Follow Up: Carbon Fiber Widebody HPE650 All Buttoned Up

Back in December we showed you the in-progress pictures of a Hennessey HPE650 Camaro that was undergoing some pretty invasive cosmetic surgery in pursuit of the ever-popular widebody look, but with a twist. The rear quarter panels were being completely rebuilt several inches wider with real carbon fiber. Well, the work has finally been completed, and the Hennessey now sports a whole new rear profile.

We talked with the car’s owner, Henry Rodriguez, from Los Fresons, Texas, and he was gracious enough to fill us in on the details of his carbon fiber widebody HPE650. When we asked him what made him want to start such an invasive project on his new Hennessey Camaro, Rodriguez told us, “I’ve always been in intrigued by exotics and super-cars that use carbon fiber in their body panels, and I started getting interested in doing a carbon fiber project of my own. All of the carbon fiber parts were designed by me in my spare time. The Audi R8 was actually the inspiration for leaving parts of the carbon fiber exposed to contrast with the white paint”

“Overall, the car was widened 2 ½ inches on each side, and the rear wheels are currently 22×12’s with some smaller 315/25/22 tires. Now that the widebody work is finally done, we are going to widen the rear wheels by 2 inches, and are looking into getting some way wider custom tires made to take full advantage of the extra room we made in the back.” said Rodriguez.

The rear quarter panels weren’t the only part of the HPE650 to get a little carbon fiber love. Rodriguez tells us, “For the rear bumper, we decided to go ahead and refinish it in carbon fiber as well, and do the unique center exhaust tips. We also did quite a bit of carbon fiber work to the interior and I designed the dashboard with the motorized iPad 3G.”

Whether or not you like the wide body look, or even the exposed carbon fiber look, lets give credit where credit is due: it takes some serious guts to cut into a very, very expensive (and brand new for that matter) Hennessey Camaro. When we asked him what was next for the Carbon Fiber Widebody HPE650, Rodriguez told us, ” Who knows? I’m always thinking of new ideas for my car.”

To follow the car’s progress, be sure to check out Rodriguez’s build thread on Camaro5.