Watch out Koenigsegg: Hennessey wants to take the 0-400-0kph world record

“That is definitely on the list,” says John Hennessey about beating the 0-400-0kph world record that Koenigsegg recently set with the Jesko Absolut. “That may be something that we'll be doing in the not-too-distant future. Honestly, we'd like to be the first manufacturer to go 0-500-0kph. You’re the first person I’ve said that to outside the company. That's something that we've honestly thought of, so maybe we could set a totally new standard.”

Yeah, it’ll come as no surprise to anyone that Hennessey’s 1,817bhp, 1,360kg Venom F5 is really rather quick. In fact, during some acceleration testing recently the F5 ran almost 222mph in the half-mile with pro driver David Donohue at the wheel. Heck, it ran 219mph with Hennessey himself driving. 

“After we got back from the test, we started looking at the data,” Hennessey told TG. “We ran from 100 to 200mph in 6.81 seconds, and I wanted to compare our speeds with what some of the other hypercars have run. A client of ours Steve Hamilton owns a Rimac Nevera and a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport. He put out a video recently where the Nevera runs 206mph in the half-mile. So, we beat the Nevera by at least 15mph in the half-mile. The Chiron ran 193mph in the half-mile, so we beat that by 28mph. 

“We had no intention of going out and setting a record. We’re running Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tyres with full 45psi tyre pressures, so we really had no focus on the launch. I think our best 0-60mph time was a 2.7s on one of the runs.

“We looked back at Koenigsegg when they ran their 0-400-0kph record and we were actually a little bit faster than the Jesko – at least to the half-mile. So again, we’re not claiming any kind of record, it was just an engineering test but it goes back to what I said when we introduced F5 to the world – we wanted F5 to be the decathlete of hypercars.

“We went to COTA and set a lap record earlier this year and we’ve been working towards top speed. This was a test geared towards optimising the car for Vmax runs, but by virtue of just going out and sorting the car for that purpose, we noticed that our acceleration was pretty impressive.”

Yeah, we’d argue that’s just a little bit impressive. It does sound like the 300mph+ top speed run is the most important metric for Hennessey right now, though. 

“It’s good competition,” the Texan told TG. “Whether it’s us, Koenigsegg or another car company, the first car that can break 300mph with a two-way average will be a big deal. For us, on one of those directions we would like to run over 500kph (310.68mph).”

Yikes. Of course, you may remember that earlier this month Christian von Koenigsegg told the Top Gear magazine podcast that simulations put the Jesko Absolut ‘beyond 500kph’. The question now is which hypercar maker can find the perfect location first, and who will be able to set an official record with a two-way average above 300mph? 

Things are about to get very fast indeed.