5 Of The Most Powerful Hennessey Cars Ever Built, Ranked By Horsepower

American hypercar maker Hennessey has been in the business of making really fast vehicles for over three decades. Established in 1991 and headquartered in Texas, Hennessey gained fame and notoriety for turning already powerful machines into veritable road-legal rockets. With over 15,000 cars and trucks modified since its inception, there is no doubt that Hennessey has earned a reputation for being one of the most experienced hypercar tuners in the world.

Today, Hennessey's owners operate three divisions. There's Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE), which turns your regular, reasonably powerful street-legal vehicles into powerful monsters. And then Hennessey Special Vehicles (HSV) specializes in designing the fastest cars in the world. The company's third division — Tuner School — is an institution that imparts the basics of automotive performance tuning to the next generation of performance tuners and supercar enthusiasts.

Given what we know about Hennessey, it's safe to assume that the company has been focused on the performance automotive space throughout its history. During this rather long period of time, the company has produced several blisteringly fast cars. Let's take a closer look at some of the most powerful vehicles that Hennesey has built, ranked by the amount of horsepower they made.

The sheer audaciousness of this list can be ascertained from the fact that the least powerful car in this list makes well over 1000 hp of power. Do note that this list only includes production cars that Hennessey made and sold to consumers and does not include prototypes and models that were announced but did not reach actual consumers.

Long before General Motors broke the psychologically important 1000 hp mark with its stock 2025 Corvette ZR1, Hennessey came up with an absolutely outrageous edition of the ZR1. The year was 2019, and Hennessey called this new modified edition the Hennessey Corvette C7 ZR1 HPE1200. This car was a heavily modified version of the Chevrolet Corvette C7 ZR1 bolted on with Hennessey's HPE1200 upgrade package. Even though the vehicle was announced in 2017, it wouldn't go on sale until 2019.

This hypercar made an absolutely insane 1200 hp of power and generated a tarmac burning 1066 lb-ft of torque, thanks to a series of upgrades ranging from a high-flow supercharger, ported cylinder heads, a custom camshaft, upgraded fuel injectors and fuel system, and a high-performance exhaust system. These modifications allowed the Corvette C7 ZR1 HPE1200 to hit zero to 60 mph in under 2.3 seconds, reaching a top speed of 230 mph.

Visually, the C7 ZR1 HPE1200 retained the aggressive aerodynamics of the stock ZR1 of the era, including its massive rear wing and track-focused bodywork. However, Hennessey also offered consumers the option to fit the vehicle with custom Hennessey badging and optional lightweight wheels. These modifications transformed it into one of the fastest street-legal Corvettes ever built.

To give an idea of what Hennessey had achieved, the stock 2019 Corvette C7 ZR1 at the time was no slouch, making 755 hp of power using the 6.2L V8 engine. General Motors ended up making 2953 units of the stock C7 ZR-1. Still, only a handful of them were transformed into the 1200 hp monster, making the HPE 1200 edition the most potent and exclusive Corvette ZR1s of the era.

The second Hennessey hypercar on our list is also one of the newer cars unveiled by the company. Announced as recently as October 2022, the vehicle in question was the Hennessey Venom 1200 Mustang GT500. This car was a specially tuned version of the already powerful Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. The stock version of this car already made 760 bhp of power and 635 lb-ft of torque, making it one of the most powerful factory-produced Mustangs of all time.

After receiving the Hennessey treatment, which includes a host of upgrades like the 3.8-liter supercharger, a high-flow induction system, new fuel rails and injectors, and an air/oil separation system, the same car was rated to make an astonishing 1204 hp of power , translating to a 58% increase in power over the already powerful stock car. The torque figures also witness a sizable jump, with the car making 902 lb-ft of torque.

To make the car stand out from the crop of "normal" GT 500s, the Venom 1200 Ford Mustang GT500 received its own set of unique exterior badging. Hennessey also revealed that it will only make 66 units of the vehicle, guaranteeing exclusivity to most of its owners. The car also came with a 3 Year/36,000 mile limited warranty. Pricing for the upgrades alone started from $59,950, which is exclusive of the stock car.

One of the most outrageous cars to ever come out of the Hennessey sheds was the VR1200 CTS-V. This hypercar was based on a production version of the Cadillac CTS-V and came out in 2012.

At its heart, the VR1200 was powered by a 7.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine, producing an astonishing 1,226 horsepower and 1,109 lb-ft of torque. This powerplant allowed it to accelerate from 0-60 mph in just 2.9 seconds. The car also hit a top speed of 221 mph in test runs, although it claimed an even higher top speed of 242 mph. It featured a reinforced drivetrain, upgraded suspension, Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes, and extensive aerodynamic modifications to handle the immense power.

