriously?

Think of the cars houses, boats, small islands you could buy for £800k

Fixed.

[the ronin]

cheddar said:

OlberJ said:

Seriously?

Think of the cars houses, boats, small islands with naked women you could buy for £800k

Fixed.

Fixed.

[Mr Whippy]

OlberJ said:

Seriously?

Think of the cars you could buy for £800k

I'd already have all the other cars and houses I wanted if I had the cash for one of these as well.

Dave