Leave it to a homegrown Texas lad to build cars with bigger power numbers than most people have ever seen. Houston native John Hennesey's made a career out of taking the best sports cars the industry has to offer and making them better and faster. Hennessey Performance Engineering, the company he founded in 1991 is routinely able to go toe to toe with the best of anything bigger and wealthier companies can make. Even on some occasions, outright beating them at their own game.
But is there more to the story behind this disciple of turbocharging and six-wheeled pickup trucks? Well, the car he started out building is probably not quite what you were expecting it to be. Even still, they're an integral part of the man who'd one day bring us the Venom F5 and the Velociraptor 6x6.
Grab your ten-gallon hats, because we're taking a trip to the great state of Texas to learn the origins of the man who challenges supercar giants like Bugatti and Koenigsegg for the title of the fastest car in the world.
Learning His Trade With A Japanese Import
Ironically for a man who made himself famous turbocharging Vipers and Corvettes, John Hennesey made his first foray into the world of racing with a classic of the JDM scene in the early 1990s. As it says on Hennessey's website, his earliest success was all thanks to a modified early 90s Mitsubishi 3000 GT.
Hennessey would race this JDM classic at venues like Pikes Peak, Colorado, and The Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. It was at the latter event that he set a new world record for his vehicle class. According to Hennessey, it was that plucky little Mitsubishi that he gained the confidence in himself to go forth with his dream of being the world's best tuner.
His Company Cranks Out Volume
What started as a humble one-person passion project has evolved into one of the most well known performance tuning companies not just in the US but around the world. While the company doesn't have the sheer factory capacity that giants from Detroit tend to have. That doesn't matter much when people will pay 100 grand on top of the base price of a sports car to ensure they have the fastest possible version of their particular machine.
In 30 years of operation, Hennesey Performance has put its maker's mark on over ten thousand different vehicles ranging from Vipers to Mclarens and even Lincoln Navigators with limo tints. Each of the five hundred or so vehicles the company tunes every year is given special TLC in order to cater to the performance needs of even the craziest, most unhinged petrolhead with a fire burning in their wallets. Multiply between $50 and $100 thousand per each vehicle by ten thousand vehicles and it's safe to say, Hennessey is probably sticking around well into the future.
He Founded A Second Company Just To Stick It To Bugatti
2017 was a banner year for John Hennessey and his team of crackerjack engineers and designers. It was the year he founded his second performance automobile endeavor Hennessey Special Vehicles for the purpose of what the founder himself called "with the mission of designing and manufacturing the world’s fastest cars,".
Their first product, the Venom F5 is named after the world's fastest recordable tornado, which can top out as high as 300 miles per hour (482 kp/h). The Bugatti Chiron in its various forms beat the Americans to the 300 mph barrier, but expect retaliation from these Texas boys to be swift and decisive. Performance manufacturers from Europe and Japan best bring their best if they want to beat the best that the USA has to offer.
He Founded His Own Performance Tuning Acadamy
Want to learn how to make cars go fast from the people who know how to do it better than anyone in America? John Hennessey wants you to realize your dreams. When he founded his officially accredited tuning school, he dreamed of making the most comprehensive courses possible in the smallest amount of time. The school's website touts "Make Fast Cars Go Faster In Just 14 Weeks!". Class topics range from things like basic engine theory to electrical work and workshops in suspension and brake system upgrades.
Of course, prior mechanic experience of some degree will be a requirement for this kind of training. But if you make the cut in the experience department, John Hennessey's performance tuning school might be the right choice for you.
You may have to fill out a student loan application in order to afford tuition, but if your goal is to make money doing your own work on performance cars, we can think of no better way to get a head start than to learn from the best. But what's all of your favorite cars from John Hennessey's vast catalog of creations? Let us know on our social media! We hope to see many pictures of twin-turbo Vipers!
Sources Tunerschool.com, Hennessey.com