The slightly-unhinged individuals at Texas-based Hennessy Special Vehicles have just announced that they’ll be building a road-legal sports car that’s going to be capable of exceeding – wait for it – 300 mph.
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The Venom F5, as the model is called, will be the first car that Hennessy produces entirely in-house. It’s powered by a 7.4-liter, twin-turbocharged V8 that produces some 1,600 horsepower and has been specially developed to ensure that the car is capable of cracking the magical 300mph mark.
Perhaps even more insane is how fast this car is projected to accelerate. Hennessy predicts that it will be capable of reaching 300km/h (186mph) in less than 10 seconds, and 400km/h (250mph) in less than 20 seconds. Rather alarmingly, the Venom F5 will put all of that power down via its rear wheels alone, but at least it will come with GPS-based traction control that assists the driver all the way up to 140mph.
Some four years in the making, the Venom F5 has made huge leaps forward in terms of aerodynamics over the company’s outgoing Venom GT, which was basically a stretched Lotus Elise with an enormous engine in it.
The car’s bespoke design consists of a carbon fiber tub and full carbon fiber bodywork, which has been sculpted to make it as slippery as possible. Other details include a completely flat underside and a rear section that has been designed to dissipate as much heat as possible.
Although Hennessy toyed with the ideas of giving the Venom F5 four turbochargers or a hybrid system, both were scrapped because of concerns that they would make the car too heavy. It will sit on Michelin Pilot Cup 2 tires that were specially developed for the Bugatti Chiron. Seeing as the Venom F5 is actually a lot lighter than that car, Hennessy is confident about it hitting 300mph.
One thing about the Venom F5 that hasn’t been decided yet is how drivers and passengers are going to get in and out of it. The options are gullwing doors, which open upwards, and dihedral doors, which also open upwards but swivel on a pivot for increased ease of access.
All 24 examples of the Venom F5 that are scheduled for creation will be built at Hennessy’s workshop in Sealy, Texas, and cost at least $1.6 million. Owners who are brave enough can even spec their car with a manual gearbox, not to mention $600,000 worth of optional extras.
As is commonplace with contemporary hypercars, the Venom F5 can only be owned following a somewhat ludicrous vetting process (apparently it isn't enough to have $1.6 million lying around to spend on a car). Should you want one of the cars, you have to write to John Hennessy (the founder of Hennessy Performance) himself, and he is the one who has the final say on whether he thinks you are worthy of owning one. It looks likes of Koenigsegg and Bugatti have their work cut out trying to go faster than the Venom F5! Deliveries will begin in 2019.