Hennessey initially planned to build 12 units of the VR1200, making it an ultra-exclusive model. The pricing was around $295,000, including the base CTS-V coupe. There is limited data on the number of Hennessey VR1200 CTS-V cars produced and delivered. What we do know, however, is that one unit of the car was famously listed on eBay, where the vehicle was lapped up by a buyer for just under $200,000 ($189,988, to be precise).

Despite its extreme performance, the VR1200 remained a relatively understated vehicle compared to other high-powered supercars. It gained attention for its ability to outperform exotic rivals like the Bugatti Veyron and Koenigsegg models in straight-line speed tests while maintaining some semblance of daily drivability.

While Hennessey has produced several insanely fast cars since its inception, the vehicle that propelled the company to international attention was when it came up with the Venom GT lineup in the mid-2000s.

The first production version of the original Hennessey Venom GT was introduced in 2011. It was based on the Lotus Elise/Exige and originally came in two options: one featuring a 6.2L supercharged LS9 V-8 engine that made 725 bhp at 7,200 rpm, a more powerful variant that made 1000 bhp, followed by the top-of-the-line option that produced a staggering 1200 bhp of power. The original 2011 variant of the car was then succeeded by the even more powerful 2014 Venom GT, which was rated to produce 1244 bhp (1227 hp) of power.

In 2016, Hennessey came up with a convertible variant of the vehicle and called it the Hennessey Venom GT Spyder. It packed a 7.0l V8 engine that made 1451 bhp of power (1431 hp) and 1287 lb-ft of torque. This car claimed a zero to 60 mph time of less than 2.4 seconds and could reach 0-200 mph in under 13 seconds.

A year later — in 2017 — Hennessey came up with the last ever unit of the Venom GT lineup and called it the Venom GT Spyder Final Edition. This final variant of the car also had the same power figures as the open-top variant of the vehicle launched a year earlier.

To this day, the Venom GT lineup remains one the most iconic vehicles to ever come out of Hennessey's tuning garage. In terms of sheer power output, it would only be surpassed by the newer Venom F5 series that launched in 2021.

In 2014, a couple of years before the final version of the Hennessey Venom GT (Final Edition) was announced, Hennessey showcased a new hypercar and a successor to the Venom GT. The company called this new car the Hennessey Venom F5. It wouldn't be until 2021 that the first production version of the Venom — including the one SlashGear got to test drive — F5 would be manufactured.

The Venom F5 is a very special car as far as Hennessey is concerned, given that it is the first vehicle from the company that isn't based on any other vehicle. All major components of the Venom F5 — including its design, chassis, and carbon fiber body are entirely designed in-house by the company.

Like its predecessor, the Venom F5's claim to fame is the colossal amount of power its 6.6L twin-turbo engine produces. This engine, which Hennessey calls the "Fury" makes 1817 hp of power and generates 1,193 lb-ft of torque @ 5,000 rpm. These numbers make the F5 one of the fastest production cars ever. With a total weight of 1,360 kg (2,998 lb), the Venom F5 claims an incredible power-to-weight ratio of 1.34 hp-per-kg (1,298 hp-per-ton), which is claimed to be well in excess of any road car on sale today.

Hennessey previously announced that only 24 units of the Venom F5 would be produced and that each of these cars would be priced in excess of $2.1 million. The company has also claimed that all of these units have already found buyers. As of 2025, Hennessey has multiple variants of the Venom F5. These include the Venom F5 Coupe, the Venom F5 Roadster, the Venom F5 Revolution Coupe, and the Venom F5 Revolution Roadster.

While the list above only includes five of the most potent hypercars to come of Hennessey's stables, this article will feel incomplete without referencing some other insanely powerful Hennessey cars that did not make it to this list, but exceeded 1000 hp.

The first of these vehicles is this absolute monster of a car called the Hennessey Mammoth 6X6. This vehicle is based on a stock RAM TRX that Hennessey ripped apart completely to bolt on an additional set of rear wheels, giving it a 6x6 configuration. Hennessey claimed that the top-end Monster 6x6 made 1200 hp of power, although the current models listed on the company's website make a still formidable 1000 hp of power.

Before the Venom GT burst onto the scene, Hennessey gained notoriety after it came up with an audacious hypercar based on the Dodge Viper. They called this vehicle the Venom V1000 Viper. Launched in 2007, the Viper's claim to fame is its incredible 8.5 liter V10 engine — which, to this day, remains one of the most potent V10s ever produced. The V1000 Viper made 1000hp of power, long before it was cool to break the 1000hp mark.

In 2018, Hennessey developed another hypercar called the Hennessey HPE1200 Dodge Demon. Based on a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170, the HPE1200 build of the car made 1200 hp of power and 954 lb-ft of torque. Hennessey also sold HPE1000 and HPE 850 variants of the same car that made 1000 hp and 850 hp of power, respectively.

Other notable 1000 hp cars to feature the Hennessey badge include the Hennessey Jeep Trackhawk HPE1200, the 1000 hp Hennessey Camaro ZL1 "Exorcist," and the 1000 HP Ford Velociraptor.