Making the best better: Hennessey developing custom exhaust for Bugatti Veyron
Enormous sums of money went into the development of the epically fast and extraordinarily powerful Bugatti Veyron. The engineers managed to squeeze out a thousand horses from eight liters, sixteen cylinders, sixty-four valves and four turbochargers. But someone out there thinks there's still more power to be tapped, and that someone is Hennessey.
Hennessey Performance is the monster tuning house that specializes in giving more venom to the Dodge Viper, a car with an engine displacement slightly larger than the Bugatti's, but in stock form, only manages to produce half as much power. So while the Viper is a monstrously fast car, there was plenty more power to be massaged out of its enormous V10, and Hennessey has managed to crank it up past 900 horsepower. But the Bugatti's powerplant is a different story entirely, already the most powerful engine in production.
The company's head honcho, John Hennessey, in correspondence with Autoblog, tells us an American client approached him with the daunting task of improving on his Veyron with a custom exhaust system "to improve the power and sound along with possibly saving some weight". That's a pretty tall order, but Hennessey reckons they're up for the task.
The customer's Bugatti is scheduled to arrive in the workshop this winter, with the new exhaust completed by the spring. At that point Hennessey says they'll have all the numbers along with some multimedia clips for our enjoyment. And we can hardly wait.
[Source: Hennessey Performance]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mattlach 11:22AM (10/19/2006)
If I had enough money to buy a Veyron I sure as hell wouldn't trust Hennessey with it. His track record is that of a fraudulent scoundrel.
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Montecristo 11:36AM (10/19/2006)
My god, VW spent just how much money developing this car, it has a 20K audio system, nothing was designed with cost, economics or rules in mind. VW is losing money on each one they sell. It is the best effort from Europes largest auto manufacturer and this stupid "tuning" shop thinks it can improve upon a project that cost an ungodly amount of money and took nearly a decade to finish. HAHAHA yea right.
Hennessey is a real class act i hear as well
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ljcabrera 11:39AM (10/19/2006)
Wasn't Henessy sued by a bunch of viper people for selling the hoods off thier cars and not working on them?
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eddie 11:48AM (10/19/2006)
wouldnt you think that if you wanted to get custom exhaust for a car like this you would turn to Tubi or maybe even Borla. a company that has experience with working with other exotic cars (enzo, f430 etc...)?
sounds strange to me
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mattlach 11:50AM (10/19/2006)
ljcabrera:
Not only hoods. All kinds of parts including transmissions and engines from CUSTOMERS CARS were sold to finance his "other projects".
The few customers lucky enough to get their cars back from Hennessey in one piece (now with engines, transmissions and other parts with mismatched VINs)have had TERRIBLE reliability problems with them. (like lasting one or two runs on the drag-strips and then breaking down)
Hennessey is a full blown criminal. The only thing he is good at is fooling car publications into thinking his shop is not only a legitimate business, but infact makes something worth writing about and giving him publicity.
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Jro 12:11PM (10/19/2006)
"Hennessey is a kindred spirit, a good guy, delighted with the performance he's achieving and always planning to go even faster." -c/o Car and Driver magazine, 2002
I'm just wondering who this guy is friends with to get such positive media attention in light of such poor customer feedback.
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Joseph 12:13PM (10/19/2006)
I don't think an exhaust mod a a 1.5 million turbocharged car is going to make a difference esp since it's mid-rear engine so once the exhuast leaves the turbo it's a straight shot, and reducing "back presure" is usleess becuas it is less then the back presure the turbo's produce. But whatever it's his monet let him waste it. I hope he gets his car back intact. I dont think Buggati (not VW) will be to ready to fix the car under warranty after it comes back to them because Henessey spot welded a ricer muffler or two on the tail end of the exhaust.
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DL 12:13PM (10/19/2006)
Typical salesman hot air. Notice the source is none other than the big talker himself.
Of course when nothing happens in the spring, he can simply say that this mysterious "customer" backed out. There is nothing here but pure Texas sized male bovine excrement.
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ruggels 12:12PM (10/19/2006)
ugh... this can't end well. anyone familiar with tuning any of vw's products is aware of just how much effort is involved with say mating a chipped car to the right exhaust and tweaking the ecu for the best performance. if a 2.0T has 2500 maps, I can only imagine what the W16 has, and just how complex they are. Anyone who thinks simply fabbing a new exhaust and plopping it on a car this complicated will yield decent gains right off without any tweaking of the ECU is horribly ignorant of the complexities of working with VAG products. I’m focusing on ECU here because I’ve seen no information through a search on line pertaining to Hennessey’s history with working with ECUs and the like on VAG engines which WILL be required. So, like I said earlier, if dropping an exhaust on a chipped 2.0T isn't a simple matter, I can only imagine how daunting a new exhaust on one of (if not the) most complex automobile engines on earth will be. No, it's not as simple as just dropping a new system on a dodge v10.
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T-diggedy 12:14PM (10/19/2006)
Anyone going to Hennessey should do a lookup of his BBB record and contact a few of his old clients. I bet there will be a huge influx of spare Veyron parts on Ebay shortly :)
Internet nutswingers unite!
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HenLvr 12:36PM (10/19/2006)
Hennessey is a legend man! There's no internet nutswingers who can compete with his greatness! All hail the nutswinging king!
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HenHtr 1:06PM (10/19/2006)
Hennessey is a legend man! There's no internet nutswingers who can compete with his greatness! All hail the nutswinging king!
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carguy 12:33PM (10/19/2006)
At last! A product that will set my Veyron apart from all the other ones in my sub division. I just hate it when I running to publix to pick up some catfood and there are two identical Veyrons parked either side of mine. And what better place to pimp my million dollar ride than with some small time crook that rips off Viper owners for a living.
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the pod 12:51PM (10/19/2006)
because if there's one thing the bugatti veyron needs, it's more horsepower.
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S 1:08PM (10/19/2006)
A fool and his money never parts.
-An original Internet Nutswinger
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S 1:10PM (10/19/2006)
Btw, who in the world makes a headline about Hennessey saying anything about making any car "Better"?
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Anthony Soprano 1:16PM (10/19/2006)
Wow, Hennessey is one of the automotive industries most nefarious criminals. Do some web searching on Hennessey Motor sports and see how many lawsuits he has against him for poor service and outright fraud. He has actually been caught parting out customers cars!! I'm shocked any publication would overlook his reputation.
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Steve 1:18PM (10/19/2006)
I hate when my supercars come with ONLY 1000 horsepower in stock form.
Damn penny-pinching accountants! They could have made 1009hp if they REALLY wanted to!
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MikeW 2:09PM (10/19/2006)
Why is the veyron's torque capped flat from 2200-5500, because they don't want to destroy the clutches.
So the only engine speed range left for 'improvement' would be 5500-6500, so at best an extra 100 total hp @ 6500.
and hennessey's approach? take out the catalytic converters? dual scroll turbochargers and length compensation manifolds? fart mufflers?
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Howard Kerr 2:07PM (10/19/2006)
Imagine, you buy this car that produces ONLY 1000 horsepower, and you need MORE. How much more will be enough for you to even feel it? JUST 100 horses would be equivalent to adding about 15 to a Honda Civic. I suppose that would be worth it. But even if you add 200 or 300 hundred, as another poster says.....who NEEDS more than 1000 horses?
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