The Hennessey Venom F5 carbon fiber chassis debuts with 1,817 hp and a price tag of $1.8 million.
The Hennessey Venom F5 may be behind schedule, but it's coming nonetheless.
On Sunday, Texas-based Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) unveiled the carbon fiber chassis for its upcoming Venom F5 hypercar.
Pictures of the carbon fiber monocoque show a coupe-like structure for a mid-engine car. It is a custom-made carbon fiber chassis that took two years to develop. To handle the expected power and speed, the chassis has a torsional stiffness of 38,353 lb-ft of torque per degree. Weighing in at a slim 190 lbs.
HPE also unveiled final specifications, which have transformed considerably since the hypercar was unveiled in 2017.
In October, HPE announced that the car's twin-turbocharged 6.6-liter V-8 engine would produce 1,817 hp and 1,193 lb-ft of torque, with peak power reaching 8,000 rpm. Previously, the company had claimed more than 1,600 hp.
The car's price also increased from the original $1.6 million to $1.8 million. Founder and CEO John Hennessey told Motor Authority that he wanted to reward customers who ordered the car at a lower price. According to Hennessey, the price increase will likely occur again after the Venom F5 is unveiled in August at The Quail, a motorsports gathering at Monterey Car Week.
The original goal for HPE's Venom F5 was simply to break the 300 mph barrier, but Hennessey told Motor Authority in 2018 that the actual goal is 311 mph. The Venom F5, which has a slippery drag coefficient of 0.33 (for a supercar), shouldn't need all 1,817 horsepower to do so. According to Hennessey engineers, CFD testing shows that the Venom F5 needs only 1,520 horsepower to reach 300 mph.
HPE is about six months behind its original schedule because of the extra time taken to ensure that the aerodynamics of the Venom F5 will meet its speed goal.
HPE plans to build 24 Venom F5s, 12 for the U.S. and 12 for international markets. Hennessey told Motor Authority that 13 Venom F5s are under contract, 11 of which are for the US market.
In July, HPE broke ground on an expansion of its Seeley, Texas, facility; the 15,000-square-foot addition is expected to be ready in the first quarter of 2020.
The race to 300 mph is over. Bugatti won the race in 2019 with the Chiron Supersport 300+." Thankfully, Bugatti was able to prove that Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires can hit 304 mph in one direction," Hennessey said.
If the Venom F5 exceeds 304.773 mph, it will set a new world record for a production car.
Plans call for the first four Venom F5s to be delivered in 2020, with eight to ten completed in 2021. According to Hennessey, the first three Venom F5s are currently in production and will begin testing at top speed in the second quarter of 2020.
Hennessey says that no decision will be made on an open-top variant until current speed targets are met.