Thursday 24th March 2022

Hennessey Venom F5 hits 271mph

You know how onboard videos never look fast? They do at four and a half miles a minute...

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It's getting closer now... According to Hennessey, technical development on the 1,800hp Venom F5 is complete, and its journey to 300mph will continue as 2022 progresses. Which is all very exciting; not least because in the validation testing a car like this needs, it's already hit 270mph...

It's easy to become inured to the impact of huge performance when every startup worth its crypto claims to have a 2,000hp hypercar ready to go once investment lands. You see 271.6mph written down and think 'that's cool, but a Koenigsegg went faster', or something along those lines. Then you watch the way a Venom explodes down a runway, getting from 130mph to 200mph like a quick car would do 130kph to 200kph, and remember that very powerful and very fast is still very cool. Especially with a V8.

Even on a runway, the Venom F5 is stunningly rapid. A really, really fast car might do 200mph; this Hennessey goes from 200mph to 220mph in three seconds. It's like the magazine's favourite 50-70mph top gear acceleration test, but at four times the speed. Certainly 300mph looks viable given how it's still trucking at 270mph, steady as a rock and only disturbed by some punchy gearshifts.

With development complete, the focus will now be on building the first half of the 24-car run for customers. If they weren't excited already, a video like this ought to help...

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• Bugatti Chiron Sport vs. Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse
• Koenigsegg Agera RS: 277.9mph

[Dombilano]

Ooooh that's a nice noise

[noble12345]

DId it bite his arm?

[British Beef]

That has to be in with a shout for "What car of the year 2022"

Very impressive acceleration, at first I thought it must have been in KMH it was going up that quick!!

[TheOctaneAddict]

It sounds so angry, it makes a Chiron look timid

[swisstoni]

I hope nobody minds if I don’t give a toss?

[humphra]

Yeah, but does it have enough luggage space for a weekend away?

[mrclav]

TheOctaneAddict said:

It sounds so angry, it makes a Chiron look timid

To my ears it sounds clatteringly agricultural.

Furthermore a Chiron is a far, far more comfortable place to spend any amount of time in than this thing which of course is its true genius; not the top speed only but its low-speed refinement and drivability.

[Bencolem]

Another bloody yoke for a steering wheel.

[thelostboy]

When this top speed has been discussed before, isn't it ridiculously exponential in terms of what's required to go from 271 to 300 mph?

Looks cool. Prefer the more Elise looking version though.

[MR2-No Pace-No Space]

Come on thats amazing, when it gets to 140, it just takes off, doesnt slow down to 220. Love to have a go, just wow.

[Chubbyross]

What a sound! At the end it reminded me of a WWII fighter plane.

[PH User]

That sounded really cool when it flew past the camera going flat out!

[GroundEffect]

thelostboy said:

When this top speed has been discussed before, isn't it ridiculously exponential in terms of what's required to go from 271 to 300 mph?

Looks cool. Prefer the more Elise looking version though.

Geometric, not exponential.

And it wasn't at its top speed at 271 - it looked like it had another 10-15mph in there without too much issue. More than is a trouble.

[TEKNOPUG]

I'm not sure what the point of the top speed in a straight line is? Race cars routinely run in excess of 300mph and such speeds have extremely limited applications for a road car. It's easy to make engine packages with enough power to propel cars 300+mph. The real limitation to speed (safely and repeatedly) is tyre technology.

[anonymous-user]

swisstoni said:

I hope nobody minds if I don’t give a toss?

I think I speak for all of us when I say “no one cares that you even exist. Please continue to think whatever you like”

[bern]

GroundEffect said:

thelostboy said:

When this top speed has been discussed before, isn't it ridiculously exponential in terms of what's required to go from 271 to 300 mph?

Looks cool. Prefer the more Elise looking version though.

Geometric, not exponential.

And it wasn't at its top speed at 271 - it looked like it had another 10-15mph in there without too much issue. More than is a trouble.

It changed gear at 270? So it can presumably pull some of that?

The bit I don't understand is when he says they are going to continue developing it through the year whilst also saying they are delivering customer cars this year. How's that work?!

[CedricN]

bern said:

GroundEffect said:

thelostboy said:

When this top speed has been discussed before, isn't it ridiculously exponential in terms of what's required to go from 271 to 300 mph?

Looks cool. Prefer the more Elise looking version though.

Geometric, not exponential.

And it wasn't at its top speed at 271 - it looked like it had another 10-15mph in there without too much issue. More than is a trouble.

It changed gear at 270? So it can presumably pull some of that?

The bit I don't understand is when he says they are going to continue developing it through the year whilst also saying they are delivering customer cars this year. How's that work?!

Well it's not really a road car, since its not homologated in any way (show and display in the US only). So they can change it as they like, even though it might seem a bit amateurish.

[VR6 Eug]

There's usually something good at the end of an English and American engineering projects, GT40, AC Cobra, breaking the sound barrier and space shuttle and this doesn't disappoint, The way the speedo accelerates from 150 mph onwards is astounding!

[donkmeister]

CedricN said:

Well it's not really a road car, since its not homologated in any way (show and display in the US only). So they can change it as they like, even though it might seem a bit amateurish.

Understanding that some states don't even have an MOT equivalent and some really ropey rods end up being used on the street, any idea if this would be street legal anywhere in the US?
No idea if they have an IVA-equivalent.

[Megaflow]

But didn’t actually or did they fake it again?