The all-new 100% bespoke Venom F5 is built to deliver the world’s most exhilarating all-round driving experience and unparalleled performance. With its immense power, low weight and refined dynamics, the F5 boasts extraordinary handling and a visceral experience behind the wheel.
Priced at US$2.1 million (RM8.5mil), just 24 examples of the Venom F5 will be produced with each unique to its owner.
The heart of the car is the Hennessey-built 6.6-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine named "Fury", which delivers 1,817hp at 8,000rpm and packs 1,617Nm of torque.
Deploying this level of power in a car weighing just 1,360kg results in rapid acceleration: 0-100kph takes less than three seconds and it will smash a 0-200kph run in under five seconds.
As part of its validation, the rear-wheel drive F5 is targeting a top speed in excess of 500kph and will prove this with a transparent and independently verified top speed run in 2021.
The Venom F5 project is overseen by company founder and CEO John Hennessey, who has shaped every aspect of the car’s specification, design and development. John has combined knowledge from the company’s past 30 years of making fast cars faster with the highest levels of specialist engineering talent.
John Hennessey: “Our customers love speed, so we’re fired-up to push the boundaries of what’s possible to attempt the world’s fastest production car record, but the Venom F5 is about more than just speed and power. This car will handle superbly, quality is exceptional, there are more than 3,000 bespoke parts, materials are exquisite, everything is a fitting tribute to 30 years of the Hennessey brand.”
The car’s dynamics have been developed by Hennessey’s in-house dynamics guru – legendary US racing driver and vehicle set-up expert John "Heinrocket" Heinricy. The aim would be to achieve a world-class all-round driving experience on road and track.
The F5’s features ultra-lightweight carbon fibre monocoque that weights only 86kg and premium quality and bespoke construction.
The F5 will complete top speed testing in the first half of 2021 at the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida. Subsequent top speed runs will follow an intense period of real-world development at Hennessey’s own testing facility, plus the Circuit of The Americas – with Heinricy leading the development team and conducting the bulk of hands-on testing.
The F5 aims to exceed 500kph on a two-way validated speed run using a production specification car. The record attempt will be independently verified by the world-renowned experts from Racelogic using VBOX GPS data acquisition systems.
GPS data and uninterrupted video footage will also be made publicly available following the speed test.
Heart of the matter
The F5 has a rear-mid-mounted twin-turbocharged V8 engine that generates a power-to-weight ratio of 1.34hp-per-kg – the highest of any road car.
The Fury is a 90-degree push-rod cross-plane crank V8 engine that weighs 280kg. The bespoke unit features an all-new cast iron block and aluminium cylinder heads and runs an aggressive road cam providing a characteristic off-beat race car sound and feel. Each engine is hand-built with precision components crafted from high-grade metals including aluminium, titanium and Inconel. These include the crankshaft, pistons, valves and connecting rods.
A unique intake manifold design places the intercooler between the plenum and cylinder heads allowing the inlet air temperatures from the turbos to be greatly reduced before the charged air enters the combustion chamber, resulting in greater air density and enhanced power efficiency. The Fury’s multi-stage dry sump oil system uses Pennzoil 10w60 synthetic motor oil to deliver optimum performance right up to its 8,500rpm (in F5 mode) redline.
Additional power is delivered by two bespoke-built high-output precision ball-bearing turbochargers with 3D printed titanium compressor housings and 76mm (3-inch) billet aluminium compressor wheels. Set right at the rear end of the engine bay sits a bespoke stainless-steel and Inconel exhaust system, which is treated with Cerakote to protect the engine bay from excess heat.
Fury lives up to its name, the engine is loud, immensely powerful and offers abundant torque. The powertrain exhibits an extremely flat torque curve, meaning that the F5 produces high levels of pulling power from very low down in the rev range.
The F5 uses a specially-designed longitudinally-mounted semi-automatic gearbox with steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters. Having evaluated all potential options, the Hennessey team chose the only option capable of transferring the F5’s furious torque to the road – a single-clutch CIMA gearbox with seven ratios.
The set-up features close ratios at the lower end for rapid acceleration, with longer higher ratios to achieve the sought after top speed of over 500kph.
Lightweight and low
The monocoque is a huge part of what makes the F5 a great driver’s car, its torsional rigidity (52,000 newton meters per degree), providing a solid base to build from and proving essential for the car’s agility.
Compared to other hypercars, the F5 will offer "more bandwidth". Capable of being driven easily on sweeping rural roads or at speeds in excess of 500kph, it promises over 1.0G of acceleration and a furious sound that combines the thunderous V8 muscle car rumble with turbo whistles and pops.
Aerodynamic performance, which has been refined and evaluated extensively using computational fluid-dynamics (CFD), will be perfected by Heinricy in the real world with a series of "coast-down" tests. These run the car to a designated speed then coast while recording downforce and drag.
Alongside aerodynamics, significant consideration was given from the outset to both unsprung mass and achieving a low centre of gravity.
The F5 uses carbon ceramic brakes, forged aluminium wheels and lightweight Penske dampers to keep unsprung mass low, helping the car to feel nimble and ‘alive’.
The centre of gravity is kept low by positioning the powertrain deep within the car’s sub-structure. The Hennessey-built engine features a dry sump that enables the crank height to be kept very low to the ground.
With the engine delivering such immense power, one of the challenges for the Hennessey engineers is how best to transfer the car’s colossal forces through its rear wheels to the ground.
This is handled with precision by the car’s Motec controller, which will be calibrated for optimum power and traction control. In addition, five different drive modes (Sport, Track, Drag, Wet, F5) can be selected that alter the power delivery, traction and braking performance of the car. Only the top ‘F5’ mode will unlock the maximum available power.
The car’s huge 345/30 section 20-inch rear tyres provide a substantial contact patch to boost traction under acceleration and cornering.
At the front, the 265/35 section front tyres are mounted on 19-inch wheels. Michelin will test its Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres to ensure they can withstand the speeds and loads that the car will generate.
