Hennessey starts building Venom F5, teases potential Roadster version
Just 24 coupes will be sold, each costing $1.6 million.
Texas-based Hennessey Specialty Vehicles has some more news on its wild 1,600-horsepower Venom F5 supercar. The company announced Wednesday that it has begun building the first Venom F5, with a prototype scheduled to start testing before the end of 2019. Hennessey also gave us our first glimpse at a possible Roadster version of the car.
The Venom F5, you might recall, debuted back in 2017 with the goal of cracking the 300-miles-per-hour barrier. Hennessey, also known for tuning other manufacturers' cars to produce ludicrous amounts of horsepower, said the car would have a twin-turbo V8 engine good for 1,600 hp. Acceleration stats were impressive, too, with 0 to 186 mph promised to take less than 10 seconds. Just 24 coupes are to be built, with each costing a cool $1.6 million.
If built, the Venom F5 Roadster would cost more than $1.6 million and wouldn't begin production until 2021 or later.
Today's announcement clarifies further than Hennessey has contracted with UK-based Delta Motorsport to build the Venom F5's carbon-fiber tub. What's even more interesting is that Hennessey says the tub is designed to be either a standard coupe or an open-top convertible.
While there's no confirmation yet that a Venom F5 Roadster will be built, these images at least show what such a car might look like. Hennessey says that if it decides to build the Roadster, it would be in addition to the currently planned 24 coupes, and at a price above $1.6 million. Moreover, the Roadster wouldn't start production before 2021 or later because the company "is committed to building coupes through 2020."
With quite some time having passed since Hennessey first revealed the Venom F5, it's reassuring to see the company is making progress toward putting the carbon-fiber supercar into production in coupe form. And it's even more exciting to hear there's a possibility of a 1,600-hp, 300-mph convertible in the future.
