Hennessey’s Venom F5 is back in the auto-industry news this holiday season as a final production version. As the Texan performance specialist edges closer to production phase for the alpha road-legal car, they’ve also settled on a price and production number. The $2.1 million hypercar—which features the highest power-to-weight ratio of any car now on the road—will be made in a run of 24 examples.
An indication of the company’s possible near-future transition from esoteric specialist to full-time supercar manufacturer, the F5 takes its name from a particularly savage meteorological incarnation involving the kind of wind speed that can send a 2×4 through the trunk of a palm tree, and the car nearly lives up to the hyperbole. A track test in 2017 nearly garnered a spot in the Guinness record book, although a technicality apparently disqualified the performance as definitive.
The final draft boasts an exceptionally fluid-looking carbon fiber shell, with rounded lines and large intakes matching the all-business aero looks with a fair dose of grace, and the exaggerated rear wing dropped. All in all, there’s a lot of experience in the car’s looks; you might say it suggests the wisdom accumulated through years of performance design, and in that way it stands as Hennessey’s ideal brand halo car. A gander at the lovely profile reveals the degree of circumspection Hennessey has invested in arriving at this point in the F5’s development.
Inside, the car is all business. The squared-off steering wheel is designed for optimal control under the duress of pushing past 300 MPH, and the sport seats look comfortable enough but not coddling. Supplying the Venom F5’s thrust is a big, efficient V8—6.6L, delivering 1,817 horsepower and 1,193 pound-feet of torque—and components are fabricated from titanium, Inconel and aluminum.
Hennessey states that the Venom F5 is destined to blaze beyond 310 MPH. The company will likely be back in industry news in the coming months as they test a production-spec version on the track with Guinness ambassadors in attendance.
