Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) is growing.

The company just broke ground on a new 15,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art factory to keep up with demand and for Venom F5 production. Additionally, the company’s Instagram account just surpassed the 1 million follower mark. Increasing demand for powerful trucks and SUVs is also a driving factor in the growth of HPE. Last year Hennessey built and delivered over 500 vehicles to clients around the globe and more than 50 percent of those vehicles were trucks and sport utility vehicles.

“Demand for powerful, fun, fast, cool vehicles is stronger today than the day we started making fast cars go faster 28 years ago,” said company founder and CEO John Hennessey. “Our clients want 600 HP VelociRaptor Ford trucks and 600 HP Lincoln Navigators just like they want more powerful sports cars and muscle cars like the new C8 Corvette and GT500 Mustang. Our current 36,000-square-foot facility is maxed out with production at 10-12 vehicles per week. Thus, we are expanding our production facility with an additional 15,000 square feet for a total of 51,000 square feet. This will allow us to grow to a total production capability of 20 vehicles per week – up to 1,000 Hennessey-modified vehicles in 2020 is our goal.”

Hennessey and his wife, Hope, bought the Lonestar Motorsports Park dragstrip complex just west of Houston in 2004 with the dream of being able to build and test their tuned vehicles in one place. They expanded the racetrack to a full quarter mile in 2006 then moved into their current production facility, which is situated on 142 acres along Interstate-10 near Sealy in 2008.

The Hennessey team recently broke ground to add more production and warehouse space to their existing facility. The new space will allow the company to add a second chassis dyno as well as additional space for parts and production. The new facility will also have a dedicated work area for Venom F5 production. Schroeder Construction Company of Sealy is the general contractor. Hennessey expects to have the new expansion completed and functional in early 2020.

“Growing is fun and it’s only possible with the help of our customers, team members and special partners at Shell Pennzoil,” added Hennessey. “We have future plans to build dedicated buildings for our Tuner School program and for increased Venom F5 production. We may even add a road course to the property at some point. I’ve always dreamed of having our own Fiorano-like test track just like Ferrari has next to their factory in Maranello.”