This thread has nothing to do with stock Vipers. What are you talking about, that was like out of no where. This thread is about the MODIFIED Hennessy Venom 1000 TT. It has nothing to do with stock cars at all.

 

Midnight... do you even understand what I am saying? If you have $150,000+ to blow on a Viper plus upgrades and you dont care about the hassles involved with getting it upgraded and you also dont care about getting it serviced at any local dealership... then I would say that your a perfect candidate to waste all that money for something that you'll never be able to use anyway. But the smart buyer would be better off buying 3 Vipers for all that money each a different color and have minor mods on each and still have a warrantiable vehicle that they can have reasonable worry-free enjoyment from. I have been driving Vipers since 1994 and by now well over 100 of them at that, even a Venom 770 with Nitrous and the last time I checked there wasnt a salt-flat around me(or Houston for that matter)for a 1000 miles. Tuesday I got a 99 ACR up to 120 on a moderately bumpfree typical Texas freeway here in the DFW area and with me and a passenger you cant really go any faster than that anyway without either loosing safe control or hitting someone because of traffic. Sure I can take it out to the track every once in a while and get it up to about 150. And I doubt in your neighborhood or others you'll ever run intot the other vehicles listed in that test, so no worries there even in a "stock" Viper.

I dont "hate" Hennessey, I just have more experience dealing with him and the owners of his upgraded products and you dont. So speak your mind from an article and I will speak mine from fact, example and word-of-mouth from owners themselves. It would be interesting to know how many of that package Hennessey has sold, if any. You have to understand the mentality of what his "potential" customer has, most of those guys would just go buy a Lambo or Ferarri(or any other high profile exotic) instead before EVER dropping that kind of money on the 1000 TT.

 

I know you drive Vipers all the time...

$150,000 for a Dodge Viper Hennessy Venom TT Convertible w/ 1000 hp

$189,250 for a Ferrari F420 Spider w/ 483 hp

$319,250 for a Lamborghini Mercielago w/ 575 hp

$175,000 for a Lamborghini Gallardo w/ 500 hp

Hmmmm I'll take the car with twice the hp for $40,000 less than the Ferrari and $170,000 less than the Mercielago.

Your best bet is with a Gallardo, but I'll still have 500 more hp and get it for $25,000 less.

It's not a waste of money, the Hennessy Venom 1000 TT is a bad *** car and worth the money since your getting twice the car for hundreds of thousands of dollars less. And if your rich enough to buy a $150,000 car, I don't you're gonna be worrying too much about warrenties. And you said it yourself too. So what's your point. A "smart" buyer with that kind of money would buy the Viper.

 

When you spend $150,000 plus on a car, warranty is very important! The 1000 TT has a 1 year on only the upgrades and nothing much else through Chrysler. The other 3 you listed all have factory warranties, VERY important when even the 7500 mile "tune-up" for the ferrari is a little over $5000 alone. You must think that the rich guys just throw away money foolishly... far from it, that is not how the rich get richer and the rest of us just drool while we drive our neons and pick-ups. And once you acheive the level of income to where you could afford to spend that much on any vehicle you wanted, you want to be able to show it off and the other 3 you listed all show that you got more money than you know what to do with to everyone, the 1000 TT is nothing more than a hot-rodded Viper that only a few are going to realize what it is. Status is what it is all about.

So if you spent that much money on a viper to be upgraded, what would you do after your year was up and your Viper had an issue or worse off was not running due to a broken/defective upgrade part(a VERY common occurance when dealing with Hennessey)? Are you going to take it back to him every year to Houston where it could sit for another few months getting fixed, costing you another $50,000 or more everytime you need something done to it?

Doesnt sound too smart to me. I am not going to sit here and argue with you over this, yeh the Viper 1000 TT did very well inthose test, but I guarantee that that particualr car is John's personal company showcar and countless hours and modifications along with far more than $150,000 invested in it got it to that point. It isnt driven on a daily basis and in fact doesnt see daylight except for at shows and magazine shootouts such as the one your quoting from. He doesnt have a line of rich guys waiting to buy them from him, that should speak volumes in itself, shouldnt it.

 

You have to take it to Hennessy every time you need a tune up. I seriously doubt they break as much as you say and if I was that rich, I wouldn't be worried about warranties.

I can shorten up those 3 paragraphs.

What you're saying is:

"Don't buy anything from Hennessy because there is only a year warranty, you have to take it to Hennessy EVERY time it needs a tune-up and they break ALL the time.

 

NO thats not what I said at all, its obvious you have some kind of hard-on for Hennessey's one-off car and dont quite understand what all is involved in this particular upgrade and all the parts that they will replace. You wont be able to take it back to just anyplace to get it fixed and if it does break or have an issue you will have to take it back to him to have it repaired. His upgraded cars do break especially if you drive them hard, and what else would be the point of spending money on the upgrade in the first place. And as for being that rich, in all likelyhood you will never have to worry about that so you say that now with all the confidence in the world about warranties.

[sm=headbang.gif]

we are getting nowhere with this one for sure!

 

My apologies about my earlier thread.....i was replying to two threads and mistakenly put some of it in the wrong thread...i've edited it out for ya....

