RSS_Auto_Poster
Well-known member
Written by Rowan Horncastle
The battle for the 300mph road-car prize just got real. Ladies and gentlemen, John Hennessey is once again going into bat against Bugatti for the title of the world"s fastest car with this: the 1,600bhp Venom F5. Yes, that"s correct: 300mph.Not that John"s ever lost the title of the world"s fastest car, that is. The Not-Guinness-Certified-But-Still-Chuffing-Quick 1,244bhp, 270.49mph Hennessey Venom GT is still, technically, the fastest car in the world. Just in one direction.Bugatti of course, has built a faster car called the Chiron. And is planning a top speed run in 2018. So, not wanting to be Top Trumped, Hennessey is rearming with the F5 to futureproof his pride; a car he"s spent some four years perfecting.Named after a particularly destructive breed of tornado (not the refresh button on your keyboard), it"s the latest road-legal land rocket to conform to Hennessey"s Minimal Maximus" philosophy (that"s Texan Latin for big power and lightweight), just with more aero, more tech and, of course, even more power.Compared with its predecessor, the F5 has made huge advances in aerodynamics largely from not having to put a Lotus through a mangle. Thanks to being a clean-sheet design - it"s a bespoke, built-from-the-ground-up, carbon-bodied hypercar with a carbon tub - the F5 has a much sleeker front, sculpted and functional rear (to dissipate a lot of heat), trick rear diffuser and completely flat floor that makes it a lot slipperier and pointier than its predecessor.In fact, everything on the F5 has been vacuum-packed into a silhouette with a drag coefficient of 0.33Cd. The Venom GT had a drag factor of 0.44Cd meaning it"d need 2,500bhp to hit 300mph. The F5 needs less. But still a lot. 1,600bhp, just so you"re clear.It all comes from a bespoke 7.4-litre aluminium V8 with two hefty turbos grafted on. Chiron-esque sequential quad-turbos were discussed, but binned for being too heavy. Same story for hybrid powertrains."I"m a purist," Hennessey tells us. "I like simple, elegant functionality, and that"s not a knock against hybrids, but they"re for the big OEMs to do."Sitting mid-ship, that monstrous engine sends all its power and 1,300lb ft of torque to two very fat, very sticky rear wheels via a seven-speed single-clutch paddle-shift gearbox. If you want a real rodeo, you can spec a manual gearbox, but we"re told that you"ll be fighting with trick GPS-based traction control all the way up to 140mph regardless so it might be best to have both hands on the steering wheel.Incorporating active aerodynamics, in Vmax mode, the F5 drops its rear wing and deploys some flaps to plug ducts above the jutting chin spoiler to improve its aero. And the numbers predicted when in maximum attack are monstrous; 0 186mph in under 10secs (that"s quicker than Lewis Hamilton"s F1 car), 0 249mph in under 20secs and a top speed of 301mph. Against the competition? Well, It takes the Chiron 32.6secs to hit 249mph (400kph). The Koenigsegg Agera RS does the same sprint in 26.88secs. The Venom GT did it in 23.6secs. The F5? We"ll, that"s predicted to go sub-20secs. Yowch.
Date written: 1 Nov 2017
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 9786
The battle for the 300mph road-car prize just got real. Ladies and gentlemen, John Hennessey is once again going into bat against Bugatti for the title of the world"s fastest car with this: the 1,600bhp Venom F5. Yes, that"s correct: 300mph.Not that John"s ever lost the title of the world"s fastest car, that is. The Not-Guinness-Certified-But-Still-Chuffing-Quick 1,244bhp, 270.49mph Hennessey Venom GT is still, technically, the fastest car in the world. Just in one direction.Bugatti of course, has built a faster car called the Chiron. And is planning a top speed run in 2018. So, not wanting to be Top Trumped, Hennessey is rearming with the F5 to futureproof his pride; a car he"s spent some four years perfecting.Named after a particularly destructive breed of tornado (not the refresh button on your keyboard), it"s the latest road-legal land rocket to conform to Hennessey"s Minimal Maximus" philosophy (that"s Texan Latin for big power and lightweight), just with more aero, more tech and, of course, even more power.Compared with its predecessor, the F5 has made huge advances in aerodynamics largely from not having to put a Lotus through a mangle. Thanks to being a clean-sheet design - it"s a bespoke, built-from-the-ground-up, carbon-bodied hypercar with a carbon tub - the F5 has a much sleeker front, sculpted and functional rear (to dissipate a lot of heat), trick rear diffuser and completely flat floor that makes it a lot slipperier and pointier than its predecessor.In fact, everything on the F5 has been vacuum-packed into a silhouette with a drag coefficient of 0.33Cd. The Venom GT had a drag factor of 0.44Cd meaning it"d need 2,500bhp to hit 300mph. The F5 needs less. But still a lot. 1,600bhp, just so you"re clear.It all comes from a bespoke 7.4-litre aluminium V8 with two hefty turbos grafted on. Chiron-esque sequential quad-turbos were discussed, but binned for being too heavy. Same story for hybrid powertrains."I"m a purist," Hennessey tells us. "I like simple, elegant functionality, and that"s not a knock against hybrids, but they"re for the big OEMs to do."Sitting mid-ship, that monstrous engine sends all its power and 1,300lb ft of torque to two very fat, very sticky rear wheels via a seven-speed single-clutch paddle-shift gearbox. If you want a real rodeo, you can spec a manual gearbox, but we"re told that you"ll be fighting with trick GPS-based traction control all the way up to 140mph regardless so it might be best to have both hands on the steering wheel.Incorporating active aerodynamics, in Vmax mode, the F5 drops its rear wing and deploys some flaps to plug ducts above the jutting chin spoiler to improve its aero. And the numbers predicted when in maximum attack are monstrous; 0 186mph in under 10secs (that"s quicker than Lewis Hamilton"s F1 car), 0 249mph in under 20secs and a top speed of 301mph. Against the competition? Well, It takes the Chiron 32.6secs to hit 249mph (400kph). The Koenigsegg Agera RS does the same sprint in 26.88secs. The Venom GT did it in 23.6secs. The F5? We"ll, that"s predicted to go sub-20secs. Yowch.
Date written: 1 Nov 2017
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 9786