John Henessey

[Viper 10]

Originally posted by THEMASH
Doug Levin makes cars that will eat any Viper Hennessey makes, his car made (900RWHP and 1200RWTQ)
http://www.douglevinmotorsports.com/

If you measure performance with 1/4 mile and dyno numbers you are probably correct. Doug specializes in drag racing applications. He doesn't do any road racing or top speed applications (yet).

Do you have a DLM blower with spray on your Snake?

Have a good Thanksgiving.

Brad

[DreamsofaCobra]

Got it from a post on CarandModel.com, but it was originally from autoweek....

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?”

here's the link from autoweek:

http://autoweek.com/cat_content.mv?...t_code=04383484
_________________

[NSX-R-SSJ20K]

its a shame the aluminium block can't handle twin turbos .........the car doesn't last long which is the main problem


didn't he go bust?

[Viper 10]

I also posted this in another thread here

Hennessey is getting exactly what he deserves.

Brad

[Viper 10]

Originally posted by NSX-R-SSJ20K
its a shame the aluminium block can't handle twin turbos .........the car doesn't last long which is the main problem

What are you talking about? Where are you getting your info that Viper engines can't take turbocharging or that they don't last long? Please be specific when making comments like this. Don't let Hennessey's POS make you believe that he is the best.

Brad

[GTRspeeder]

833HP TWIN TURBO!!!!!!! 0-60MPH - 2.4 Seconds!!!!!!!! I AM SPEECHLESS!!!!!:

eek2: :

[Black_97'Z]

i know this a very old post, but who cares. Hennessey built a 1000rwhp Viper earlier this year. John brought it out to one of the local spots on the NE side of Houston a couple of times, that thing is a beast. He builds awsome cars but........I've meet the guy and all I can say is he is a Jackass. His TT800 Viper lost (with him driving) to built single turbo Supra on spray. They went from a 70mph roll out on the Beltway.

Every once in a while he posts on some of the local Houston boards, like Westsidemustangs.com, Houston-f-body.com, and sucidekings.com befor it shut down, it was funny as hell to watch John and one of his old tech's go at it on sucidekings.com. He wont even show his face on the VCA board.

[Whitebread]

About the thing with the Supra, is john that bad of a driver is was the Supra just that powerful?

[Black_97'Z]

Originally posted by Whitebread
About the thing with the Supra, is john that bad of a driver is was the Supra just that powerful?

the Supra was running 25psi on a single turbo and 200shot on top of that, so it was a little of both.

[Whitebread]

Ok, that's a lota boost.

[vortech]

is nothing to laugh at----but its also a twin turbo on a big block. You can slap a Vortech blower on an aluminum block (small block Cobra engine) add an intercooler to the V8---spin it at 20psi to its max----and make more horsepower than the Hennessy add ons. I'm not trying to bash----but if the Cobra had a big block------you'd be seeing over 1,000hp on a daily driver with a Vortech.

[Viper 10]

Originally posted by vortech
is nothing to laugh at----but its also a twin turbo on a big block. You can slap a Vortech blower on an aluminum block (small block Cobra engine) add an intercooler to the V8---spin it at 20psi to its max----and make more horsepower than the Hennessy add ons. I'm not trying to bash----but if the Cobra had a big block------you'd be seeing over 1,000hp on a daily driver with a Vortech.

Vortech;

Yeah and watch your engine nuke itself after a few runs too. What are you talking about? You don't just slap a blower onto a Viper and watch it produce HP. What you are talking about is building a dyno queen that won't do crap on a track or even be driveable. The kind of boost that you are talking about is just stupid.

Doug Levin is building great engines that can't break 10 seconds because they are twisting the chassis up like pretzels. They get no traction for more than half of their 1/4 mile runs.

The other thing that you fail to mention, is that in order to get an engine to last more than a few runs, is that you need to swap out the creampuff pistons and drop the compression. You are showing how little that you know about Viper engines.

I would venture to say that you and most Viper owners would quickly kill themselves if they did what you are talking about. At best case, they would torch their engines and maybe put the car into a wall... and live to talk about it.

Stop reading that garbage in magazines...

[vortech]

who the F&%$! are you talking to like that, you fu&*en white trash muthaf&*%a-----Yes, I'm coming down to your level. Obviously you don't know what forged internals can do with a 01 aluminum block + 20pounds of boost. For starters it will easily produce over 800hp. You don't know shit buddy. Because for a V8----thats pretty damn impressive-----regardless if its supplied through a centrifugal blower. You don't know shit------because my post clearly stated that for a big block it isn't overly impressive---considering the power output of an aluminum V8. You obviously don't no shit about the Kenny Brown Cobras and Sean Hyland Motorsport Cobras that have been built and that can actually whip ass in real life track time. Thats the problem with you Viper guys----you know ONLY ABOUT YOUR CAR!!!! You don't shit about mustangs and the potential from the engine buy to the rear end. The only thing keeping me from running 20psi on my blower------is don't have any forged internals except for my crankshaft. Fu&K you, dumbass. You wanna blast my head off--when you don't know shit about what you are comparing too. If you can't provide a rebuttal to something you don't agree with---then shut your F*&Ken mouth. But don't shoot your mouth off about something as stupid as you claimed in your post. I didn't rip anything about the twin turbo----merely pointed out that with a smaller engine------could make more power. I may not have mentioned the forged internals on the previous post----but I'm doing it now. You have a lot of nerve talking to people like that-------you probably own some piece of shit Honda with that gay growling sound.:finger:

[Black_97'Z]

I would love you see you run 20psi on a your cobra motor with just forged internals. BOOM!!!! those SHM engines are not stock engins with lots of boost making 800hp, it's a very built motor with alot of boost. Also the 800TT on a dyno will make about 900RWHP, that's alot more than 800 at the flywheel on half the boost of the SHM motors. Did I mention large amount more torque it make over the SHM motors?? Have you not heard of the 1000TT? it made over 1,100rwhp on the dyno on a few more pounds boost.

Oh, and the "if the cobra had a bigblock" statement is very ricer of you. It like one of them saying if I had a turbo, Nawwwwsssss setup I would kick you domectic ass. Hell if you have a built big block with that much boost and you not making 1000hp you have problems.

And its true you can make a smaller engine with more HP, the Supra beat the 800TT Viper with only a turbo 3.4L I6.

[vortech]

what the hell do you think I mean when I say forged internals---just the pistons? Hey retard------when its said forged 'internals'---I'm talking everything forged except the block. Do yourself a favor-----go to Englishtown some time----and check out some of the mustangs down there that have the set up I'm talkin about. And I'm not talking about about 5.0 engines----4.6 Cobras are a plenty. Thats why I don't even like posting on these boards----because of doofus' like you that pick and choose a few words here in there and try to mislead people on what the claim of discussion was. Happy Thanksgiving

Hey, when are the 2003 Camaros coming out? Oh thats right, I mean 2005, 06, 07, or whatever heack year they will be able to take the losses on the production of that 'nobody wants this car' camaro.