Hennessey Performance, which had already designed such production hypercars as the Vanom F5 and the Venom GT, announced yesterday that it wanted to debut the world’s fastest-accelerating GT vehicle in five years’ time.
Dubbed the Project Deep Space, the concept car is a six-wheeler running on 2,400 HP (2,434 hp / 1,790 kW) of electric power and set to reach the market with a price tag close to $3 million. Most other parameters remain to be revealed, but the tuner says it should set a new world record accelerating from zero to 322 km/h (200 mph). The powertrain will be designed with assistance from Shell Pennzoil and Delta Cosworth, although battery capacity and range are yet to be determined.
John Hennessey never put electric motors in his two-seat supercars because batteries added too much weight. As such, the Project Deep Space will be the company’s first EV. Hennessey says the four-seater body style works much better with an electric powertrain, because it gives designers much more freedom to place batteries where they fit best. It also offers enough electric performance to compensate for the added weight.
As of right now, the electric hypercar only exists on sketches. It has plenty of space between the axles and – quite unexpectedly – has three seat rows. The driver takes the seat in the front center position, with two seats in the middle of the cabin and one more in the rear center position.
Thanks to a carbon-fiber construction, the car should be able to weigh less than two metric tons (4,400 lbs). It should also have enough trunk space for four suitcases, Hennessey says.
A total of 105 production units are in the plans. At $3,000,000 and above, the Project Deep Space is set to become the world’s most expensive production car, but the company reports having already registered one pre-order.