 

Yes, that's is EXACTLY what you said, only shortened. You basically said Hennessy's are crap. You said every time it needs a tune up, it must go back to Hennessy. And you said one main reason not to buy it, is because of it's 1 year warranty.

Yes, that is EXACTLY what you said.

First of all, no I don't have a hard on for Hennessy, you have a hate for Hennessy and you show it every time Hennessy comes up. Don't turn it around.

Second, don't get a upset. Read what I said again. I never said anything about bringing it back to get fixed, or if a part gets broken. I said for a tune-up. Never did I say anything about getting parts fixed. Is it just me or do so many people lately need to update their reading comprehension skills. Just because Hennessy makes the part, does not mean you have to take it back to them for a damn tune up.

Third, did you ever think that some or even most of the parts broken, are done by rich babies who don't know how to drive. They break it because they are inexperienced with that kind of power?

4th, Don't start taking personal shots at me because you don't agree with me, about how I will never be rich. You don't know anything about me, keep those thoughts to yourself. For your info, I'm a lot closer to being that rich than you'll ever know. And it's none of your business how or why.

And your, "We are getting no where on this one for sure" comment, makes it real clear of your ignorance.

 

By that last post and then going back through my previous posts, its clear to me that you dont know what the meaning of "exactly" is.

I know you dont know me well enough to know my expertise regarding Vipers, I have been driving them, working on them, been to Chrysler training for them and have several friends that are currently working as Viper Techs, my friends used to own a Dodge Dealership that sold them(that I also workde for) and am about 99.9% sure that I am more informed about them than you.

NOWHERE in any of my posts did I say that you had to take it in for a "tune-up", YOU better read up dude... In fact let me quote to you the only time I mentioned "tune-up" since your having such a hard time finding it for yourself:

"The other 3 you listed all have factory warranties, VERY important when even the 7500 mile "tune-up" for the ferrari is a little over $5000 alone."

As you can see I was refering to the ferrari.

And what EXACTLY do you think Hennessey is in there doing, changing your plugs or adding a simple airfilter assembly or boring out the throttle-bodies or something so simple that it just bolts onto the motor??? Reality check here buddy, he takes your whole engine, transmission, rear-end suspension components, brakes, cooling and exhaust system from the car, chunks the factory parts and installs HIS upgraded parts onto and into it. You cant just go and buy the parts down at autozone or through summit racing and just slap them on it, if you could it wouldnt cost $75,000 on top of the cost of a Viper to make the 1000 TT. I have personally seen John's first creation and have seen the TT also. There isnt much left of a stock Viper including the body parts as seen by the pics above.

When something BREAKS on it you'll HAVE to go to him to either get another or have him fix it. It wont be free, even the cost of shipping your car down to him will cost about $1000 each way.

Also apparent is that you havent owned or driven very many if any truely high performance machines, for example: NASCAR drivers are far more experienced at it than you are(and once again may ever be) and their cars break all the time, its a lucky break and a good crew that keeps those cars on the track running for a whole race and hours upon hours are spent between each and every race tearing the whole car apart and rebuilding almost every part. Point being that almost every modified car takes an extensive amount of time and effort to keep it trouble free, a friend of mine has a 69 roadrunner, worth about $75,000, and he's had it since he was in high school(back when the car was new) and it was professionally rebuilt, but yet about every third time he takes it out something goes wrong with it and requires messing with. His brother had a 1971 GTX with the 440 in it, awesome machine, spent over 10 G's on having the motor balanced and blueprinted and all that, could whoop a Viper in the quarter hands down without even straining, but yet it too had its own share of problems. Any car that is modified has issues, WHY? Because the parts added to them are not stock, didnt go through rigirous testing, computer designing and all that the factory goes through before making it part of a production car. Hennessey has spent money developing parts to add onto factory parts and where the factory parts dont work, he has to replace them with something that will. Those parts do break and if you think that they are more bulletproof than a factory part, you are sadly misdirected.

And for your last comment, your 20 years old and I am 37, I have been around race cars(my dad used to race cars in the scca in fact, he had alfa romeos, austin healeys and such) since I was in diapers and have been directly in the automotive world(working and otherwise) since I was 15. I have more automotive experience in years than you have been alive, so yeh, I am definitely an arrogant know-it-all *** when compared to you. But unfortunate for you I am far from ignorant. And I am not upset, in fact not even the least bit angry... Just trying to inform you with information that I have first-hand knowledge of concerning a subject matter that you truely know nothing about other than by reading an article in a magazine.

I used to respect John Hennessey back when he first emerged on the scene, met him several times and all that... but after years of having to keep messing with him and sending cars back to him or buying parts from him and even selling parts back to him, I have developed an unpleasant taste anytime I have had to deal with him. And after this last VOI here, when I talked to countless numbers of owners (that have had him do stuff to their Vipers) out in front of Tommy Archers booth, which was right next to ours, I heard more horror stories than I care to repeat. But you are the one that says that I hate him of which I dont. I dislike alot of people but hate is a pretty strong feeling that doesnt apply here.

 

Settle Down Fellas... don't make me whip you both... I promise you won't like it. Don't make me lock this thread... please... thank you...

~Amanda