Hennessey Venom claims new lap record at COTA

Venom F5 Revolution just pips Czinger C21, and goes more than six seconds faster than a McLaren P1...

‘The decathlete of hypercars’ is how John Hennessey likes to refer to his eponymous company’s Venom F5 hypercar - it’s intended to be Olympic standard across the board, not just in straight-line sprinting. To prove the point, the Revolution variant has been sent to Circuit of the Americas, just 100 miles from Hennessey HQ, and lapped faster than any other road car ever. The 2:10.90 isn’t an officially sanctioned record, but it’s backed up by Racelogic VBox data logging and video; just as importantly, it’s quicker than Czinger C21 by a few tenths and fully 6.2 seconds ahead of a McLaren P1’s 2:17.11 lap. Which is not a slow car.

This wasn’t a track special spec, either, with features not available for production models. Or not exactly, the Revolution hardware - Brembo ceramic brakes, Michelin Cup 2 R tyres, the huge aero upgrades over a Venom - do rather point to strong circuit skills. The combination of more than 1,800hp and less than 1,400kg was always going to guarantee fairly strong performance, too. So much so, in fact, that the Revolution almost looks slow through bends; it isn’t, but the straight line speed is so extraordinary that it may as well be being pushed around the corners. Similarly, the brakes seem to be applied early because so much speed has been accrued. Yet the stats show maximums of 1.59g laterally and 1.61g under brakes longitudinally - the Revolution just distorts perspective. It reached 193mph down the COTA back straight.

On driving duty was David Donohue, Hennessey’s test driver and a Le Mans class winner back in the day. He said of the lap: “Having been part of developing the Venom F5 Revolution, I knew it was capable of a quick time, but when it came to pushing the car hard, I was blown away by its phenomenal power and exceptional handling. There is no other car in the world that delivers such a visceral and engaging driving experience.”

Certainly it would make for one heck of a track day supercar, if that furious V8 ever passes a single noise test. Interestingly, the standard Venom F5 coupe is sold out, with 22 cars across the three variants - Roadster, Coupe, Revolution - now delivered. ‘A handful of build slots’ are still out there for the Roadster and Revolution for those who want to stand out among the Porsches, Ferraris and McLarens on circuit. There’s more to come, too. John Hennessey added: “Seeing the Venom F5 take the production car lap record at our home circuit has been an important part of our journey with the F5… The process of pushing our American hypercar to the limits makes our team of engineers, designers, and technicians better while also delivering an enhanced product and experience to our clients. We look forward to continuing the journey and pushing the Venom F5 to set new speed records in the future.” Next stop Nurburgring, right?