Video of the 1200hp Hennessey Venom GT as Driven by Jay Leno

Colin Chapman's aphorism about cars was to "add lightness," but he was Britiish. In America, the philosophy is to add power. The Hennessey Venom GT is what happens when British lightness meets American power. It starts as a Lotus Exige, stretches it by a little over 2 feet and drops in a twin-turbocharged version of the 6.2 liter V8 found in the Corvette ZR-1. Power comes to a total of 1200hp, but can be dialed back by the driver to either 1000hp or 800hp. And the price comes it at around $1 million. 

Hennessey claims that the Venom GT is faster than a Veyron. The Veyron gets to 60mph a tenth of a second faster than the Venom at 2.4 seconds compared to 2.5 seconds, but the Venom blasts past the Veyron to 200mph. It can do it in 15.3 seconds compared to the Veyron's 24.2 seconds. Hennessey claims a top speed of 275mph, but given that even the Veyron's tires are only rated to 250mph, good luck testing it. Of course there are competition tires rated to that speed, but it still seems a little dubious.

Certified car nut Jay Leno got his hands on a Venom twice. The first time just to introduce the car and the second time to actually drive it. You can check out the videos below. 

Jay likes the car but questions the point of it. He does not really see the reason to do top speed runs like the Venom is built for. He keeps saying, "all the fun is between 40 and 120 miles per hour."