The U.S. car tuning firm Hennessey is preparing a big reveal of its heavily-modded Venom F5 hypercar. Driven by an enormous 1,600-horsepower engine, the vehicle will attempt to accelerate past 300 miles per hour (483 km/h).
Series production of Venom F5 hypercars won’t begin until late 2019, and it is likely that Hennessey picks a date for their show closer to that period. After all, it is the honor of the company founder, John Hennessey, that is at stake here. He personally promised to hold a public event where the modded vehicle would accelerate to the nearly unthinkable 300 mph, and maybe beyond that.
The one-of-a-kind racecar packs a massive 8.5-liter V8 engine capable of 1,600 hp (1,193 kW). Dual turbocharges will make sure to squeeze it for as much power as possible.
Engineers still need to reduce the car weight to under 1,360 kilograms (3,000 lb) for it to have optimal aerodynamic performance. Needless to say, this means generous use of carbon fiber throughout the body and chassis.
According to John Hennessey, the company has been working hard over the past three decades to finally qualify for such a difficult task. He first came upon the idea to build a car that would accelerate to 300 mph when his modded Venom GT overtook a Bugatti in a drag race in 2014.
We’ll have to wait until next year to see how things work out.
Photo: hennesseyperformance.com