Las Vegas, Nevada - Hennessey’s new Venom F5 was designed with one not-so-simple goal in life, and that is to be the fastest road car on planet earth.
Named after the most powerful tornado speed winds on the Fujita scale, it aims to be the first road car with a top speed of more than 300mph, with Hennessey aiming for a 301mph (484.3km/h) top end. Bugatti’s Chiron, for the record, has an electronically limited top speed of ‘just’ 420km/h.
The new American supercar’s venom comes from a twin-turbo V8 said to produce more than 1193kW. Forget 0-100 times, this bad boy will shunt from standstill to 300km/h in under ten seconds, according to Hennessey, and is capable of getting from zero to 400km/h and then back to a halt in less than 30 seconds.
Power goes to the back wheels through a seven-speed single-clutch transmission, linked to paddle shifters.
Thanks to a carbon fibre body and lightweight chassis, the Venom weighs about the same as a Ford Focus, with a kerb weight of just 1338kg, while active aerodynamic components help it slice through the air with utmost efficiency.
“We’ve designed F5 to be timeless so that in 25 years it will still have a level of performance and design that will be unmatched,” company founder and CEO John Hennessey boldly states.
It’s going to be extremely exclusive too, with the American company planning to build just 24 of them, at a ‘base’ price (before options), of $1.6 million, which is a cool R22.4 million in our money.