I try not to be a hater. When car manufacturers put in good, honest work and make a real effort, I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. I also love fast cars, so having more of them in the world warms my soul. But Hennessey makes itself so easy to tease.
The latest case in point: Hennessey’s new headquarters. It’s a new, 100,000-plus-square-foot facility meant to expand the company’s modification and manufacturing capabilities, set to be completed on the firm’s existing 143-acre Texas campus in the Spring. And from the top, it looks like a giant H (you know, for Hennessey).
If this seems a bit too on the nose, you don’t know Hennessey well enough. This is the brand that throws superchargers and ear-breaking exhausts onto cars that were already loud and supercharged. The brand that plasters Texas flags into the doors of its supercars, and makes leather holsters for its gun-shaped keys. Hennessey’s cars have names like Mammoth, Exorcist, Venom, and Velociraptor. Of course its new facility is shaped like an H. It’s the type of brash, nothing-can-bring-me-down move that makes sense for all the ups and downs the company has had.
John Hennessey, the company’s founder, started out in the early 1990s as a tuner focusing on cars like the Viper. His cars quickly rose to fame in road tests featured in magazines like Car and Driver, where they laid down numbers that rivaled European exotics. Soon after, reports of customer dissatisfaction began to emerge. By the early 2000s, Hennessey was dealing with numerous lawsuits after customers reportedly didn’t receive work they paid for, and some parts from their vehicles were sold away, according to CarThrottle.
Still, people kept giving Hennessey money. The company expanded into GM and Ford vehicles, and by 2016, it was building or modifying over 400 cars a year, including what was once technically the fastest production car in the world: the Lotus-based Venom GT. Despite the huge leaps in output, the brand remained shrouded in controversy. A 2016 investigation published by Jalopnik and written by our own Jason Torchinsky highlighted the drama happening behind the scenes:
In conversations with six ex-HPE employees, each and every person repeated a number of issues over the past couple of years. And in an emailed statement to Jalopnik, John Hennessey himself conceded “management issues” with the company as of late.
The ex-employees’ corroborating accusations included misusing company funds, using one customer’s deposit to build another one’s car, passing off subpar parts and components as exclusive and top-of-the-line equipment, using underhanded tactics designed to prevent clients from getting refunds, and consistently failing to deliver certain customers’ cars—especially when they were foreign buyers.
That leads us to today. Hennessey, as a brand, seems to be in a better position than ever, at least looking from the outside. In the announcement of its new building, the company claims it’s on track to build or modify over 900 cars this year, and over 1,300 cars in 2026. That includes a very small amount of the brand’s first-ever purely in-house model, the carbon-tubbed F5. While I haven’t driven it, I can attest it’s a real car; I even sat in one and played with the gated shifter.
The building, which is both purely on-brand for Hennessey and totally, utterly silly, will also unlock the firm’s ability to bring composite manufacturing (for things like body panels and other aftermarket parts) and vehicle painting in-house, rather than have them completed by a third party. Hennessey even says it’ll have room to expand its tuner school—an aspect of the business with its own set of internet drama. The whole facility, which will add 80 jobs, is being paid for through a $15-million-plus investment.
If history has taught us anything, it’s that businesses like Hennessey can survive a lot. While I don’t think I’d ever give it my money, I want to see them continue to exist, if not only to see what else unfolds from the brand—product, drama, or otherwise.
Top graphic image: Hennessey
Well having money has NEVER correlated to intelligence so that’s no surprise.
I hope the construction company uses Hennessey’s first payment to finish someone else’s building while the materials for theirs sits in an empty lot.
“using one customer’s deposit to build another one’s car,” – in the costuming community, ask about Anovos. They famously took $ from orders, used it to prototype another costume, got that cash, then repeat as necessary. People were waiting 1-2-3 years for their orders.
Eventually out of biz and now run by Denuo Novo. No thanks.
What the story doesn’t capture is how the place just sort of pops out of the prairie on I-10 between Sealy and Columbus, in the middle of nowhere.
Did they take parts off of other buildings to build this one?
I assume it’s using the foundation from a Lotus factory.
John Hennesey is a thief.