Hennessey Venom GT
Keeping with the theme of evil and deadly things, one of our favorite U.S. sports cars doesn’t quite look like an American. Instead, it uses the chassis – or at least, what was once a chassis – of the Lotus Exige. But beyond this face value the Venom GT, built by American speed dynamo John Hennessey, is pure muscle.
If any car on this list could be considered most extreme by raw numbers, it’s the Venom: Null to 60 in 2.5 seconds. Null to 200 in 14.51 seconds. A quarter mile in 9.4 seconds. Over 1,450 horses and 1,287 torques. Top speed of 270.49 miles per hour. Yes, Two. Hundred. Seventy. Miles per hour. And yes, that is a world speed record for the fastest production car (sorry, Bugatti). What does this all compute? A power-to-weight ratio of 2.2 pounds per horsepower. There is currently no other car that produces this level of efficiency, including those annoying, skeletonized kit track cars with tiny wheelbases that otherwise cheat the numbers.
Producing all this insanity is an engine that literally sounds like a howling tornado trapped inside a tunnel, and that’s just at idle. It’s a 7.0L, twin-turbocharged V8 built that was spawned from Hell using virgin sacrifices, mated to a Ricardo transmission that was built with adamantium.
If those numbers weren’t crazy enough, the Venom GT weighs just 2,743 pounds. That’s all thanks to a carbon fiber chassis and carbon fiber wheels. A big Brembo 6-piston brake kit just barely manages to keep the Venom GT from taking flight, in tandem with an adjustable suspension system and actively controlled rear wing spoiler.
For all this madness, the Venom GT originally retailed for just over $1,200,000, quite a bit less than other hypercars of similar (but still lesser) performance. Freshly minted millionaires should take warning, though – this vehicle’s value is skyrocketing, with none currently for sale anywhere and projected sale prices on the next one available reaching $1.5 million. This also makes the Venom GT one of very few cars whose value goes up after the initial sale, without any dip fair market value in between. Perhaps that’s thanks to rock legend Steven Tyler. His Venom GT was the last one to be posted for sale.
