Ok, stop the presses for a second. As with teasers go, Hennessey has released an image suggesting that the Venom F5 supercar may have just accomplished the impossible. Look at the photo and the hint is clear: the Venom F5 may have just cracked the 300-mph top speed barrier. There’s no indication of it yet, bet the automaker said that an announcement is going to come shortly.

This is obviously big news. A bombshell, if you will. No production car has ever come close to reaching a top speed of 300 mph. The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport came the closest when it clocked a top speed of 267.8 mph back in 2010. Depending on who you ask, other supercars, including the Venom, have also managed to get to those numbers. But 300 mph? It’s never been done before, which is why this suggestive teaser is all anybody’s talking about now. We’ve been hinted at by Hennessey that the Venom F5 - the successor to the Venom GT - is better in every way than it’s predecessor so it’s reasonable to at least think that it could challenge the Veyron Super Sport’s top speed record. The Venom F5 does have 1,451 horsepower at its disposal and Hennessey has already made bold claims that the F5 can exceed 290 mph on the gun. But 300 mph? Well, we’re going to have to wait to get an answer, but the good news is that an answer - hopefully, at least - will come within the day. If the Venom F5 does crack 300 mph, today, October 19, 2017, is going to be one of those days that we’ll all remember years and decades from now. Stay tuned.

Continue after the jump to read the full story.

Is it really possible for a car to go 300 mph?

I’m not a rocket scientist, so I don’t have a technical answer to provide. What I do know is that under the right circumstances, a car can hit 300 mph. Drag cars have done it for years though they don’t really count on the basis of them being heavily modified from head to toe. For a production car to break 300 mph, it’s going to need so many factors going its way, especially if it’s going to achieve that kind of speed. First, it needs to be really lightweight, something that we can all agree the Venom F5 is. Past reports even said that Hennessey wants the Venom F5 to keep its curb weight under 2,866 pounds to help enhance its power-to-weight ratio. By comparison, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport returns 630 horsepower per ton, whereas it appears Hennessey is shooting for 1,000 horsepower per ton for the Venom F5.

Then there’s the power, which the Venom F5 obviously has with those 1,451 ponies waiting to be unleashed. But arguably the most important part of achieving a 300-mph run is also the one that’s not being talked about enough: the tires.

As it stands, I don’t know if there’s a set of tires that can withstand the fury of a production car going that fast. Some people have said that with the right tires, a car can hit 300 mph, but those tires are few and far in between, if they even exist in the first place. I personally think that if Hennessey did break the 300 mph- barrier with the Venom F5, it did so with tires that managed to hold off long enough for the supercar to achieve the unthinkable.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough, though as with most things of this kind, it’s the waiting that’s bringing the anxiety levels up.

References

Hennessey Venom

Read our full review on the Hennessey Venom F5.

Read our full review on the Hennessey Venom GT.