The Hennessey Venom F5 Could Overtake The Bugatti Chiron As The World's Fastest Road Car

We can't get over our fascination with the Hennessey Venom F5. John Hennessey and his team of speed freaks at Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) have made a car from the ground up to break speed records, a magnanimous feat from a Texas-based tuning shop — and now a low-volume automaker — known for defying the rules. "The Venom F5 is engineered to be an unrivaled 'decathlete' among hypercars," said John Hennessey in an HPE press release. "Our customers love speed, so we're fired-up to push the boundaries of what's possible to attempt the world's fastest production car record." 

The Venom F5 has a GM LSX-based 6.6-liter V8 (affectionately named Fury) with two custom turbochargers that churn out 1,817 horsepower and 1,193 lb-ft of torque. Fury has such an incredible appetite for power that it shot out flames from the exhaust during its dyno testing in early January 2022. Moreover, the Hennessey Venom F5 is not a bad-looking car. Although not the fairest among the supercar elite (hello Ferrari Roma and Aston Martin Vantage), the Venom F5's hunkered-down and commanding presence is enough to keep exotic hypercars on their toes.

The Bugatti Chiron, notably the Super Sport 300+, is a $4 million speed demon that set a new production speed record in 2019. It traveled at 304.773 mph (490.484 kph) during a one-way run at Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien test facility, earning it the bragging rights of being the fastest production car in the world. However, setting an official top speed record means performing a two-way top speed run in an independent road test supervised by an independent governing agency. The average top speed between the two runs is supposed to be the vehicle's official top speed, and the Chiron only went one way, which is why you won't see the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ in the fastest production car tally sheet.

Meanwhile, the Hennessey Venom F5 has yet to participate in an official top-speed run. But then again, it has more to think about than just the Bugatti Chiron. According to Motor Trend, the incredible SSC Tuatara became the fastest car in the world by going at an average two-way speed of 282.9 mph (455.28 kph) at the Kennedy Space Center last January 2021. It unseated the Koenigsegg Agera RS that earned the crown in 2017 by traveling 277.9 mph (447.24 kph) in an official 2017 record attempt.

Unless the SSC Tuatara or the much-awaited Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut breaks the elusive 300 mph barrier, we figure the Hennessey Venom F5 can rest on its laurels. In addition, this is not John Hennessey's first rodeo. The man broke numerous speed records with his Venom GT supercar, essentially a Lotus with a Corvette V8 engine. It went from 0 to 186 mph (300 kph) in 13.63 seconds and 200 mph from a dead stop in only 12.51 seconds, quicker than the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport and Koenigsegg Agera R. And in 2014, the Venom GT traveled 270.49 mph (435.31 kph). Still, it was a one-way aerodynamic test session. Remember, the rules say an official top speed must be the average speed of a two-way run.

From the looks of it, we reckon the Venom F5 is inching closer to grabbing the speed crown from the SSC Tuatara; it broke 250 mph quickly during high-speed stability testing in early January 2022 while in full-bore F5 mode, and it breached 271.6 mph (437 kph) during a test run last March. John Hennessey claims a projected 311 mph (500 kph) top speed for the Venom F5, and it certainly looks like HPE is on its way to greatness once again.