Thunderous Venom F5 rockets into Goodwood

Though there’s nothing pretend about what is an absolutely savage hypercar and we expect nothing else from the Texan marque. A new carbon monocoque chassis has a monster 6.6-litre twin-turbo V8 bolted to it developing 1,817PS (1,336kW). Given 4.7 seconds to do so, this incredible machine will blast past 124mph. Yes, 124mph, not 62mph – that comes up in well under three seconds. A nice round 500kmh, or 311mph, is Hennessey’s target for the F5, though if it were allowed to rev out in top gear, it could in theory go to 334mph.

Testing at a far-too-short-for-VMAX runway near the Kennedy Space Centre in Florda yielded a 270mph-plus result earlier this year, by accident. The runs were actually to an end of finalising system calibrations throughout the car. The speed was a by-product and to appearances, there was plenty more to give. We entirely believe it.

Now is this just a top speed machine? Surprisingly positive reports about how well the old Venom drove in tandem with Hennessey’s own claims, suggest not. It should do corners and be as fun on track as it is to wind all the way out toward the horizon. Needless to say, our Hill isn’t the place where the limits of this car can be any way explored but it was great for us and our fans to get a taste of this thing’s volcanic potential. We await with bated breath to see who will be nipping at that Bugatti’s heels soonest.

Photography by Toby Whales.