Hennessey

In case you’ve been living with bears and/or the Amish for the past three years, Texas-based tuner John Hennessey and company have been working on bringing out their own bespoke supercar, the Venom GT. Since the project was first announced, we’ve learned that it will be based on a stretched, widened and altogether butched-up Lotus Exige platform, be powered by one of three grades of hopped-up LS9 (read: Corvette ZR1) 6.2L V8 from which buyers will be able to choose, and will have a target base price of around $600,000. Performance figures? You should probably be sitting down for those.

Okay, now that you’ve pulled up a chair, here’s the skinny: The “base” version will use the 725hp HPE-massaged LS9 seen in the HPE700 Camaro. There will also be a pair of twin-turbo versions, one with 1,000hp and one with 1,200hp (the latter will only work on racing gas). Factor in the target curb weight of 2,400 lb, and your middle school math teacher will tell you that, in the case of the top gun version, each horsepower will only have to schlep around 2 lb. It should come as no surprise, then, that 0-60 times are expected to be comfortably below 3 seconds and terminal velocity in the neighborhood of 270 mph. Gad. Bleeping. Zooks.

Ford's SVT Raptor is my favorite truck right now, and comfortably sits in my Top 10 Trucks of All Time lounge. It's fast, strong, durable, and able to go off of jumps without sending the tires through the hood and the driver to the grave. It is what I would want someone to build if I could design my own truck. The only thing it needed is more power. Ford answered that request by adding an extra option box to the dealer sheet, offering a 6.2 liter engine producing 411hp and 434 ft-lbs of torque.

But maybe you already bought your Raptor with the 5.4L, or maybe you had to get it because the lie "It's a small engine so it gets good gas mileage" was the only thing that got your significant other to co-sign the loan. Either way, if you want more power without opting for the 6.2, you just have to call Hennessey Performance. Named the Hennessey VelociRaptor 500 ($10 says John Henessey loves Jurassic Park) this truck will eat trails and sports cars alike.

The 2010 Chevy Camaro is white-hot right now, handily outselling the Ford Mustang and becoming one of the most popular and competitive tuning platforms out there. I can only imagine what kind of amazing transformations will be showcased at the SEMA Show this year. But for now, there's an arms race to equip Chevrolet's reinvigorated pony car with the biggest and baddest engines and performance rigs possible.

Lingenfelter is offering five levels of power with outputs rated at 550,570,650,750 and 800 horsepower. Fesler-Moss is serving up three levels of performance using the following engines: LS3 (430 hp), LS7 (505 hp) and LS9 (620) hp). And Geiger Cars is producing a Camaro SS Compressor featuring a high performance supercharger kit that boosts engine output to 568 hp and 799 ft-lbs of torque. This is only scratching the surface...

Back in 2007, Hennessey Performance Engineering originally announced the forthcoming Venom GT supercar. There have been many different variations and renderings over the last couple of years but it looks like the company has finally settled on a concept and some preliminary specs. The Hennessey Venom GT will feature a V8 engine rated up to 1,200 horsepower with a curb weight just under 2,400 pounds. With these two figures, even a third grader could perform the math here to see that the power to weight ratio is insane. The sprint from 0-60 mph should take only 2.4 seconds with the car reaching 100 mph in just 5.3 seconds. And it tops out at a whopping 272 miles per hour.

If your mantra is "Too much horsepower is never enough" Hennessey Performance Engineering has answered your call. This is especially true if you are the owner of a 2010 Chevy Corvette ZR1. If you're thinking -- 'Isn't the 2010 Corvette ZR1 already the fastest and most powerful production Vette ever with 638 hp and supercar performance?' -- you are correct. But Hennessey believes that everyone should have an opportunity to step their ride up to the next level. Porsche 911 owners can purchase the GT3 RS, Dodge Viper drivers can grab the Viper ACR and now Corvette ZR1 enthusiasts can move up to the Hennessey Z700.

What do you get when you cross a 2010 Camaro SS and a LS9 Supercharged V8 engine from the Chevy Corvette ZR1? The Hennessey Performance HPE700, an evolutionary leap from the Yenko Chevrolet from years past. This car is an absolute beast with 705 hp and 717 lb-ft of torque. The HPE700 features 15-inch ceramic brakes and the see-through hood from the Corvette ZR1. Also included is an upgraded suspension system, HRE alloy wheels, carbon fiber ground effects kit with rear spoiler and a revised front fascia with hideaway-look headlights and front billet grille.

Believe it or not, the 2009 Hennessey GTR puts the phenomenal Nissan GT-R SpecV back in the kiddie pool. That's what Hennessey Performance does. They create street legal vehicles that annihilate the underlying base models.  The new 2009 Hennessey GTR700 throws out 715 hp and 662 lb-ft of torque. Modifications take the form of expanded turbos with bigger compressor wheels, new ECU mapping, stainless steel exhaust system, cold air intake, high-flow fuel injectors as well as upgrades to the clutch and a transmission cooler among others.

Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) has extreme tuning offerings on a wide range of autos from A to Z. But it has always been their amazing transformations of American muscle cars such as the Chevy Corvette and Dodge Viper that have been the true standouts. Back in January they unleashed the Hennessey HPE700 Camaro, which uses the supercharged LS9 V8 from the Corvette ZR1 to produce 705 hp and 717 lb-ft of torque. They also added the ZR1's 15 inch carbon ceramic brakes and a host of other performance, aerodynamic and aesthetic tweaks. But for some, 705 hp and a base price tag of $109,500 may be a bit too steep. And so now, Hennessey has just announced their Limited Edition 2010 HPE550 Camaro. Only 500 units will be available for the 2010 model year.