The US$2.1m Hennessey has hit 270mph, and is now ready

The Venom F5 hypercar is ready for public consumption, and boy is there a lot to consume. The F5’s chief engineer John Heinricy has officially signed off the car by means of a 270mph+ run. Yeah, that’ll do it.

So, technical development of the 1,792bhp turbocharged V8 hypercar is now complete. There’s no more fine-tuning or tweaking – after a lot of high-speed runs, brake tests and suspension validation, Hennessey is happy to start building the 24 customer cars.

“During final validation of the F5 we passed 270mph and we intend to continue our journey to 300mph toward the end of the year,” boss John Hennessey said. That’s right, they’re still gunning for the magic 300mph number.

But with technical development signed off, does this indicate a special edition F5, or some kind of additional pack to push it past the triple ton? Nope. To paraphrase Jaws, they’re gonna need a bigger runway.

A Hennessey spokesperson told TG they just need a big stretch of tarmac to go 300mph, and they don’t want to use a customer car to do so. Once the first handful of customers get their hands on an F5, Hennessey will build another one for itself to use as a 300mph test mule. The end of 2022 is being pitched as a good time to go flat out.

Otherwise, it’s hammertime. “Customer car production will see us complete as many as 12 vehicles per year,” Hennessey said. Only 24 are being built in total remember, and each one – costing US$2.1m a pop – is accounted for.

The 6.6-litre modified twin-turbo V8 nicknamed ‘Fury’ not only kicks out 1,792bhp, but also 1,193lb ft of torque and redlines at 8,000rpm. Sounds a little angry, too.

And we also know Hennessey is planning on “a few more surprises for the F5, including the Track Pack enhancements, plus something else that’s literally out of this world”.

Is the F5 going to... space?

TEXT Vijay Pattni