Hennessey Venom GT news - Faster than a Veyron? - 2009

American tuning firm Hennessey is best known for doing silly things to Cadillacs, Corvettes and Dodges. But now it is readying a supercar of its own, which it plans to bring to the Geneva Motor Show in production form next March.

Sticking to the old mantra that any start-up supercar manufacturer with no track record must make a whole bunch of borderline implausible claims about your car's likely performance, Hennessey has made a whole bunch of borderline implausible claims about its car's likely performance.

Ready for this? The mid-engined two-seater has been tagged the Venom GT, and will be powered by an as-yet-unspecified V8 putting out ‘up to 1,200bhp'. In a car with a kerbweight less than 1,090kg, Hennessey says that will be good for a 0-60mph time of 2.4 seconds - yep, quicker than a Veyron - and a top speed of 272mph.

Obviously we wouldn't want to encourage an atmosphere of unhealthy scepticism around TopGear.com, but - well, they're some pretty big numbers, ain't they? Anyone willing to put a tenner on the Hennessey Venom GT living up to its rather large promises?

Oh, and anyone spotting more than a passing similarity to the Lotus Exige GT3 racer?