The horsepower war is set to escalate to levels never seen before, thanks to America’s Hennessey. Fresh after breaking the world top speed record, founder John Hennessey thinks “something in the 464km/h range will be possible”. Hence, he did it by unleashing the Hennessey Venom F5 hypercar, created to achieve the top speed of 464km/h!
Not to be confused with the keyboard’s refresh button, the F5 was named after the strongest intensity of a tornado based on the “Fujita” scale. The F5 is essentially the Venom on steroids; with the enhancement on the engine and aerodynamics while retaining its weight below 1300kg. The reworked aerodynamics has managed to reduce drag to under 0.4 Cd.
The 7.0-litre twin-turbo V8 that powers the Venom has been beefed up to produce a maniacal figure of 1400bhp, 200bhp more than the Venom. Sadly the manual gearbox from the Venom has been replaced by a single-clutch automatic in the F5. There’s even a GPS-based traction control that can be calibrated to specific circuits around the world.
The USD$1.2M pricetag is not cheap and the production of 30 cars is planned, but that’s the price if you want to achieve the mind-boggling speed of 464km/h in a production road-legal car. Knowing that there won’t be many places to allow the F5 to achieve such speed, Hennessey is looking to bring the F5 to the legendary Bonneville Salt-Flats. Expect record books to be rewritten!
[Source: Hennessey & Top Gear UK]
