In 2014, Hennessey Performance steered its Lotus-based Venom GT down a runway at 270 miles per hour before claiming to have built the world’s fast production car. However, not everyone acknowledged Hennessey’s claim, as it didn’t average the Venom GT’s top speed from two runs in opposite directions, and with so few units built, it didn’t meet the Guinness World Records criteria for a production car. But Hennessey’s record-breaking ambitions didn’t die with its reputation, and on Tuesday the company unveiled its long-hyped successor to the Venom GT: The Venom F5.
Named after the most destructive tornado class, the Venom F5 is a hypercar hand-built on a carbon fiber fairing from KS Composites in Great Britain. Hennessey told Car and driver that the first unit was ready in Britain, but the remainder of the 24-unit production run will be assembled at a new facility in Sealy, Texas, where the performance shop will pair that composite fairing with a twin-turbo V8 he calls ” Anger. “
According to Top gear, this 6.6-liter powerhouse is derived from the General Motors small-block V8, although every component has been modified using drag racing knowledge. Just past its 8200rpm redline, the Fury is said to produce 1,817 horsepower, or 67 more than America’s other speed-record-aspirant hypercar – the SSC Tuatara. In addition to sharing a raison d’êtreboth hypercars appear to share a transmission, as they each use a CIMA-supplied seven-speed single-clutch automatic transmission, although presumably with minimally different gear ratios.
In the Hennessey, however, this transmission has to contend with considerably less torqueonly 1193 pounds feet – although it’s still supposedly enough to keep the tires burning through the first four gears. Traction control notwithstanding, that is, because Hennessey now claims the 3,053-pound Venom F5 can exploit its Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires to fly from zero to 100 mph in 2.6 seconds, and 124 after just another agree 2.1. According to “early simulations”, zilch to 250 would take only 15.5 seconds, more than twice as fast as the Bugatti Chiron and seven seconds faster than the Koenigsegg Regera. And with plenty of flat ground in front of it, Hennessey says, the Venom F5 will hit a record-breaking 311.
If you remember the last time someone claimed paradigm shifting performance of this caliber, they did it for a vaporware sports car that claimed to float, in a presentation that also promised “Full Self-Driving.” Hennessey’s global claims must be taken with an equal spoonful of salt until it puts them to the test in the spring of 2021, when it returns to the Kennedy Space Center’s 3.2-mile runway for a crack in the top speed record. If it doesn’t work out, John Hennessey says he’ll try it on a closed highway, like Koenigsegg and SSC did for their respective attempts.
And the highway will have to be closed, as the Venom F5 has no airbags, will not be federally homologated, and will be sold in the United States with “show and display” titles, as John Hennessey said. Car and driver. It’s a bit surprising to learn that they’ve sold a whopping 14 of them, with a base price of $ 2.1 million.