Hennessey Performance Engineering, the American manufacturer known for its high-performance vehicles, has been conducting acceleration testing with its Venom F5. The results suggest the car is incredibly fast, hinting at a potential world record attempt.
John Hennessey, the company's founder, has confirmed that beating the 0-400-0kph world record currently held by the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut is on their radar. However, Hennessey has even bolder ambitions.
"That may be something we'll be doing in the not-too-distant future," he said, referencing the 0-400-0kph record. "Honestly, we'd like to be the first manufacturer to go 0-500-0kph. You're the first person I've said that to outside the company. That's something that we've honestly thought of, so maybe we could set a totally new standard."
Hennessey's confidence stems from the Venom F5's impressive performance. During recent testing, the car, powered by a 1,817bhp, 1,360kg engine, reached an astonishing 222mph in the half-mile with professional driver David Donohue behind the wheel. Hennessey himself achieved an equally impressive 219mph during his own test drive.
"After we got back from the test, we started looking at the data," Hennessey explained to Top Gear magazine. "We ran from 100 to 200mph in 6.81 seconds, and I wanted to compare our speeds with what some of the other hypercars have run."
Hennessey highlighted the F5's superior performance compared to other supercars: "A client of ours, Steve Hamilton, owns a Rimac Nevera and a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport. He put out a video recently where the Nevera runs 206mph in the half-mile. So, we beat the Nevera by at least 15mph in the half-mile. The Chiron ran 193mph in the half-mile, so we beat that by 28mph."
The company's focus, however, is not just on raw acceleration. Hennessey is aiming for the ultimate prize: the 300mph barrier.
"Weâre running Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tyres with full 45psi tyre pressures, so we really had no focus on the launch," Hennessey said, regarding the recent acceleration tests. "I think our best 0-60mph time was a 2.7s on one of the runs."
He continued, "We looked back at Koenigsegg when they ran their 0-400-0kph record and we were actually a little bit faster than the Jesko â at least to the half-mile. So again, weâre not claiming any kind of record, it was just an engineering test, but it goes back to what I said when we introduced F5 to the world â we wanted F5 to be the decathlete of hypercars."
Hennessey has already achieved a number of notable milestones with the F5, including setting a lap record at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) earlier this year. Now, the company is focused on achieving the coveted 300mph milestone.
"This was a test geared towards optimising the car for Vmax runs, but by virtue of just going out and sorting the car for that purpose, we noticed that our acceleration was pretty impressive," he said.
Hennessey sees the pursuit of this top speed record as a healthy competition, not just with Koenigsegg, but with other car companies. "Itâs good competition," he said. "Whether itâs us, Koenigsegg or another car company, the first car that can break 300mph with a two-way average will be a big deal. For us, on one of those directions we would like to run over 500kph (310.68mph)."
This ambitious goal sets the stage for an exciting race to the top, with both Koenigsegg and Hennessey vying for the ultimate bragging rights.
Christian von Koenigsegg, founder of Koenigsegg, recently stated that simulations put the Jesko Absolut "beyond 500kph". The question now is, which hypercar maker can find the perfect location and achieve the two-way average needed to set the official record above 300mph?
The future of supercar performance seems incredibly bright and incredibly fast.