The £2.2m Hennessey Venom F5 Evolution has twice the power of a Bugatti Veyron
Texan engineering firm Hennessey has extracted even more power from its Venom F5 hypercar as it guns for the big 300
Hennessey Performance has been hard at work on its Venom F5 hypercar since production car development began back in 2021, and it’s finally nearing its 300mph target. It now hopes that the final piece in the puzzle will be the new F5 Evolution, a more powerful, comfortable and capable iteration of its V8-powered hypercar.
As we discovered during our time with company founder and CEO, John Hennessey, the model is a product of customer demand. He said: ‘During the past three years we’ve delivered nearly 30 F5’s to clients all around the world. Some of our owners requested even more power, which led us to develop the new Hennessey Venom F5 Evolution.’ Existing owners, who can retrofit the Evolution kit for $285,000 (£215,000), requested everything from more comfortable seats to adaptive suspension and even the ability to go endurance racing, which is precisely what the Evolution caters for.
Given the highly strung nature of the F5’s pure-combustion 6.6-litre twin-turbocharged ‘Fury’ V8, you’d think that long stints on track would be out of the question, but Hennessey says otherwise. Thanks to a partnership with UK-based Ilmor Engineering, the firm managed to not only improve longevity for track use, but also find an additional 214bhp, bringing total output to 2031bhp – that’s over double the output of the original Bugatti Veyron 16.4, and 453bhp more than the Chiron Super Sport that currently holds the production car speed record…
This gain in performance comes from a number of hardware changes including new 7680 turbochargers from Precision, optimised billet aluminium pistons, uprated connecting rods, titanium exhaust valves and larger fuel injectors to supply it with the huge quantities of high-ethanol E85 fuel it needs. The result is a quoted 0-200mph time of just 10.3sec, putting it four seconds ahead of the Koenigsegg Agera – we’ll have to wait a little longer for its official VMAX.
To manage this extra performance and cater to customer demands, Hennessey has also developed a new adaptive suspension system for the Evolution, designed to make both track driving and comfortable long-distance cruises a possibility – the driver can choose between five modes via a toggle on the steering wheel: Sport, Road Race, Drag, Wet and F5 Mode, unlocking every last drop of performance. To find out what that’s like in reality, pick up a copy of evo issue 333 where we experience it for ourselves.
The Venom F5 Evolution also receives revised aerodynamics to improve stability and performance on track, with Formula One and Indycar aerodynamicist Dr. Mark Handford having a say in this redesign. The front splitter is now entirely new, with front dive planes, tyre wake deflectors, front arch louvres and a gurney flap on the rear spoiler all designed to contribute to a performance bump.
If the new adaptive suspension doesn’t provide enough extra comfort, Hennessey is also offering optional leather upholstered ‘Touring’ seats with added bolstering and even an optional Touring exhaust system, to make long distances that bit more palatable. There’s Apple Carplay too, and even a drinks holder constructed from carbonfibre.
The Evolution package is available to all new and existing Venom F5 customers across coupe, roadster and Revolution models, with the conversion costing $285,000 (£215,000). Standalone, the Venom F5 Evolution costs from $3m (£2.26m) before options.
Pick up a copy of evo issue 333 here to read Dickie Meaden’s experience with the F5 Evolution, and watch episode 17 of the evo podcast for our deep-dive interview with company founder and CEO John Hennessey.
