There’s been a long time since Hennessey Performance Engineering offered an update on the Venom F5. The replacement of the Venom GT, which ended production in January 2017 with the Final Edition, is a full-on bruiser that will make some jaws drop with its top speed. First of all, take a look at the main pic.
Yup, the sign reads “Speed Limit 300 MPH,” and there’s no mistaking what that means. Converted to metric, that’s 483 km/h, which is a lot more than the Bugatti Chiron is capable of pulling off. As a brief refresher, an unlimited Chiron with tire technology that doesn’t exist yet is theoretically able to crack 463 km/h, translating to 288 mph. And Hennessey? Well, the Venom F5 is definitely entitled to laugh at the Volkswagen Group’s road-going marvel.
Scheduled for reveal at the 2017 SEMA Show on November 1st, the Venom F5 is all new from the ground up, meaning that it doesn’t share its backbone with the Lotus Exige. Developed by the Hennessey Special Vehicles division, the Venom F5 will be manufactured in Texas and will rely on a thumping great V8 augmented by a twin-turbo system. And in stark contrast to the Chiron, the American contender will be lighter and ship exclusively with RWD.
Though the displacement of the V8 engine is still a mystery, output is likely to surpass 1,451 horsepower (1,082 kW). What’s not a mystery at all is the transmission. At the beginning of the teaser video, you’ll hear the hypercar accelerating from a standstill. From this sound clip, the long pause to change gears is proof Hennessey will drop a six-speed manual in the Venom F5.
From a stylistic standpoint, the finished car resembles the renderings published by Hennessey from head to toe. The only apparent change comes in the form of how the side mirrors are attached to the Venom F5.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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