Hennessey Special Vehicles is making 24 examples of the Venom F5 coupe and all of them have long been sold. As it turns out, one-percenters are being given a new opportunity to get behind the wheel of what could be the fastest production car. Much like the Venom GT lost its roof for a Spyder version, the Venom F5 will receive the Roadster treatment. A sketch shows what appears to be a removable targa panel to echo its predecessor.
The new Venom F5 Roadster will inherit the twin-turbo 6.6-liter V8 "Fury" engine from the coupe. It's going to produce the same colossal output of 1,817 horsepower at 8,000 rpm and 1,193 pound-feet (1,617 Newton-meters) of torque from 5,000 rpm. Loosely based on an LS V8, the engine is linked to a seven-speed, single-clutch, semi-automatic transmission equipped with paddle shifters.
Hennessey Venom F5 Lausanne Silver
It has some big shoes to fill considering the old Venom GT Spyder hit 265.6 mph (427.4 km/h) back on March 25, 2016 at the Naval Air Station Lemoore. Hennessey's open-top speed machine managed to beat the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport Vitesse by 11 mph. To celebrate the achievement, the Texas-based tuner offered a trio of World Record Edition Venom GT Spyders for $1.3 million before taxes.
Since then, the new F5 in coupe guise has been gradually approaching the 300-mph barrier. In February 2022 at at the Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds in Florida, a prototype used to conduct final calibrations went on to reach 271.6 mph (437.1 km/h). Logic tells us Hennessey is interested in breaking speed records with the F5 Roadster as well, but the first order of business is to dethrone the 304-mph Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+.
The world premiere is scheduled to take place on August 9 ahead of a public debut at The Quail less than two weeks later during the Monterey Car Week. Pricing details have not been disclosed, but we will remind you the coupe retailed for a cool $2.1 million. If history has taught us anything, it's that convertibles are usually more expensive than their fixed-roof equivalents.
