Hennessey Plans HPE650 Camaro

Now here’s a spot of good news for us gear heads who appreciate cars that pack just a bit more punch. This here’s the new Hennessey HPE550. Yup, that’s a Chevrolet Camaro that dishes out a Ferrari-shaming 562 hp. Something to tide us over before the Camaro Z28 comes out.

Hennessey is also offering HPEs with higher number designations. And yes, higher numbers correspond to the added power. And it’s not simply just 650 hp. Try 655 hp with a max torque of 642 lb-ft. Not content with just 655 hp? Try this one on for size – the HPE700 with 705 hp and a max torque of 717 lb-ft. This car uses the LS9 supercharged V8 that you can also find in the Corvette ZR1.

If you’ve gone mad and would still want a Camaro that can shame all the other supercars, try Hennessey’s offerings of twin-turbo packages that can up the ante all the way up to 850 hp and a 1,000 hp.

We’d like more information on what’s done on the other parts of the car though. That much power would need to be paired to some high-performance powertrain components, sport brakes, and suspensions. Not too fond of cars that only do their best business in straight lines.

But what the heck, the Camaro’s American muscle anyway.

Source: Hennessey

1200 BHP Hennessey Venom GT Coming to Geneva

Uh oh. Looks like the tuning house Hennessey doesn’t want the horsepower wars to end. Just when everyone thought that hypercar nirvana was achieved when Volkwagen came out with the Bugatti Veyron, the Americans topped it with the Shelby Supercars Ultimate Aero.

Hennessey has been making monsters out of beasts and now, they’re gunning for the title of fastest production car with the Venom GT. The car’s development was first announced back in 2007. Now, Hennessey is saying that they’d be showcasing the car in next year’s Geneva Motor Show.

The Venom packs a V8 that will be dishing out a menacing 1,200 horsepower that would propel the car from 0 to 60 mph in just 2.4 seconds. The top speed – 272 mph – enough to mess with your innards if you’re inside the car.

The car will feature a mid-engine layout and power will be delivered to the rear wheels. A rear wing and a low profile will help keep the car planted to the ground that those speeds.

These figures do make the Veyron look slow. But if Hennessey succeeds in this attempt, and they most likely will, we just think that it’s a bit late of an effort. There seems to be no real room for such a car in today’s ecomentalist world.

2010 Hennessey Z700 Corvette ZR1 Packs 705HP

Hennessey Performance Engineering is totally obsessed with power. 500 horses is already immense but Hennessey seems to find no thrill at all with that number. Not even the 638 bhp that comes from the stock Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 doesn’t seem to satisfy them.

So they took the ZR1 and gave it a Hennessey Z700 treatment which boosts the power all the way up to 705 hp. The package includes an upgraded supercharger, new exhaust and air induction systems. The package also includes carbon fiber wheels with sport tires, a front spliter and rear spoiler for added downforce.

All of this contributes to stunning straight line speeds. 0 to 60 mph is accomplish in a hypercar-esque 2.9 seconds. HPE said that they will be testing the Z700-equipped ZR1 in late 2009 to see how it slugs it out with the speedy lap time of the regular ZR1.

Power freaks can also avail of more powerful package in the Z750 (750 hp) and the Z1000 package that would allow the ZR1 to have a Veyron-esque 1000 horses.