Hennessey 300 MPH for a Million Dollars? First Look at 2020 Hennessey Venom F5
- Thread starter WBarnes
- Start date
Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) is an American hypercar manufacturer and high-performance vehicle creator. In addition to building the Venom F5 hypercar, the company specializes in 'making fast cars faster' modifying sports cars from several brands including Chevrolet, Dodge, Cadillac, Jeep, Ford, GMC, and Lincoln. Established in 1991 by John Hennessey, their main facility is located 45 minutes west of Houston in Sealy, Texas. Official website: Hennessey
. If they are gonna lie about their numbers, can they at least do that in a way that's not physically impossible? 
TopspeedPT
Track Technician
KiwiRob
Autotechnik Ace
The Venon GT was Lotus Elise based, this one has a bespoke chassis, so how is it a kit car?
A.P.
Autobahn Explorer
Same with Tuatara, yet it claims to be the fastest car ever with very "accurate" video footage. Interior quality and the car itself looks like a kit-car, the proportions and build-quality isn't exactly looking promising.
Doesn't help that the car itself is coming from a scammer called John Hennessey.
KiwiRob
Autotechnik Ace
The haven't made any runs with the car, there are no videos. I think after the mess with the Tuatara speed runs Hennessey won't want a repeat so I think it will be done by the book and property authenticated. I think the car is quite good looking.
0-100 in 2.6sec, 0-200 in 4.7sec and 0-300 in 8.4sec seems too quick and optimistic when this is RWD. I believe the true figures will most likely be 2.8sec, 6sec and 12sec, but it would be good to see a video of this car on a track or under full acceleration. With 6.6ltr and 1842PS (1355kw) and 1193ibFt (1617nm) it's a monster and with 1360kg dry weight it should be blistering but maybe not as quick as they mentioned. With a surprisingly high 0.39 CD it's maybe not that efficient considering that sleek shape.
Bridster
Oversteer Expert
It's more than optimistic, it's physically impossible. If you are traction limited to 2.6s for 0-100km/h, then how are you gonna suddenly overcome that limitation to do 100-200km/h in 2.1s? But I agree... I think it's gonna be a struggle to get under 6s for 0-200km/h in realistic conditions. Which means that <10s for 0-300km/h is basically out of the question outside of a drag strip. They are even using the same gearbox (I believe) as the Tuatara and the Agera - which if you've seen the various videos is not the smoothest, nor the fastest shifting box in the world (so more time lost). But it must be the only gearbox on the market that is able to handle the monstrous torques these engines are developing.
The Cd is not that surprising if they want to keep the engine cool. 1842PS needs a LOT of cooling and that means a lot of drag. It's really the same problem for all the cars chasing the top speed. Yeah, lowering the Cd seems like free money at first, but then you discover you are unable to keep your engine cool, your power drops massively as a result and you are barely cracking 1000PS. Which is what basically happened to the Tuatara with its "0.279" Cd. If Hennessey is quoting 0.39 for the F5, that means that they are actually trying to make a serious product.
Also, a word on the interior. It's not too bad actually. Much better than the Tuatara interior, although some of the panel gaps (as well as the "storage solutions") are pretty funny. The biggest take-away, however, is how small the cabin is. They obviously tried to reduce the frontal area as much as possible to get those high speeds, but the interior space is suffering as a result. You are almost at Valkyrie levels of claustrophobia.
It may also explain where it gets some of that extra traction for the 100-200km/h sprint.
Bridster
Oversteer Expert
Well, you can always make a decent car, yet still BS about the performance
... I am taking the 0.39 at face value since it's unlikely they are gonna say it's worse than it actually is.
WBarnes
Subscriber
They probably put on slicks for these figures.
TopspeedPT
Track Technician
A.P.
Autobahn Explorer
Does that come before or after he pays back the scammed Viper customers from back in the day?
WBarnes
Subscriber
Ah yes, that never goes away does it.
TopspeedPT
Track Technician
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