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Hennessey is one of the best aftermarket tuners out there, offering its HPE upgrade package to most new American performance cars.
Over the course of automotive history, there have been many tuners and aftermarket parts suppliers buildiincrediblecredible custom and modified vehicles. While this trend is most apparent in Japanese car culture, there are other specialized tuners – like Hennessey Performance – which modify American muscle cars and other exotic vehicles.
Hennessey Performance Engineering was founded by John Hennessey in 1991 and started out doing light modifications on cars such as the Dodge Viper, before focusing their efforts on producing awesome modified versions of American muscle cars. In 2008, Mr. Hennessey established the Tuner School, an academy that teaches mechanics to tune modern performance vehicles and turn them into ridiculous beasts. One such car is the Hennessey Exorcist, the main rival to the Dodge Challenger Demon – hence the clever wordplay. Since becoming an internationally recognized aftermarket tuner, Hennessey has been hard at work building faster, more powerful, and more capable versions of the already existing off-roaders in the form of the Velociraptor 6x6, the Mammoth 1000, and the Goliath 6x6.
Hennessey Performance is definitely one of the best aftermarket tuners out there, offering their HPE upgrade packages to most new American performance vehicles. With that, here are ten of the wildest vehicles Hennessey Performance Engineering has ever built.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is an utterly ridiculous vehicle. Designed to be a relatively luxurious, family-orientated off-roading SUV, the normal Grand Cherokee is pretty good at its designated job. The Trackhawk versio though, is on a completely different level.
Chrysler’s ‘put the Hellcat in everything’ strategy extended even to the GC, resulting in a 707 hp behemoth. Hennessey then took this to a level beyond silly and gave the vehicle 1,000 hp and nearly 1,000 lb-ft of torque. To top it all off, Hennessey offers a 2-year warranty on the Trackhawk HPE1000 in case anything were to happen.
Related: Hennessey Flexes Its 900-HP Jeep Trackhawk Upgrade During Test Drive
The Cadillac CTS-V was considered to be the American equivalent to the BMW M5 or Mercedes-Benz E63. It had a big supercharged V8 up front, an automatic transmission in the middle, and a plume of smoke where the rear tires used to be – a proper American 4-door muscle car.
Hennessey thought this was a bit tame, so as with most US V8-powered cars, the team gave it a ridiculous amount of power. Available in both HPE850 and HPE1000 trims, the Hennessey CTS-V is one of the most powerful 4-door cars on the planet – all while still retaining its Cadillac elegance.
Hennessey is mostly known for their massively overpowered sports and muscle cars/SUVs, but the company also offers modified pickup trucks. One of these is the Ford F-250. While they don’t quite have awesome versions of the diesel trucks, they do offer upgrades to the 7.3-liter Godzilla V8.
Standard Godzilla V8s produce around 430 hp and 475 lb-ft, but Hennessey’s version cranks out more than 700 hp and 720 lb-ft of torque, making it nearly as powerful as the RAM TRX. Hennessey also offers various ‘Stages’ of upgrades, which include new bumpers, side rails, off-road tires, and mechanical upgrades to make the truck almost unstoppable.
Related: Watch Hennessey's Supercharged VelociRaptor Demolish A Stock F-250 Drag Racing
Speaking of almost unstoppable, enter the Hennessey VelociRaptor 6x6. Since AMG decided it was cool to make a 6-wheeled pick-up truck, almost every aftermarket truck tuner has built its own versions using less expensive vehicles. The VelociRaptor 6x6 started out life as a normal Ford F-150 Raptor, which then got some substantial alterations and upgrades.
Hennessey kept the 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged EcoBoost V6 in the engine bay but upgraded it to nearly 560 hp and well over 620 lb-ft to help move the extra weight around. As a result, it is one of the coolest-looking pickup trucks on sale – which also comes with a 3-year warranty with each purchase.
Another massive pickup truck is the Hennessey Mammoth. The truck started out as the already ridiculous RAM TRX with its 702 hp Hellcat V8. Hennessey did their usual magic and ended up with a 1,012 hp, 969 lb-ft beast – the most powerful truck Hennessey has ever offered.
