Hennessey Venom F5 Review: World's FASTEST Car? | 4K

Foreigner, this is the £1.5 million Hennessy Venom F5, one of the most powerful cars on the planet. Its name comes from the Fujita scale, a system for measuring the intensity of tornadoes, the most dangerous of which are classified as F5. At this level, tornadoes produce wind speeds. up to 318 miles per hour, which is appropriately the top speed this car has been designed for, uses a 6.6-liter V8 LS engine that has been upgraded with drag-spec internals and giant turbos to produce 1,817 horsepower and 1617 newton meters of torque. It's Fury and its purpose is to erase records, but nowadays top speed isn't what I'm interested in, it's all very well running around a track at triple digit speeds starting with two or three, but let's be realistic, when are you going to get there?

To do that in the real

world

, most tracks just aren't long enough and even on the Autobahn it was just irresponsible, right? So the question I want to know is what is it really like to drive this car in the

world

? real world and it's 1800 horsepower too much horsepower right let's figure out the second gear floor oh my gosh doing that again oh my gosh they say it won't go to 62 in 2.6 seconds and oh my gosh Of course, Tesla Fanboys will say so what, but listen to this. numbers that will do North to 200 kilometers per hour in 4.7 seconds 4.7 will also not do it to 300 kilometers per hour in 10 seconds ignore 400 in 20 seconds this thing is faster than a Bugatti Chiron it is faster than anything how is this?

The automobile, even on the road, no matter how it exists, is the love child of John Hennessy who focuses on modifying existing vehicles in the pursuit of speed, but to realize his lofty ambitions of making the

fastest

cars possible, John has had to dedicate itself to Creating something bespoke, the F5 starts with a carbon chassis that weighs just 86 kilograms and has a torsional rigidity of 52,000 Newton meters per degree (2,000 more than a Bugatti Chiron). It ends up powered by the same LS small-block engine used in the Chevy Corvette. Z06, but here it has been improved and strengthened in several ways, the displacement has been reduced to 6.6 liters, it breathes with the help of two ceramic-coated turbos and has titanium inlet valves, forged steel connecting rods and valves of inconel exhaust, but to achieve maximum engine power.

Speed ​​potential A lot of work has also gone into the exterior design of the F5. Weight is obviously a very important factor in this car. The F5 tips the scales at 1,360 kilograms. It's impressive, but if you look at the shape of the car, you won't see much on the road. of aerodynamic accessories, there is no huge rear wing, there is not a lot of movement and movement and that is because this car does not need enormous amounts of downforce, it needs to be tremendously slippery in the air to be able to reach those incredible top speeds, but there are many very interesting things. detail on this car this badge on the front for example may look like a sticker because it is perfectly smooth but in reality it is a very thin piece of aluminum eight microns thick that is thinner than the thickness of a human hair that they apply directly to the bodywork and then apply lacquer over it to keep it as smooth as possible so the airflow is not interrupted when it hits the badge.

These headlights are very distinctive. Mr. John Hennessy wanted headlights that would stand out from a distance and he certainly got them. They are in the shape of an F which relates to the name of the F5 car and if you look closely here there is an aerodynamic vane right on the leading edge that is separated from the rest of the cowl and its purpose is to smooth and sculpt the air to size. that moves. On the side of the car, lightweight forged wheels with an offset of 265 19 at the front and three four five twenty at the rear and they all have this beautiful H detail on the center caps, the rubber is Michelin Pilot Sport cup twos and The brakes are Carbon Ceramics 390. millimeters front and rear with six-piston calipers in the front and four in the rear, you may have noticed that the fenders stick out a mile creating a small gap in the front compared to the narrow one.

The body is not ideal for aerodynamics, but they wanted a wide track for greater stability and a narrow body for Aero, they solved the problem, although by installing these air vents just behind the steering wheel, what it does is create a pressure difference of High and low pressure air that seals effectively. The air along the side of the car directs it into the air intakes. There are additional intakes on the deck lid that feed air directly to the turbos. Just behind these is a low-profile C-shaped rear spoiler, but most of the F5's downforce comes from the lower deck area which culminates in a gorgeous rear diffuser.

The rear bumper is a solid piece of fiberglass. carbon, some painted body color and others black, divided by hundreds of perforations that help with heat extraction, the hollow lights also help here by serving as reverse ducts to help reduce extreme engine bay temperatures below. From the carbon fiber engine cover, the F5 uses even more heat-resistant material, including gold leaf on the rear bulkhead and cerakote, a material used in gun barrels to prevent them from overheating under the wing and between the central parts. Venom F5 inboard mounted exhausts and I know I say this a lot, but it's bold and that's because it's genuinely bold.

