Hennessey Goes For Insane Speed Record With Venom F5

The Hennessey Venom F5 is certainly an incredibly impressive creation. Thanks in part to its 6.6-liter biturbo V8, which can generate up to 1,841 hp, the Venom F5 should be able to reach a top speed of at least 500 km/h. At least that is what Hennessey claimed when presenting the Venom F5 in 2020. In practice, it has not yet come to that, but Hennessey wants to attempt this year to at least come close.

The goal is to reach at least 300 mp/h, or 483 km/h. If successful, Hennessey will hold the speed record for production cars. That is now in the hands of Koenigsegg because an unmodified production version of the Agera RS achieved a verified top speed of 447.19 km/h in 2017. Hennessey would easily beat that record if it indeed achieves its target of 300 mph and does so verified with a standard version of the Venom F5. John Hennessey says that while 300 mp/h (483 km/h) is the target on two runs (there and back, a requirement for an official record), he hopes to reach 500 km/h on at least one of those two runs. According to new simulations, the Venom F5 should even be able to reach 528 km/h, but Hennessey honestly says that that is not realistic. The American company is still looking for a location for the record attempt. In any case, racing driver David Donohue will get behind the wheel.

If Hennessey succeeds, it does not mean that the Venom F5 is the fastest production car in the world in an absolute sense. This is purely about the verified average top speed over two runs, with a version that does not differ from what anyone with enough money can (or rather, could) buy themselves. Higher speeds have already been achieved with passenger cars, but those records do not have the same value for various reasons. For example, a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ reached a speed of more than 490 km/h in 2019, but that was a modified pre-production version that had been stripped of its electronic limits. The SSC Tuatara also went faster than Hennessey’s target, namely 475 km/h, but that record is also ‘less valid’, so to speak, partly because it was only in one direction and not an average top speed there and back.

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