Thursday 1st December 2011

Hennessey Venom GT Spyder revealed

Still 1200hp, but this time without a roof

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The Hennessey Venom GT is back, and this time it's got added wind in the hair: John Hennessey is planning a Venom GT Spyder for the 2013 model year (which we presume means 2012 in non-American English).

That's right, everyone's favourite supercar-that-started-life-as-an-Exige will come in an open-top version from next year. And the price for the removal of the roof? $150k (£95k). Which makes the open-roofed Venom a cool (and probably quite blowy) $1.1m (£700k).

And one with a roof...

But while that's a lot of money, you do get a lot of power with it - 1200hp worth, courtesy of a twin-turbo V8.

And that's all we know for now. We're sure the Texas-based tuner will furnish the world more detail sooner or later, but for now we'll have to make do with the assertion that "with the hardtop removed, the wind and the growl of the twin-turbo V8 will offer our clients an even greater driving sensation".

Jolly good. Of course, HPE (Hennessey Performance Engineering) can possibly afford to be enigmatic; they claim to have two orders in place already and only plan to build five examples a year...

[WCZ]

how many of the roofed version did they sell, I've only heard of one?

never read any reviews or press about the car too

also it seems extremely expensive to me.

[Vipers]

Verrrrrrrrrry nice, but blow me down, it won't fit in my garage, sod it

[959]

The way these put the power down is incredible.

[Ex Boy Racer]

That would scare small children... Vicious looking thing.

I like a lot! Why couldn't Lotus just do this???

[MX7]

It's very nice, but for £700k you can get something that doesn't look like a £30k car.

[Du1point8]

959 said:

The way these put the power down is incredible.

Can you show me a video of one that is putting the power down?

I have yet to see any that show it on full acceleration, seen partial and seen it lost grip and just snake and light up the tyres but yet to see anything other than that.

I want to see it put all 1200bhp down in one go.

[Boonster]

I think the hard top one in article looks like a big Lotus Exige, especially front part of car! Like this?

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/largepic.asp?i=33...

[ItsJustARide]

It certainly has presence but I've never been one to agree with "bigger is better". As ex-girlfriends will testify.

Still I'm glad that there are people making things like this and people willing to buy them.

[Turbo Harry]

This is taking the TVR philosophy of 'rush a new model into production before finishing the last one' to extremes.

[Frimley111R]

Boonster said:

I think the hard top one in article looks like a big Lotus Exige, especially front part of car! Like this?

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/largepic.asp?i=33...

Strange that

[Porkie]

LOVE this car. I want one so so so much

Surely all Venoms are actually Spyders though?

They use Lotus Exige S2 are the base for this car. The roofs come off all of them. I bought a Soft top kit for my one

So why is this any different?

Or am I being stooooopid?

AWESOME CAR though.

[Porkie]

Boonster said:

I think the hard top one in article looks like a big Lotus Exige, especially front part of car! Like this?

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/largepic.asp?i=33...

[JameshGT]

So this is a 1200 BHP Convertible (kinda) Lotus?

Im sooooo in!

And the bonus ball is......

[Porkie]

doogz said:

Porkie said:

LOVE this car. I want one so so so much

Surely all Venoms are actually Spyders though?

They use Lotus Exige S2 are the base for this car. The roofs come off all of them. I bought a Soft top kit for my one

So why is this any different?

Or am I being stooooopid?

AWESOME CAR though.

A little bit. The roof doesn't come off an Exige, unless by "come off" you mean you take a saw to it.

WRONG

take me 10 minutes mate.

Lotus even do a soft top kit....

havent got a pic of mine with roof off. Here is a black one though



white one

Edited by Porkie on Thursday 1st December 16:10

Edited by Porkie on Thursday 1st December 16:11

[soad]

JameshGT said:

So this is a 1200 BHP Convertible (kinda) Lotus?

Yes, the one fed triple steroid diet.

[Codswallop]

Why does it appear to have DRLs in the rollcage above the side window? And are those Corsa VXR door mirrors?

Not for me. Amm oot.

[Arbs]

So instead of modifying a exige to make the venom they are modifying a normal Elise but charging 70k more!
Not exactly making a whole new model are they!

[y2blade]

Frimley111R said:

Boonster said:

I think the hard top one in article looks like a big Lotus Exige, especially front part of car! Like this?

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/largepic.asp?i=33...

Strange that

now now..no need for that

[herebebeasties]

Given the fittings that are visible look *identical* to the ones on the Elise, I'd recommend any potential purchasers buy an original Lotus soft top for about £500 and spend ten minutes with a spanner, thus saving £94,500.

How they think they can get away with charging four times the cost of an Elise to simply unbolt (and presumably not supply) the hardtop is beyond me.

[Porkie]

doogz said:

The fact that you can unbolt the roof and remove it doesn't really make it a spyder imo.

Well a minute ago you said you needed a saw!!!!

admit it.... you didnt know they unbolted did you

And you only need to unbolt once. They sell a soft top kit as I said!



nice grey one...