I can't remember sitting in another vehicle that feels more like a race car than this one, it obviously starts with this amazing looking yolk, I'll come back to that in just a second, everything feels very minimalist and almost spartan, they haven't put any material superfluous where it does not belong to reduce weight and a good example. The thing is that with the leather they have only applied it in the places where it makes sense, particularly in the contact points, such as on the door cards and on these incredible carbon seats that, by the way, weigh three kilograms each , which is absolutely absurd. air conditioning there are a pair of vents that look almost 3D printed that you can direct to any of the passengers and if you look down there is a rotary dial that you can slide left and right to select between fan speed and the temperature and then you turn the dial to actually increase or decrease the amount you need there's also your gear selector down here your window controls a nose lift which is actually also a rear lift because it lifts the car front and rear to help you access steep areas and practicality.

The front does not have a trunk, but it has a couple of quite interesting options. There's a small area down here to slide your phone in, plus a glovebox in the passenger footwell which I'm told is a great place to carry. your wallet, your purse and it's also the perfect size for a nine millimeter pistol, so anyway, I'm told it's true, this yoke is absolutely mental, it's brilliant to look at and has some interesting functionality built right into it. the steering wheel. Sorry, the yoke too, so on the left side you have the wiper controls, on the right you have the headlight controls, you have the phone with volume controls and also this center switch to switch between driving modes, You have wet track resistance and Sport Plus. the all-singing, all-dancing F5 mode, giving you maximum power and lovely detail, this absolutely beautiful ignition button at the bottom, a brilliant piece of kit, so what's it really like to drive on the road?

Well, the first one is a little confusing. What you notice is how hot it is. It has air conditioner. I'm still sweating. However, there is a decent amount of space in the cabin. Two large Burly Lads can sit next to each other. Although there is incredible noise here. I'm not pushing it right now, but that V8 is stupendously loud even at cruising speed, so talk even if you want to have a conversation with your passenger and then when you put your foot down, don't expect a chat. Let's put it that way, the visibility is surprisingly impressive.

I have good vision in the front of the hood and also these exterior mirrors give me a lot of visibility on the sides of the cars, plus it is quite difficult to see what is happening behind. because of that huge engine cover, but the car has a camera system and an LCD screen instead of a rearview mirror, so overall it's pretty easy, it's somewhere you want it. As for the yolk, I thought I would hate it, but No, I don't hate it at all, obviously when you're maneuvering at low speed it's a bit of a joke because you end up feeling like you don't really know how to drive the car you're grabbing for. have a little direction. wheels that aren't there, plus the F5 doesn't have power steering so you get a huge arm workout every time you maneuver, one of the best parts has to be the gear selectors, they look amazing and feel absolutely tremendous and They make shifting gears so easy.

It is an experience that you want to be in manual mode all the time in this car, as for the gearbox, it is a seven-speed automated manual, a bit like the one you have in the Lamborghini Aventador, which means that the changes of Gears are not perfectly smooth, there is a bit of a lurch, but when you go at high speeds and shift they just break down, it's actually a pleasure to use. I think the biggest thing you take away from this car is the sound, it sounds like a race car and of course the speed you have.

I didn't want to know what to really expect from an 1800 horsepower car, but this is not what I expected. I expected to get close to the throttle and have the thing shoot and spit at me, but it's actually pretty benign, the traction control does that. It does a really good job of keeping that power under control and when you rev ​​between two thousand and 4000 RPM the cars are really planted and stable, it's only when you start approaching the redline towards seven eight thousand RPM that it becomes a little bit more To start with, It looks like a monster, it feels like a 500 horsepower car, but when you get to the Red Zone is when you feel what 1800 horsepower is like.

In fact the F5 only gives you 500 horsepower in sport mode, it's just an F5 mode where you get the maximum 1800 plus and even then the car won't give you full power until you're over 140 miles per hour just because it would overwhelm the tires and on that issue there is some concern for me, at least that the Michelin Pilot Sport cup 2 tires used by the F5 are not rated by Michelin to reach their theoretical top speed, but Hennessy remains confident that the tires are up to the job, time will obviously tell, so back to the original question, so 1800 horsepower is too good with my sensible hat on yes, but also no, this thing is absolutely Mega.

I don't know where you could ever use it in anger. Well, I'm very glad it exists. Hennessey has already reached a top speed of 270 miles per hour during the car's initial shakedown and in the future, as it develops the car, it will try to reach its hypothetical top speed of 310 miles per hour and perhaps even beyond, It remains to be seen whether he will achieve this. But personally, who will be the driver who is brave enough to attempt this feat. I wish you luck foreigner