The weird-looking rock legend Steven Tyler finally takes delivery of his Hennessey Venom Spyder, the roadster version of the Venom GT. John Hennessey himself tuned up to hand the keys over to Steven, and as you can see from the picture of him looking cool with it, the rockstar is pretty chuffed with his decision to buy the car. Steven is actually the reason this car exist.

Aerosmith’ lead singer was not quite sold on the Venom GT, so he went to the company’s boss and asked if they can make a drop-top one for him. Hennessey had no plans for one, but it was Steven Tyler. They couldn’t say no.

So they got busy with the specs sheets trying to find a way to fit the Venom with a removable top. They had to reinforce the car’s bespoke roll cage and the whole structure in order to turn it into a roadster. And they did, but it added about 30lbs to a curb weight of 2,743lbs. That meant the power-to-weight ratio was messed up. So how did they solve that issue? It was easy- give the car even more power. So Tyler’s Venom has 1,244bhp – one horsepower per every kilogram.

Yes, this car is not that good-looking, and yes, it’s based on a Lotus Elise, and oh yea, it has a blue collar 7.0 liter V8. But it’s fast, and it’s very very cool. Kinda like Steven Tyler on crystal meth!

Hennessey will be glad to make a Venom Spyder for you too, if you come up with a check for $1.1 million.

via: TopGear