Hennessey Performance does not just build stupidly powerful custom trucks; they also dabble in stupidly powerful, road legal hypercars. Hennessey just unveiled its latest one, the Venom F5. The "F5" comes from the highest designation on the Fujita tornado intensity scale — which, perhaps not coincidentally, covers wind speeds up to 318 mph.
Let's dive right into the numbers. The Venom F5 is absurdly powerful. It has a Hennessey-built twin-turbocharged 6.6-liter V8 engine dubbed "Fury," which puts out a not-at-all-pedestrian 1,817 horsepower and 1,193 lb-ft of torque.
The Venom F5 pairs that with lightness. It uses a carbon fiber monocoque chassis with carbon fiber body panels for a claimed curb weight of just 2,998 lbs. For some perspective, we're talking about a car that weighs a little less than a Volkswagen GTI...with eight times the power.
Consequently, going like stink comes nowhere near describing what the Venom F5 can do. Hennessey didn't trifle with telling us a 0-60 mph time; instead, it said the Venom F5 accelerates from 0-124 mph in just 4.7 seconds. Hennessey says it will hit a top speed "in excess of 311 mph," which could be road-legal world record territory, depending on the validity of the SSC Tuatara run.
Beyond the melt-your-face-off speed, you get a fighter-jet inspired steering wheel and controls, a "luxurious handcrafted interior" and driving dynamics tuned by engineer, racing driver and former head of GM Performance Division John Heinricy.
If you think the Venom F5 sounds like it will be extremely niche and expensive, you're right on both counts. Hennessey will make only 24 of them, and the starting price will be $2.1 million, enough money for a private jet...or some Datsun untouched by human hands on Bring a Trailer.
