2020 Hennessey Venom F5 First Look: 300 mph Supercar

MotorTrend

Check out the new Hennessey Venom F5

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 Beside me is the Hennessey Venom F5.

00:11 It's a hypercar with a 6.6 liter twin turbocharged V8

00:16 producing 1,817 horsepower.

00:20 And you know what?

00:21 That is probably the least impressive thing about it.

00:24 (car engine roaring)

00:26 (laughing)

00:28 Okay, maybe not the least impressive thing,

00:31 but there is so much more to this car.

00:33 (car engine roaring)

00:36 Yep, it's another stupidly powerful hypercar

00:47 and it costs $2.4 million plus taxes.

00:50 Who cares, right?

00:51 Well, hold on a minute.

00:53 I felt the same, but the philosophy behind this car

00:55 is more complex.

00:57 John Hennessey references the timeless appeal

00:59 of the McLaren F1 when he talks F5

01:02 and repeats Lotus's mantra about adding lightness.

01:05 So let's give it a chance.

01:07 The numbers are amazing.

01:12 And on E85 fuel, that engine appropriately named the Fury

01:16 produces over 1,800 horsepower.

01:19 And thanks to a rigorous dedication to low mass

01:23 and its bespoke carbon tub,

01:25 this thing weighs just 2,998 pounds.

01:29 For some perspective,

01:31 that's less than a Porsche Cayman GT4, considerably less.

01:34 And I've got some more perspective

01:35 and I've actually written these numbers down

01:37 'cause they're sort of unbelievable.

01:39 So you remember the old Ferrari F40,

01:41 the baddest Ferrari ever.

01:43 That thing had 437 horsepower per ton.

01:46 Chiron moved the game on, 753 horsepower per ton.

01:51 Hennessey Venom F5, 1,298 horsepower per ton.

01:56 This thing, forget next level, this is like next universe.

02:04 So let's say you're one of the 24 F5 owners.

02:07 What will you experience?

02:08 Well, Hennessey claim nought to 62 miles an hour

02:10 in 2.6 seconds, nought to 124 in 4.7,

02:15 and nought to 186 miles an hour in 8.4 seconds.

02:19 Top speed, somewhere north of 310 miles an hour.

02:22 We'll find out in a few months.

02:24 And let's not forget that this car's predecessor,

02:26 the Venom GT, became the fastest car in the world

02:29 back in 2014 when it hit 270.49 miles an hour.

02:34 Despite the crazy numbers

02:37 and they are gonna grab all the headlines,

02:39 Hennessey's actually keen to talk about dynamics,

02:41 about whole vehicle performance.

02:44 So this thing is bespoke from the ground up

02:47 and it cares about all the really important stuff.

02:50 The carbon tub is made here in the UK,

02:52 incredibly stiff and it weighs just 189 pounds.

02:56 It supports aluminium subframes front and rear,

02:59 there's double wishbone suspension all round

03:01 and manually adjustable Penske dampers.

03:03 So there's gonna be a lot of adjustment in this car.

03:06 Of course, it's got carbon ceramic brakes by Brembo.

03:08 Surprised it hasn't got a parachute to be honest,

03:10 seeing as it's gonna do over 300 miles an hour.

03:13 Cup 2 tyres by Michelin.

03:15 Everyone has to have Cup 2 tyres by Michelin,

03:18 but these ones are actually gonna be tested

03:19 on their aeroplane rig,

03:21 just to spin them up fast enough

03:23 to ensure safety at over 300 miles an hour.

03:26 They want this car to work everywhere,

03:29 road, track, runway, and they want it to be manageable.

03:33 They talk a lot about driver engagement,

03:35 not just performance.

03:37 That will be no easy task.

03:41 However, the chassis development

03:42 is being shaped by John Hennessey,

03:45 the legendary engineer behind some of GM's best ever cars

03:48 and 11 time SCCA Championship winner in Corvettes.

03:52 They call him Hein Rocket for a reason

03:54 and he adds yet another layer of credibility to the F5.

03:58 For me, the biggest surprise about the F5

04:00 is that its presence comes from how simple it is,

04:03 almost elegant really.

04:05 There will be a high downforce kit available

04:07 for customers who want to use them on racetracks,

04:10 but right now you can tell the focus

04:12 is on high speed stability,

04:13 but also being really, really slippery

04:16 so they can do over 300 miles an hour.

04:19 Now that minimalism, that focus

04:22 is so evident in the interior.

04:24 It's hard to use any benchmarks on a car like this, isn't it?

