Although the hot and new 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 isn’t available at dealers just yet, that didn’t stop famous Texas tuning firm Hennessey from sharing its soon-to-be-available upgrades for the flagship muscle car. That is, if the GT500’s supercharged V8, the most powerful stock supercharged eight-cylinder ever fitted to a factory production car with 760 horsepower and 625 pound-feet of twist, just isn’t enough for you right out of the box.
Hennessey released details on its available upgrade options, which are tiered into three packages: the base Venom 850 kit, the midrange Venom 1000, and the flagship Venom 1200. The numbers correspond to the horsepower rating of each package.
Beginning with the base Venom 850 kit, the package includes improved breathers for the GT500’s V8 in the form of stainless-steel long tube exhaust headers, high-flow catalytic converters, a CNC-ported in-house supercharger with a pulley and belt upgrade, and a high-flow air intake system. Despite the seemingly modest “bolt-ons,” the result is a bump to 850 hp and 725 pound-feet, using 93 octane from Shell V-Power, as per Hennessey’s own testing.
Opt for the midrange Venom 1000 kit, and as indicated, you’ll get 1,000hp on the same fuel and 850 pound-feet thanks to a more intense 3.0-liter supercharger upgrade, a beefed-up intercooler, fuel system upgrades, and the same breathers as the Venom 850 package.
And the flagship Venom 1200 kit provides enough power to slow the Earth’s rotation: a whopping 1,200 hp and 1,000 pound-feet of twist on E85 or 109 octane racing fuel. With this kit, the folks at Hennessey swap out the supercharger arrangement for a twin-turbo setup with an uprated intercooler, fuel system, upgraded pistons and connecting rods, strengthened transmission, and upgraded intake and exhaust breathers.
All Venom packages come with serial-numbered dash and engine compartment plaques signed by John Hennessey himself along with professional installation, a thorough test drive consisting of 150 miles to confirm optimal function, and a limited one-year/12,000-mile warranty.