Who are Hennessey Performance Founded in 1991 by ex-racing driver John Hennessey in Sealy Texas, USA, Hennessey Performance Engineering is mostly known for building the limited-production American Hypercar, the Venom. Through both its GT and F5 variants, these monsters have such high claims in top speed and horsepower, that they make weapons from Bugatti and Koenigsegg appear wooden and tame. However, Hennessey is mostly a tuning company that specialises in high-performance upgrades for sports cars, muscle cars, trucks, and SUVs. Some of their most noteworthy tunes include the Chevy Camaro ZL1 becoming the 1000 horsepower Exorcist and the Ford Ranger Raptor, becoming the supercharged 650 horsepower Velociraptor. It’s fair to say through fitting enormous superchargers to relatively inexpensive American Icons, Hennessey have created a range of bargain basement monsters. Cars that will humiliate supercars costing nearly five times as much. And to give these monsters a place to stretch their wheels, Hennessey even operates its own proving ground test track. However, Hennessey is not only about tuning performance. Despite offering significant performance upgrades, they ensure none of their modifications affect the warranty of these vehicles. It’s fair to say, that next to Shelby, Hennessey is up there in the world of tuning. So, what monster have they created from the seventh-generation Mustang? The Seventh Generation Mustang’s Options It’s hard to believe the Ford Mustang is over 60 years old and even harder to believe that its now in its seventh generation. The current Mustang comes in three standard guise forms, the four-cylinder eco-boost, (who the hell buys that), the optimum 480 horsepower GT and the 500 horsepower Dark Horse, my personal choice. Read More Ford Mustang GTD: The Fastest American Car at the Nürburgring It’s worth noting that even though the Dark Horse is the most potent generalised Mustang, there are yet more rare exclusive variants that truly weaponise this icon. The $325,000 815 horsepower race-inspired GTD by Ford themselves, and the more charming, old school, manual, 840 horsepower Shelby GT350R of which 562 exist. And now Hennessey have offered their variant, the Super Venom Celebrating 34 years of Tuning with Outlandish Styling Like all tuned Mustangs the Super Venom is quite a machine to behold. Hennessey are only planning to build 91 Super Venoms, a call-back to their founding year, 1991. Each car comes with three custom liveries of black, red and silver, 20-inch lightweight performance wheels, Hennessey and Super Venom badging and a Ghosted Hennessey logo on the rear wing. In addition, Hennessey have fitted what they call the Venom Aero Package. These include a rear deck lid, side skirts and fender louvres to improve aerodynamics, a large front splitter and tall rear wing to improve downforce and a large functional hood vent cooling. Inside we find leather and Alcantara-wrapped racing seats in blue and black, Hennessey branded centre control and trim and a bespoke dashboard with each build number noted. It’s fair to say this is quite an outlandish car but it really isn’t all show and no go. Power and Price Hennessey clearly knew they had quite a ballpark to come from their performance department. With Ford getting 825 horsepower from the GTD, and Shelby getting 840 horsepower from the GT350R, they clearly had to play catch-up. But as always Hennessey went overboard. They took the standard 5.0l Supercharged Coyote V8, one of the best engines in this world of EVs and hybrids, fitted a higher-flow injection system, upgraded the fuel injectors, pump and supercharger and fitted Hennessey’s custom engine management system. The result was 860 horsepower and 650lb-ft of torque, a 70% upgrade on the regular Dark Horse. With the 10-speed automatic gearbox, this car will achieve 0-62mph in 3.2 seconds and does the standing quarter mile in 10.9 at 133mph. It is outrageously fast and incredibly noisy, with the supercharger engaged, it sounds like a Tiger being trodden on. Hennessey like Shelby have yet to quote the top speed but expect north of 200mph. If you want one of these 91 legends, you’ll have to fork out nearly $150,000 ($164,000 if you want the Dark Horse Super Venom) through either a Ford Authorised Dealer or Hennessey themselves. But with the car you get a 3-year Hennessey warranty for the 36,000 miles, Ford’s full factory warranty and Global Shipping Options. Is this the Ultimate Tuned Mustang There’s no denying that the Super Venom is quite the incredible car, like its cousins is Supercharged 860 horsepower Middle Finger to the world of EVs and turbocharged hybrids. But is it the best of the three tuned Mustangs, certainly it’s the most powerful and loudest, but one could argue the GT350R is the best. It’s the cheapest for one, exclusively offers a six-speed manual and is nearly as powerful as the Super Venom. Read More 2025 Shelby GT350 Mustang: Celebrating 60 Years of the Greatest Muscle Car Ever Created Then again the GTD comes directly from Ford themselves, has the most race-proficient tech and they actually quote the 0-62mph of 3 seconds and a top speed of 202mph. Not on that but it recently set a lap record of 6:57.69 around the fearsome Nürburgring, making it the only American car to break the seven-minute barrier. On that basis, the Super Venom has much to live up to. We promise when should the UAE receives all three of these iconic Mustangs, we at F1rstMotors will do a thorough comparison test. But for now, let’s celebrate that in a world of EVs and Emissions stringencies Hennessey still has the guts to build a Supercharged 860 horsepower, ICE monster. F1rstMotors Facts and FiguresManufacturerFord Motor Company/Hennessey Performance Inc.ModelSuper VenomYear of Release2025EngineHeavily modified 5.0L ‘Coyote V8’Horsepower860 hpTorque650 lb-ft0–62mph (100km/h)3.2Top SpeedN/AWeightN/AGearbox10-speed automatic/6-speed ManualDriven WheelsRear Wheel DriveAmount Built91Source: Hennessey Performance
