01
Origins
John Hennessey's Venom GT of 2010 was brutal arithmetic: take the featherweight Lotus Exige's centre section, stretch and reinforce it, and install a twin-turbo 7-litre V8 delivering as much as 1,244 horsepower — a power-to-weight ratio no series hypercar approached. In February 2014 at the Kennedy Space Center shuttle runway it ran 270.49 mph, faster than the Veyron Super Sport's record pace, though in one direction only and outside Guinness's production thresholds — a distinction Hennessey embraced as marketing. Around a dozen coupés and Spyders were built for buyers who wanted the fastest thing with number plates and no committee's approval. The Venom GT defined the Texan house style: heroic engine, minimal ceremony, records pursued on its own defiant terms.
Hennessy Venom GT - Flickr - Supermac1961 · Supermac1961 from CHAFFORD HUNDRED, England · CC BY 2.0
