Hennessey will make a top-speed record attempt later this year with its F5 supercar, the company announced Tuesday in a press release. A firm date hasn’t been set, though, as the company is still looking for a suitably long stretch of public road or runway to unleash the 1,817-hp F5.
The record attempt, which targets a top speed of more than 300 mph, will coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Hennessey Venom GT reaching 270.49 mph on a NASA runway. Hennessey claimed a record for world’s fastest production time, as the top speed beat the previous record of 268.86 mph set by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, but the legitimacy of that claim was questioned because of the tiny number of Venom GTs actually built.
hennessey venom gt
Hennessey will once again target Bugatti, which won the race to 300 mph in 2019. A Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ reached 304.7 mph, but that record is contested because Bugatti only recorded a speed in one direction. A two-way average is the standard for record attempts, and by that measure the SSC Tuatara is the fastest, having achieved a 282.9-mph average in 2021, beating the previous record of 277.9 mph set by the Koenigsegg Agera RS in 2017.
Speaking of Koenigsegg, the Swedish supercar builder will make its own record attempt this year as well, with the Jesko Absolut. In a recent interview, company founder Christian von Koenigsegg said theoretical models based on gearing and power curve have indicated a top speed above 310 mph for the Jesko Absolut, the low-drag version of Koenigsegg’s latest supercar.
“I love that Koenigsegg is gearing up for big speed,” Hennessey founder John Hennessey said in a statement, “I hope that Bugatti joins the party too.” Hennessey said his company’s simulations have indicated a theoretical top speed of 328 mph for the Venom F5, but said that isn’t the goal right now. The company will first focus on surpassing 300 mph in both directions, and possibly reaching 310 mph in one direction, he said.
The time is right for a record attempt because Hennessey has delivered 22 of the planned 24 Venom F5 coupes to customers (other variants are planned), and has put an expanded engineering team in place, Hennessey said. Driving duties will be handled by 24 Hours of Le Mans and Pikes Peak veteran David Donohue, son of racing legend Mark Donohue.
