Texas-based hypercar manufacturer Hennessey celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Venom GT becoming the world’s fastest car in February 2014 and plans for its Venom F5 to make more history by breaking the 300mph mark in 2024.

The Hennessey Venom GT’s record-breaking top speed of 270.49mph ten years ago was enough to beat the previous record of 268.86mph held by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport to become the fastest production car ever and to this day it remains the world’s fastest manual transmission car.

Now, in 2024, after delivering 22 of its Venom F5 hypercars to customers and with an expanded engineering team, Hennessey is aiming to go even further. The Venom F5 has already achieved over 270mph during development at the former NASA Shuttle Landing Facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida but a sufficient runway or public road with a long straight is now required to see whether the 1,817bhp twin-turbo V8 can achieve 300mph.

John Hennessey, company founder and CEO: “Our hypercar has a simulated theoretical top speed of 328mph, but we’re certainly not chasing that number. Breaking 300mph in two directions is this year’s goal, while hitting 500km/h (310.8mph) in one direction would be the ultimate way of celebrating the internal combustion engine!”

Hennessey will work with recently recruited former AMG ONE Chief Engineer Brian Jones and 2023 Pikes Peak record-setting racing driver David Donohue to shape the car and conduct high-speed testing before hopefully achieving the feat. Donohue joined the brand as its hypercar test driver in 2023 and brings a wealth of experience having won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, North American Touring Car Championship, and the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Brian Jones, Hennessey VP of Engineering: “I consider the Venom F5 a perfect demonstration of ‘peak combustion’ – it blends 1,817bhp of twin-turbocharged V8 power with just 2,998lbs (1,360kg) of mass to deliver extreme acceleration capabilities. We know for sure we have the power to achieve our goals, so our team will work to optimise power delivery and aerodynamics as we push for top speed.”

While attempting this record, Hennessey is still in the business of selling cars and has a limited selection of build slots available for other open-top and track-focused variants of the Venom F5.

words: Mike Booth
pictures: Hennessey