Hennessey’s Venom F5 will have more than 1,600bhp

Hennessey has confirmed that its incoming hypercar – the Venom F5 – will produce more than 1,600bhp. You will note that 1,600bhp is not a small amount of horsepower. It is many.

Powering the Venom F5 will be a custom built 7.6-litre twin-turbo V8, pumping out all those horsepowers, as well as 1,300lb ft of torque at 4,400rpm.

We’re told this new V8 gets an aluminium machined engine block, steel cylinder sleeves, ball-bearing turbos with billet compressor wheels, stainless steel turbo headers and a dry-sump set-up. Also did you get the bit about 1,600bhp being a lot? It is a lot.

“We’re feeling confident in our quest to set new records in 2019,” said John Hennessey. Ah yes, records.

Ever since John’s Venom GT hit 270mph back in 2014, he’s been watching the top speed arms race with interest. Upon hearing the news of the Agera RS’s 277mph run last year, he told TG that Koenigsegg's V8 hypercar “crushed our number, and I think that’s great.”

“Christian did it right,” he added. “He just played it cool and built a dedicated car to smoke everybody. He laid the hammer down.”

Well, now we’ve seen the size of John’s hammer, and it’s a big ‘un. The car will also be more than just a ‘straight-line missile’. Hennessey plans on running the F5 at the Nürburgring too, where it’d have “the credentials of a sub-seven-minute lap time”.

It's quick, then. If you want one, you too will have to be quick. Hennessey plans on building 24 F5s – at around $1.6m each – and 15 have already been spoken for.