1817bhp Hennessey Venom F5 Revolution breaks COTA lap record – 300mph attempt up next
The track-focused Venom F5 Revolution hypercar has set a new production car lap record at Circuit of The Americas in Texas
Like its predecessor, the Hennessey Venom F5 set out to be the world’s fastest production car, but the track-honed Revolution version proves that it’s good for more than just top speed. Ahead of a 300mph top speed attempt later this year, the F5 has broken the production car lap record at its home track, Circuit of The Americas.
COTA is located just 100 miles from Hennessey’s development and production base in Sealy, Texas, and while the firm attempted to break the record earlier this year, poor conditions meant that a hot lap was out of the question. A return this month saw a production-spec F5 achieve a 2:10.90 lap, beating the previous record holder – Czinger’s 21C – by four tenths. For reference, the McLaren P1 broke the record in 2016 with a time almost seven seconds slower.
The record was third-party verified by RACELOGIC using VBOX satellite telemetry for accuracy. ‘There's even 'quite a bit more left in the car,' said John Hennessey, with the firm eyeing Laguna Seca and even a possible Nürburgring lap later this year once it's attempted a 300mph VMAX run…
While the F5 Revolution is built for the track with a full-width carbonfibre wing, new front splitter, dive planes, improved engine cooling and reworked suspension, it retains the same 1817bhp output as its top-speed-oriented counterpart. As a result, Le Mans champion and in-house Hennessey test driver David Donohue hit a staggering peak speed of 193.10mph along the course.
Speaking to evo, John Hennessey said: '...we wanted the Venom F5 to be the decathlete of hypercars. It's not just designed to go fast and straight line for VMAX, but nor is it just a track car. We wanted to have all the attributes of the highest performing hypercar available.' Despite wearing road-legal Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tyres, it achieved up to 1.59G in cornering and 1.61G under braking, with its setup honed by ex-Multimatic engineer Brian Jones, who oversaw the Mercedes-AMG One’s record-breaking Nürburgring lap.
With a record lap now in the bag, the firm now has its sights firmly set on that 300mph top speed, a figure that would make the F5 the world’s fastest production car. Hennessey said: 'The process of pushing our American hypercar to the limits makes our team of engineers, designers, and technicians better while also delivering an enhanced product and experience to our clients. We look forward to continuing the journey and pushing the Venom F5 to set new speed records in the future.'
Hennessey has already built and delivered 22 Venom F5s in various configurations, and while the coupe has sold out, a ‘handful’ of build slots for the Roadster and Revolution remain, with prices starting from around $2.7m (c£2.1m).
