A heavily reworked Lotus hits Bugatti where it hurts
02 Jun 2012|5,280 views
If you watch American Idol then you should probably know who Steven Tyler is. He is making news around the web for taking delivery of the world’s fastest convertible which interestingly isn’t a Bugatti Veyron strapped to Concorde engines.
In fact for a sum of S$1.4 million, he just bought a heavily reworked Lotus Exige done by Texas based Hennessey Performance Engineering with a targa top. The custom spyder variant of the original Venom GT can accelerate to 321km/h in 15.9 seconds, eight seconds faster than a Bugatti Veyron, and according to John Hennessey the Venom GT Spyder produces 1bhp per kg and has a total output of 1244bhp. Tyler is also the first customer whom requested for the car without a top."Steven came to us last year and asked if we could build his Venom GT as a roadster. We had to make a few structural changes to our integrated rollcage in order to be able to fit the removable top. This increased the weight by 13kg to a curb weight of 1244kg," explains John Hennessey.
Only five Venom GTs will be built this year and Tyler's will be the only convertible. The Venom GT is a lengthened Lotus Exige chassis with light carbon fibre body and wheels. It is powered by a GM sourced 6.2-litre, twin-turbo V8, which is also used on the Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1.
All that power is transferred to the rear wheels through a six speed transmission with an acclaimed top speed of 440km/h. To explain how fast that is, a a typical take-off speed for jetliners are somwehere between 130–155 knot range (240–285km/h), so the Venom GT is insanely fast and faster than the Bugatti Veyron Super Sports’ 417km/h. It would really be nice to see the Venom GT going up against the Veyron Vitesse and the Koenigsegg Agera R. The only gripe we have about the car is that it isn’t much of a looker, it’s just a longer Lotus with power to match Zeus.Interesting to note that, when an American automotive journalist rode in a prototype a year ago, he described the hand-built supercar as, "the best way to die."
If you watch American Idol then you should probably know who Steven Tyler is. He is making news around the web for taking delivery of the world’s fastest convertible which interestingly isn’t a Bugatti Veyron strapped to Concorde engines.
In fact for a sum of S$1.4 million, he just bought a heavily reworked Lotus Exige done by Texas based Hennessey Performance Engineering with a targa top. The custom spyder variant of the original Venom GT can accelerate to 321km/h in 15.9 seconds, eight seconds faster than a Bugatti Veyron, and according to John Hennessey the Venom GT Spyder produces 1bhp per kg and has a total output of 1244bhp. Tyler is also the first customer whom requested for the car without a top.
"Steven came to us last year and asked if we could build his Venom GT as a roadster. We had to make a few structural changes to our integrated rollcage in order to be able to fit the removable top. This increased the weight by 13kg to a curb weight of 1244kg," explains John Hennessey.
Only five Venom GTs will be built this year and Tyler's will be the only convertible. The Venom GT is a lengthened Lotus Exige chassis with light carbon fibre body and wheels. It is powered by a GM sourced 6.2-litre, twin-turbo V8, which is also used on the Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1.
All that power is transferred to the rear wheels through a six speed transmission with an acclaimed top speed of 440km/h. To explain how fast that is, a a typical take-off speed for jetliners are somwehere between 130–155 knot range (240–285km/h), so the Venom GT is insanely fast and faster than the Bugatti Veyron Super Sports’ 417km/h. It would really be nice to see the Venom GT going up against the Veyron Vitesse and the Koenigsegg Agera R. The only gripe we have about the car is that it isn’t much of a looker, it’s just a longer Lotus with power to match Zeus.
Interesting to note that, when an American automotive journalist rode in a prototype a year ago, he described the hand-built supercar as, "the best way to die."
In fact for a sum of S$1.4 million, he just bought a heavily reworked Lotus Exige done by Texas based Hennessey Performance Engineering with a targa top. The custom spyder variant of the original Venom GT can accelerate to 321km/h in 15.9 seconds, eight seconds faster than a Bugatti Veyron, and according to John Hennessey the Venom GT Spyder produces 1bhp per kg and has a total output of 1244bhp. Tyler is also the first customer whom requested for the car without a top.
"Steven came to us last year and asked if we could build his Venom GT as a roadster. We had to make a few structural changes to our integrated rollcage in order to be able to fit the removable top. This increased the weight by 13kg to a curb weight of 1244kg," explains John Hennessey.
Only five Venom GTs will be built this year and Tyler's will be the only convertible. The Venom GT is a lengthened Lotus Exige chassis with light carbon fibre body and wheels. It is powered by a GM sourced 6.2-litre, twin-turbo V8, which is also used on the Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1.
All that power is transferred to the rear wheels through a six speed transmission with an acclaimed top speed of 440km/h. To explain how fast that is, a a typical take-off speed for jetliners are somwehere between 130–155 knot range (240–285km/h), so the Venom GT is insanely fast and faster than the Bugatti Veyron Super Sports’ 417km/h. It would really be nice to see the Venom GT going up against the Veyron Vitesse and the Koenigsegg Agera R. The only gripe we have about the car is that it isn’t much of a looker, it’s just a longer Lotus with power to match Zeus.
Interesting to note that, when an American automotive journalist rode in a prototype a year ago, he described the hand-built supercar as, "the best way to die."
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