Along with the engine upgrades, Hennessey added better tires, better suspension, and off-road bumpers to show all other vehicles how it's done. The Stage 2 upgrade adds convenience items such as automatic side steps, larger tires and Hennessey embroidered headrests – fancy. Unlike the Trackhawk, the Mammoth comes with a 3-year warranty.
Related: Check Out How Fast The Hennessey Mammoth 1000 Is Against A Stock RAM TRX
The McLaren 720S is a brilliant car. McLaren did their customary thing and made it even better by giving it the 'Long Tail’ treatment, creating the more track-focused 765LT. The 765LT produces 755 hp from its 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8, rocketing the vehicle from a standstill to 60 mph in just 2.8 seconds.
Well, Hennessey thought this was a bit slow, so they upped the power to 1,000 hp, which reduced the 0-60 mph time to a more respectable 2.1 seconds. This is an absolutely ridiculous achievement and even more amazing when you realize the vehicle is rear-wheel-drive. Surprisingly, the upgrade only costs around $25,000. Granted, the 765LT starts at well over $350,000, but then the upgrade is completely worth the extra money to have one of the quickest and fastest McLarens out there.
The Hennessey Venom GT was the company’s first attempt at making the fastest production car on the planet to dethrone the Bugatti Veyron. The Venom GT was essentially a heavily modified Lotus Elise, stretched and fattened to fit a V8 and some huge tires.
The Venom GT was fitted with a 7.0-liter Chevrolet LS7 V8, modified with two turbos, and ended up producing 1,451 hp and 1,287 lb-ft of torque, sending all those rampant American horses to the rear wheels only via a 6-speed manual transmission. Many reviewers noted that it was fun to drive, but became a bit scary when the rear wheels lose traction at 200 mph.
Related: A Detailed Look At The Hennessey Venom GT
The Shelby Mustang GT500 is a fantastic car and holds the record for the most powerful production Ford ever made. The standard car makes 760 hp from its 5.2-liter supercharged Predator V8, mated to a dual-clutch automatic – a first for a Mustang.
Hennessey, being Hennessey, took the GT500, replaced the supercharger with two turbos, and overhauled the engine a bit, fitting upgraded intercoolers, better air induction systems, and a better exhaust. These upgrades resulted in the GT500 Venom 1200 – a 1,200-hp and 1,000 lb-ft monster. These power figures are only available when running the vehicle on E85 or 109 Octane race fuel. Still, it is rather impressive.
The Hennessey Exorcist is probably the most famous Hennessey product thanks to the rivalry between GM and Chrysler. Dodge unveiled the Challenger Demon – a specialized drag-racing street car that was so good at what it was built to do, that it got banned from competing. Luckily, the rules changed, and it is now allowed.
The Exorcist is a modified version of the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, which has a larger supercharger, an upgraded cooling system, and a revised ECU. As a result, the Exorcist produces 1,000 hp when running on E85 fuel. Unfortunately, the Exorcist is only available with the 10-speed automatic, as the 6-speed manual cannot handle the torque.
The Venom F5 is Hennessey’s current attempt at breaking the production land-speed record, aiming to steal the crown from the Bugatti Chiron Super Sports 300+. This time, the car is entirely designed and built by Hennessey themselves, featuring their own carbon-fiber core and engine.
The bespoke 6.6-liter twin-turbo V8 produces 1,817 hp and 1,193 lb-ft of torque, sending power to the rear wheels only via a 7-speed automated manual transmission that can handle the grunt. The Venom F5 is currently being tested by the Hennessey mechanics, but Mr. Hennessey himself has stated that the F5 has a claimed top speed of at least 301 mph. We will have to wait and see if the Venom F5 will get the crown.
Michael De Kock is passionate about cars and everything from avocados to particle accelerators. He has studied psychology and knows a little bit about fixing cars (old Land Rovers mostly). He also blogs and has a book, 125 Creative Writing Prompts for Petrolheads, available on Amazon. His philosophy in life: Stop the hate - Adopt a V8.