Here’s A Rare Chance To Own A Hennessey Venom GT In Europe

Once best known as a company that pumped various American cars with vast amounts of power, Texas-based firm Hennessey has also made a few hypercars. And very fast ones at that. It all began a little over a decade ago with this, the Venom GT – and now there’s one up for sale.

Created with the explicit intention of building the world’s fastest car and showing the Bugatti Veyron a thing or two, the Venom GT is based on a stretched version of a Lotus Exige S2 chassis, a fact it doesn’t do much to hide. Obviously, the Exige’s little 1.8-litre Toyota engine wasn’t really appropriate for a speed record attempt, so it was swapped out for a twin-turbocharged 7.0-litre General Motors LS7 V8. Its power was adjustable and could be turned right up to 1244bhp. Fairly frightening in something with a six-speed manual gearbox.

Using a 3.2-mile runway Hennessey borrowed from NASA, the Venom GT hit a speed of 270mph in 2013. That would have been enough for it to claim the official record at the time, but the run wasn’t classified for two reasons: it was only completed in one direction, and only 29 Venom GTs were planned to be built – one short of what Guinness World Records requires for a ‘production’ car.

One of those 29 is now up for sale with Collecting Cars, and it’s one of what’s likely an even smaller handful in Europe. A red coupe, it’s one of the earliest Venom GTs built – chassis 03, dating from 2010. It was first registered in the UK and then spent time in Bulgaria before making its way to its current location of Germany.

It’s covered a paltry 2154km, or 1338 miles, during its life, although at least a few of them were eventful: apparently, it was spun at one point by a service technician taking it for a test drive, resulting in the rear end taking some damage. As a result, it’s had a new rear bumper, diffuser, spoiler and tail lights.

At its most recent service in August 2022, it had a host of components replaced, including the FIA-spec motorsport fuel tank which needs to be swapped out at decade intervals. Located in southern Germany, there’s no estimate given, but we suspect that by the time the auction closes on Sunday evening, the highest bid will have risen significantly from the current €40,250.