Very Nice car!

[z06boy]

Sweet car...definitely would be fun to drive if you could keep it out of the ditch or off of the guardrail.

[PiZdETS]

I wouldnt give hennessey a cent of my money. Guy is a lowlife crook.

Out of tune; Viper specialist John Hennessey up to his cylinder heads in problems.
Publication Date: 08-APR-02
Author: Vaughn, Mark

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

He used to be a vendor on 300cforums until he got banned for being a lying troll. Here's a thread where he shows his true colors. Long read.

[Mr Lefty]

damn... fuck that guy... if I was a hennessy owner I'd be make'n sure all my fuck'n numbers matched on my tranny and motor!


wow... just read all of that thread... what a HUGE POS! seriously... if I was out 150K like a couple guys and he was dick'n around I'd have probably flown my jet down to whoop his ass...

can't believe he's still in business!!!

[Quick281]

I wouldn't touch that thing. Look up anything to the ring of "Hennescrewed" and you will find plenty of thread and posts about people who are mad at the guy. In a few cases he even signed up to a forum and posted about how he was going to sue a bunch of people of slander and all this crap.

Stay away.

[Gunther1000]

Ummmm, I understand everyone's hate for the guy and ya, By the proof here FUCK HIM. But Isn't this about the car? and isn't it for sale by someone who has already gone thru getting it done?

[Mr Lefty]

Originally Posted by Gunther1000

Ummmm, I understand everyone's hate for the guy and ya, By the proof here FUCK HIM. But Isn't this about the car? and isn't it for sale by someone who has already gone thru getting it done?

but it's free advertisement for the douchebag... and you'd be associated with him in some way shape or form for as long as you owned the car... longer even...

no thanks...

[Gunther1000]

LOL, Ya your right I'll just Ghetto kit out my Viper. This guy obviously has no clue how to build a motor.

Keep in mind what kind of customer a $100,000 droping rich guy is. Now don't believe everything you read on the web. If the guy has new rims coming and he surrenders his old ones as "core's" maybe they get sold that's not really any of your business once you give them up is it? Now roll all this into a few pricks getting jacked out of shape and failing to pay. Ya your shit will probably sit there half finished.

I just find it hard to take such offense to a well built car that in my opinion still would be a blast to drive. Regaurdless who the fuck built it. Shit it could say George Bush for Pres. All over it and I would still drive the nuts off it.

Sorry, I just can't get why so many look so far into a simple subject. 1100 HP isnt fun to you guys? Oh ya thats right most of you don't even speed on the highway. True, Fuck this car! The guy who once built one like it had a problem and then another guy was told "his rims are stolen" and then his uncle got AIDs from sitting in one! FUCK that car! I wouldn't spit on it if it were on fire!

[Mr Lefty]

Originally Posted by Gunther1000

LOL, Ya your right I'll just Ghetto kit out my Viper. This guy obviously has no clue how to build a motor.

Keep in mind what kind of customer a $100,000 droping rich guy is. Now don't believe everything you read on the web. If the guy has new rims coming and he surrenders his old ones as "core's" maybe they get sold that's not really any of your business once you give them up is it? Now roll all this into a few pricks getting jacked out of shape and failing to pay. Ya your shit will probably sit there half finished.

I just find it hard to take such offense to a well built car that in my opinion still would be a blast to drive. Regaurdless who the fuck built it. Shit it could say George Bush for Pres. All over it and I would still drive the nuts off it.

Sorry, I just can't get why so many look so far into a simple subject. 1100 HP isnt fun to you guys? Oh ya thats right most of you don't even speed on the highway. True, Fuck this car! The guy who once built one like it had a problem and then another guy was told "his rims are stolen" and then his uncle got AIDs from sitting in one! FUCK that car! I wouldn't spit on it if it were on fire!

no... I respect the dudes ability to make a bad ass car... but he's a POS imo... and no they didn't donate the motors... the deal was to make THEIR motors put out 1100 hp... it was in that thread... one of the guys brought it up... he even asked John point blank if he could keep his motor as he wanted the numbers to match... john said yes... I never swap out the motor unless the customer specifically requests it.

I just personally wouldn't want to own anything touched by this douchebag... driving his car imo is endorsing him. it's free advertisement.

I'm not saying that I'm perfect and have never fucked up... but if you read that thread... dude is a complete jack ass and could care less about the people who are supposed to be his target consumers!

I'm big on customer service, always have been... I don't shop around for deals if one of my shops offers it... cause I know I'll be getting good service... if your an asshole... your not getting any of my business... and I'm sure ass hell not gonna drive around sporting your logo on my car...

[Gunther1000]

so peel the sticker off... And then drive the shit out of it.

[Mr Lefty]

the hennessy part isn't Vinyl... just the stripes.