Hennessey is looking to become the first automaker to build a car that can eclipse 300 mph, and it may be able to achieve it with its first-ever custom-built car, the Venom F5. As the chase for the fastest top speed by a production car becomes more challenging, the American outfit wants to make a statement against Bugatti and Koenigsegg by accomplishing what neither has been able to do.

Outside of Bugatti and Koenigsegg, there are only a handful of automakers that can claim to have a legitimate shot at building a car that’s capable of hitting 300 mph. One of those companies is Hennessey. The Texas-based tuner and automaker previously came close to doing it with the Lotus-based Venom GT, which hit 270 mph at the Kennedy Space Center back in 2014.

Since then, Bugatti has rolled out the Chiron hypercar, and Koenigsegg has released, well, a handful of its own machines, including the Agera RS, the car that currently stands as the fastest production car in the world with a two-way average top speed of 278 mph. With the gauntlet thrown, Hennessey’s looking to answer with the Venom F5, a car it claims is capable of breaking the 300-mph threshold.

“That was the number we decided we needed,” Hennessey founder John Hennessey told Autocar. “By our calculations, we can hit 300mph with less than 1600 horsepower, but I always like to feel I’ve got more power in case it’s hot or we’re running at higher altitude.”

Those are the kind of numbers Hennessey expects out of the Venom F5. Unlike its predecessor, the Venom F5 will be built from the ground-up by the automaker. It will feature a carbon fiber structure with metal subframes, and its overall shape will be heavily influenced by the aerodynamics the car needs to hit its projected top speed of 301 mph. Think about that for a second. The sheer existence of the Hennessey Venom F5 is rooted on the goal of the car hitting — and breaking — 300 mph under very specific circumstances.

That’s the approach John Hennessey is taking, one he says is rooted in the demands and expectations of its customers. “For our clients, being the fastest really matters,” Hennessey said. They want it to be the best. The last car went 270mph and was still pulling, but it had a massive amount of downforce and drag; it had a drag coefficient of 0.44.”

Whether it’s able to do that is a question that’ll only be answered once the Venom F5 attempts its top speed run. Whatever happens, Hennessey isn’t leaving any stones unturned in its quest for glory. And if it doesn’t work out, the company is still preparing to sell all 24 units of the F5 that it plans to build at a price of $1.6 million for each unit.

References

Hennessey Venom

Hennessey Venom F5
Hennessey

Read our full review on the 2019 Hennessey Venom F5.

Read our full review on the 2016 Hennessey Venom GT.

Read our full review on the 2017 Lotus Exige.