Why John Hennessy Created the Venom F5 Supercar with Over 1,000 Horsepower

That fucking vehicle that you have built is the most ridiculous thing I've ever been inside of my life. I can't believe how fast it is. We only did a speed limit today, right? Yes, but we got there very quickly. We got there very quickly, yes. 1817 horsepower and 3,000 pounds, so you got some power to weight ratio to work with there. That's like 700 more horsepower than a Tesla Plaid. Yeah, it's like taking a McLaren 765LT and adding 1,000 horsepower to it. Something nobody needs, but we've sold 36 of those, the Venom F5. What happened to you in your life that you needed to make these preposterous cars? Well you know. Like what is going on? Yeah, there it is. That's the Venom F5. How did you get to be this guy? How did this start out where you're making these 1,800 horsepower cars? It's probably kind of like the pool hall deal when we were younger. I didn't have a good relationship with my old man. He was a car guy, but we didn't get along. I don't know, maybe 60 years later, I'm 60 now, I still feel like I got a little chip on my shoulder or something to prove. Maybe a little bit less now, but for sure. Isn't it interesting that you would never want that for your son? No. But boy is that a great motivating factor. Oh for sure. For sure, yeah. I grew up in an abusive situation and neglect and now all of a sudden I've got all this motivation or had all this motivation for the last 40 years of my business career, so it's been good. It's funny because you would never want that for your children. It's amazing how well it's worked out for people like you or for me. Yeah, I don't think everybody out there that has some level of success has not necessarily been abused and motivated by negativity, but I can definitely see with our five kids, the nurture mainly from my wife, Hope, they're going to turn out just fine and they'll be plenty successful, but that's just, I don't know your story, but that's my road how I got here. It can lead you to be very ambitious and very successful, but it can also just fuck your life up. Oh sure. And you can be very ambitious and very successful and also be happy. Absolutely. That's possible too. Yeah. You don't have to have a tortured childhood. For sure. I'm very, very blessed. I mean, to have an opportunity to build toys for people, whether it's a seven, 800,000 horsepower pickup truck or a Venom F5, and we were talking earlier about first world problems, right? Yeah. Something nobody really needs. Nobody needs to go to comedy show or MMA, but they do it for entertainment. I tell people all the time, we're more, are there stars up there? Yeah, they're fine. Am I wearing a little voice? Does the shooting start? After the Rick for Flair or Gummy Bear, they're going to really start flying. Yeah. So now feel very blessed and we're definitely, people come to us because they want to entertain themselves with their vehicles. That's a great way of looking at it too, because that's really what those kind of cars are. When I try to describe my love of old muscle cars for people, because they kind of are not super reliable. They're not so great at handling. So I get them done into resto mods. But still, but when I drive them, the experience is entertaining. It's like a ride. I'm not just in a Corolla. I'm not just in some quiet Subaru. I'm in a ride. But does it take, like when you drive your Land Cruiser, you drive one of your older cars, does it take you back to that time either when you had that car, you aspired to have that car, you knew the guy or the girl that had that car kind of growing up and you wanted it back then, but you didn't know how you're going to get it? Oh yeah, for sure. With my Chevelle definitely. My Chevelle, I have a 1970s black with the white stripes, the tuxedo Chevelle. And when I was a kid, what's that? You got the cow induction hood? Yeah, I want six. Well, it actually is a 454 under the hood and Kasey Colvin is the man. Big Viper guy. Fucking love that dude. He hooked up the cow so that when the ignition goes just like... Yeah, those vacuum hoses get old and crack. When I was a kid, when I was about 16 years old, one of my friends picked me up. His friend had a 1970 Chevelle and we were going somewhere. I just remember getting in the backseat of the car going, how is it possible that this kid owns this car? This is crazy. Yeah. It was the best looking car I'd ever seen in my life.The Jerogan Experience. That fucking vehicle that you have built is the most ridiculous thing I've ever been inside of my life. I can't believe how fast it is. We only did a speed limit today, right? Yes, but we got there very quickly. We got there very quickly, yes. 1817 horsepower and 3,000 pounds, so you got some power to weight ratio to work with there. That's like 700 more horsepower than a Tesla Plaid. Yeah, it's like taking a McLaren 765LT and adding 1,000 horsepower to it. Something nobody needs, but we've sold 36 of those, the Venom F5. What happened to you in your life that you needed to make these preposterous cars? Well you know. Like what is going on? Yeah, there it is. That's the Venom F5. How did you get to be this guy? How did this start out where you're making these 1,800 horsepower cars? It's probably kind of like the pool hall deal when we were younger. I didn't have a good relationship with my old man. He was a car guy, but we didn't get along. I don't know, maybe 60 years later, I'm 60 now, I still feel like I got a little chip on my shoulder or something to prove. Maybe a little bit less now, but for sure. Isn't it interesting that you would never want that for your son? No. But boy is that a great motivating factor. Oh for sure. For sure, yeah. I grew up in an abusive situation and neglect and now all of a sudden I've got all this motivation or had all this motivation for the last 40 years of my business career, so it's been good. It's funny because you would never want that for your children. It's amazing how well it's worked out for people like you or for me. Yeah, I don't think everybody out there that has some level of success has not necessarily been abused and motivated by negativity, but I can definitely see with our five kids, the nurture mainly from my wife, Hope, they're going to turn out just fine and they'll be plenty successful, but that's just, I don't know your story, but that's my road how I got here. It can lead you to be very ambitious and very successful, but it can also just fuck your life up. Oh sure. And you can be very ambitious and very successful and also be happy. Absolutely. That's possible too. Yeah. You don't have to have a tortured childhood. For sure. I'm very, very blessed. I mean, to have an opportunity to build toys for people, whether it's a seven, 800,000 horsepower pickup truck or a Venom F5, and we were talking earlier about first world problems, right? Yeah. Something nobody really needs. Nobody needs to go to comedy show or MMA, but they do it for entertainment. I tell people all the time, we're more, are there stars up there? Yeah, they're fine. Am I wearing a little voice? Does the shooting start? After the Rick for Flair or Gummy Bear, they're going to really start flying. Yeah. So now feel very blessed and we're definitely, people come to us because they want to entertain themselves with their vehicles. That's a great way of looking at it too, because that's really what those kind of cars are. When I try to describe my love of old muscle cars for people, because they kind of are not super reliable. They're not so great at handling. So I get them done into resto mods. But still, but when I drive them, the experience is entertaining. It's like a ride. I'm not just in a Corolla. I'm not just in some quiet Subaru. I'm in a ride. But does it take, like when you drive your Land Cruiser, you drive one of your older cars, does it take you back to that time either when you had that car, you aspired to have that car, you knew the guy or the girl that had that car kind of growing up and you wanted it back then, but you didn't know how you're going to get it? Oh yeah, for sure. With my Chevelle definitely. My Chevelle, I have a 1970s black with the white stripes, the tuxedo Chevelle. And when I was a kid, what's that? You got the cow induction hood? Yeah, I want six. Well, it actually is a 454 under the hood and Kasey Colvin is the man. Big Viper guy. Fucking love that dude. He hooked up the cow so that when the ignition goes just like... Yeah, those vacuum hoses get old and crack. When I was a kid, when I was about 16 years old, one of my friends picked me up. His friend had a 1970 Chevelle and we were going somewhere. I just remember getting in the backseat of the car going, how is it possible that this kid owns this car? This is crazy. Yeah. It was the best looking car I'd ever seen in my life.