04:35 Because it's just trying to do stuff

04:37 that no other car's ever done.

04:39 But when you get in the car,

04:40 it does remind me of a few things.

04:41 Firstly, LaFerrari, the way the door comes up

04:44 and the tub is way inside the width of the body.

04:48 I love that.

04:49 And also Ford GT, it's got that same intimate feel.

04:52 You're super close to the passenger.

04:54 They wanted it to have that cockpit feel.

04:56 So everything's on the steering wheel.

04:58 It's really lovely actually.

04:59 Right here is where you change the modes.

05:02 Now there are five modes.

05:03 Wet, I would say park it in the garage if it's wet.

05:06 Sport, drag, track, and then F5 V-Max.

05:12 Which is where you get all the power.

05:15 Everything is carbon, gloss carbon or satin carbon.

05:19 There is one question mark about this car.

05:21 I've been really impressed with the attention to detail,

05:23 how beautifully it's finished.

05:25 The numbers blow my mind.

05:27 But this gearbox, it has a seven speed Chima

05:31 single clutch automated manual effectively.

05:34 It's been re-engineered to deal with the sheer forces

05:37 that are gonna go through it.

05:38 But I've yet to drive a car with that gearbox

05:40 that feels absolutely perfect.

05:43 I would love this thing to have a manual gearbox.

05:45 Maybe one day that'll happen.

05:47 But right now we've got the Chima box.

05:49 That's the one thing that would concern me a little bit.

05:53 One day someone is gonna sit in this car,

05:56 hold this wheel at the space shuttle landing facility

06:00 in Florida and attempt to do over 300 miles an hour.

06:04 And what's really cool, the runway is 3.2 miles long.

06:08 So they're attempting to effectively beat the Chiron SS 300 plus

06:14 in less than half of the space.

06:17 I wouldn't wanna be the guy who does it

06:19 just because a tyre failure at 300 sounds scary.

06:21 But I wanna be there when this thing does over 300 miles an hour.

06:26 And just don't doubt that it will.

06:28 How could it not?

06:36 This is the heart of the beast, the Fury.

06:40 And it is a monster.

06:42 6.6 litres, twin turbo.

06:45 And although this is a new start for Hennessey,

06:47 everything they've learnt and absorbed

06:49 has coalesced into this monster engine.

06:52 1817 horsepower, we've said that a lot.

06:54 Here's another one.

06:55 1,192 foot-pounds of torque.

06:59 Peak torque is at 5,000 RPM,

07:01 but it probably produces more torque than,

07:03 I don't know, let's think of a car,

07:05 a 765LT at idle.

07:07 Power is not gonna be an issue.

07:09 And you can see why.

07:10 There's two turbos.

07:12 They're literally as big as my head.

07:14 Precision turbos.

07:16 This is just a super-sized engine.

07:20 Heat management is a huge issue.

07:23 The exhaust system, all of the underside

07:25 of the bodywork here, which is all carbon fibre,

07:27 of course, is coated in Cerakote.

07:30 Now, if you know about guns,

07:32 you'll know that that's what they use

07:34 to coat the inside of a barrel of a gun

07:36 or the hole of a gun now.

07:37 I don't really know what else to say

07:40 about this motor.

07:41 I'm sort of speechless.

07:42 The numbers speak for themselves

07:44 and the detailing in here is really, really cool.

07:48 If anything is gonna power a car

07:50 to way over 300 miles an hour

07:51 in just 3.2 miles of runway,

07:54 this is it, the Fury.

07:56 Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this motor

07:59 revs to 8,500 RPM.

08:02 Can you imagine the noise

08:05 when they pull the pin?

08:06 It's pretty easy to be cynical

08:14 about another hypercar that costs

08:17 more than five houses

08:19 and is gonna do 300-plus miles an hour, isn't it?

08:21 But I have really been surprised,

08:24 not only with the attention to detail in this car,

08:27 but also the philosophy behind it.

08:29 They've adopted all the right attributes

08:32 to make a really special car

08:34 and I have a feeling this car might be the real deal.

08:37 Will it do over 310 miles an hour?

08:40 Sort of don't care.

08:42 Can they make a car with this much potential,

08:46 fun and drivable on the road?

08:48 That's the big question

08:49 and I really am keen to find out.

08:52 So, I'll see you in a few months.

08:54 I've got a feeling we're gonna be friends.

08:57 Maybe not 300.

08:58 I'll do 230, 240, something like that.

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09:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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