I talked to John Hennessey earlier today.

www.hennesseyperformance.com

take a look at his sight and see what he has done with Vipers, Vettes, and basically everything...........but the G

I told him I wanted a 10 second car for 15k (which would include body work). He sounded hesitant. Supposed to get back to me tomorrow.

With all his hundred grand 1000hp vipers, what do you think he could accomplish with the G?

forgive me....im a n00b here but i just had to ask. ****, im an alaskan crab fisherman. im not right in the head. dont think ill ever be.

 

I used to own a Jeep and knew that they turned the Jeep's into monsters. I don't believe I ever got a price, but it will probably be more than 15 grand.

Taking an already fast heavy Jeep and making it even faster despite it's weight is ridicolous. It's astounding the 4,500+ lb. Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 can run a 0-60 time of 3.5 and a 1/4 of 11.2 I believe.

I would be estatic if they did the G. However, it looks like most of their work is on American motors (Ford, Chevy, etc.)

 

The g is pretty expensive to mod engine wise, 15g probably wouldnt get you anywhere near your "10 second car".

 

no way a G is getting to 10s with 15k

 

It wont happen and I am not sure I would want to be the geniue pig for a shop that has no VQ experience

 

EXTREMELY WELL PUT.

im gonna talk to him more this afternoon....just to see what he can put together. maybe 10 seconds is a bit much to ask. id be happy pushing 400hp with a sick body kit. and even pay more for it too.

 

The kit that brings the Jeep Grand Cherokee up to 600 hp costs 28,000. That's without an upgraded transmission. They do good but very expensive work, your better off going your own route. You can push 500hp on a regular turbo easy.

 

The G is meant to corner!! not drag race. I just don't get it.....

Sorry post came off the way it did. This is why I should not post angry.

What I meant is the G's Geometry is not the best for drag racing. However with enough money anything is attainable. The 15k might need to be doubled for Hennessey to touch the car. They do make some Sick cars and hopefully you two can come to an agreement to work on yours.

 

No it's not... if it was meant to hug the corners more it would be lighter than 3,500 lbs.

The G is a good mix of everything, luxury, cornering, speed, and looks. A lot of people on here drag race their G btw.

 

15k buys you a 10 second 5.0 and leaves you with 7 grand to put into your G and make it a 400hp daily driver.

 

Hennessey is also known for some pretty shady business moves, see below

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This is from an Autoweek article back in mid 2002.

Hennessey's Vipers are fast, but lawsuits say he serves them up too slowly. (Photo by Mark Vaughn)
Ninety-eight percent of his customers love him, John Hennessey says. But a few hate him and some have sued. Hennessey Motorsports in Houston specializes in tuning Vipers, adding more power to what is already one of the most powerful cars in the world. Hennessey’s Vipers have been featured in this and many other magazines and the cars he has sent to us and to other media were impressive performers. Hennessey presents himself well, projecting an image of the consummate Texas good ol’ boy whose reassuring conversational style and howyewdoin’ demeanor put customers at ease. People believe they will get what he says he’ll give them. But not all people do.

According to a lawsuit filed in Salt Lake City, Utah resident Taig Stewart sent his Viper GTS to Hennessey last May for an engine upgrade to 1100 hp along with several other modifications. For that he wire-transferred $142,500 to Hennessey. The lawsuit states the parties agreed the car would be done by mid-July 2001. As of press time the car was still sitting under a tarp in Hennessey’s shop in Houston. Or most of the car, anyway. Stewart’s suit claims Hennessey sold the car’s engine, transmission, wheels, tires and hood. The suit seeks return of the money, the Viper and “no less than $1 million” in punitive damages.

Hennessey claims he’s just slow in getting the work done.

“My side of the story is we’re planning on finishing his car and planning on giving him everything that he paid for,” said Hennessey. As for the parts being sold, “That’s totally false. We’ve got all his parts in the shop except the hood and he wanted to do a lightweight hood.”

Stewart is not the first unsatisfied customer. The longer we dug the more dissatisfaction we found. Here’s a sampling:

On Nov. 14 a New Jersey court entered a final judgement of $133,674 against Hennessey on behalf of Viper owner Gary Dan for a botched conversion.

William Walters said he is out over $22,000 after shipping his Corvette to Hennessey for a head and cam package that was never done; he did have five rods bent and a head gasket damaged on the dyno in Hennessey’s shop during an experiment Hennessey tried with nitrous oxide.

Jerry Johnson said he had to file suit in Placer County Court in California to straighten out registration and engine computer problems on a Viper he bought from Hennessey. n Jon Belinkie said he loves the changes made to his Viper but had to sue in his home state of Maryland, then register the judgement in Texas, to recover overcharges Hennessey made on his American Express card.

Rick Ryan said he had to hound Hennessey for eight months by long distance from Marietta, Georgia, to put the proper wing and stripes on his Viper.

Mark Lublin said he sent his Viper cylinder heads to Hennessey for new valves but when the heads came back he found the “new” valves were actually used; a cam that was delivered to Lublin in a Hennessey box turned out to be a stock Chrysler cam. Lublin was finally refunded $5,715 from American Express but only after nine months of disputing the charge; and he got no money from Hennessey.

Bruce Iannatuono said he ordered $8,500 worth of Hennessey parts for his mechanic in Baltimore to install but was only able to use two-thirds of what was shipped, and then only after haranguing Hennessey for six months on an order that was originally promised in five weeks.

Most of the complaints come from outside Texas. Hennessey, some said, tends to take better care of local customers.

“If you were out of state, man you were fair game,” said Kyle Kent, a former employee at Hennessey Motorsports. When an out-of-state car came in it was sometimes parted out, with the wheels, tires and whatever else looked good going to other cars waiting to be finished or sold outright, according to Kent and others inside Hennessey Motorsports. Then Hennessey would call the car’s owner and try to sell him an upgraded kit. If the customer balked, Hennessey would take parts from other cars in the shop, or just let the job sit.

Kent described one typical disassembly on an out-of-state Viper. “The motor and transmission went into a Durango John was putting together, the brakes went to someone else, the hood went to a guy in Ohio, the rear bumper to South Carolina, man you name it. We had multiple cars like that.”

Another common practice was putting stock parts on what was supposed to be an upgraded car.

“One customer spent $130,000 to $140,000 and that guy thought he had purchased a Venom 650R package which he thought came with the stroker motor,” Kent said. “John told him he was getting a stroker. He was just getting heads and cams.”

Hennessey denies any wrongdoing.

“I’ve got probably 3000 customers,” he said. “I’ve built over 300 cars and out of that I’ve had a handful of people that I’ve had some sort of a delivery problem with and I’ve had some of them who have sued me. So is that some sort of a trend or is that par for the course?”
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