There are a handful of hypercars on planet earth that have monstrous amounts of horsepower but lacked two things John Hennessey of Hennessey Performance wanted to fix. One, they weren’t built in America and two, none could surpass 300 MPH. According to an official press release that Hennessey Performance dropped earlier this week (November 1, 2017), they claim that their all-new Venom F5 will be able to eclipse 300 MPH and then some. Take a gander at some of the photos that Hennessey Performance dropped for us below.
This new Venom F5 has at least three important ingredients going for it to reach 300 MPH. For one, this is a bespoke new chassis that isn’t based on another car’s engineering. It’s an entirely clean sheet design. This allowed Hennessey Performance to design a body that can cut through the air and still be stable at speed.
To be the absolute fastest road car on earth. Hennessey and team have developed a completely new design, chassis and carbon fiber body focused on aerodynamics to achieve the lowest possible drag. The new F5 design features active aero that will yield a coefficient of drag of just 0.33.
Next, the Venom F5 has the power to back up its claims. Underneath the engine cover of the Venom F5 will be a bespoke proprietary 7.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 making 1,600 HP and 1,300 lb-ft. The Bugatti Chiron claims that the only limiting technology, the tires, is the only thing holding back its effort to eclipse 300 MPH. Its W16 turbo engine makes 1,500 HP and 1,180 lb-ft.
In the past, Hennessey tapped Chevrolet’s LSX lineup of engines and turned up the boost in order to reach hypercar levels of power, and we already feel like this’ll be about the same for the Venom F5. A 7.4L engine presumably means Hennessey is going to use the larger LSX454R capable of 776 HP and 649 lb-ft right out of the crate. Slap on two turbos and turn up the boost to slightly above 1 bar (perhaps 16-18 psi) and that power number will easily double provided Hennessey has beefed up the engine’s internals to take that amount of power.
Finally, Hennessey has a partnership with both Shell and Pennzoil who will be providing the lubrication and fuel for the Venom F5. Both have committed a certain amount of research and development into this project that sees them standing to gain a certain notoriety attached to such a project.
John Hennessey is confident in his claim to surpass 300 MPH and it looks like he has the right stuff to do it. I’ve always had an inkling that the tires on the Chiron could easily surpass 300 MPH and it would be better for marketing if they had a car that could only go as fast as current tire technology would let them. But Hennessey has called their bluff and the race is on.
My money is on the boys from Sealy, TX to deliver on its promise first.
