Hennessy is renowned for making extreme high-performance vehicles, more recently venturing into the world of the hypercar with its Venom coupe and roadster models. Now it has announced the appointment of Brian Jones as its vice president of engineering for both its Special Vehicles and Performance Engineering divisions.
Jones has over thirty years’ experience including as chief engineer of vehicle development and integration at Multimatic Special Vehicle Operations where he led engineering on both the Ford GT and Mercedes-AMG One.
The company says that Jones will apply his experience and expertise to advance powertrain development, integration, testing, regulatory certification and manufacturing of the Hennessey Venom F5 hypercar and the company’s range of high-performance vehicles at its Texas production facility.
“I’m excited to join Hennessey and lead both the hypercar and high-performance vehicles engineering teams,” said Jones. “It’s an exciting time to work with a company so experienced with extreme combustion-powered vehicles. Hennessey Special Vehicles is gearing up to set world records with the Venom F5, while Hennessey Performance Engineering is currently developing new high-performance versions of the Ford Mustang and Cadillac CT5-V.”
Before working at Multimatic, Jones was a general manager at AeroDyn Wind Tunnel, a lead engineer at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and a vehicle dynamics specialist at General Motors Corporation. He holds a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the University of Cincinnati and a master of science degree from Purdue University.
Jones will have a multifaceted role leading the company’s engineering team. He will work with Venom F5 chief engineer John ‘Heinrocket’ Heinricy and the team of engineers who develop, test and build the 1,817bhp hypercar. His role will also involve overseeing the development of high-performance cars, trucks and SUVs for the Performance Engineering division which is expected to modify nearly 700 vehicles this year.
“The appointment of Brian Jones as Hennessey’s VP of engineering emphasizes our commitment to growing an expert team focused on building world-class cars, trucks and hypercars,” said John Hennessey, company founder and CEO. “Brian is a leader who brings the group decades of automotive engineering experience with ultra-high-performance vehicles. I couldn’t be more pleased to have him join our team, as he will help us raise the bar across all of Hennessey’s products.”
