The Hennessey Venom F5 Has Somehow Gained Even More Power

We can’t possibly imagine anyone poring over the spec sheet of the 1817bhp Hennessey Venom F5 and thinking ‘nice, but it needs a bit more power’. That doesn’t account for the fact, though, that the Texan tuner/hypercar builder is run by John Hennessey, a man for whom the concept of ‘too much power’ doesn’t really exist.

As a result, Hennessey has teamed up with high-performance powertrain specialist Ilmor to extract an extra 214bhp from the Venom’s 6.6-litre twin-turbo V8, creating a new version named the F5 Evolution in the process.

That’s a grand total of 2031bhp, to save you the maths, which makes it the most powerful road car ever purely powered by combustion. To be fair, the ‘regular’ Venom F5 already held that title, but must be nice to have the extra wiggle room. Torque has had a similarly massive bump from 1193 to 1445lb ft.

It’s found this extra shove by fitting bigger turbochargers, oval-shaped billet pistons and aluminium conrods, titanium exhaust valves and high-flow fuel injectors. While we’re used to being given 0-62mph times, Hennessey hasn’t bothered and has instead supplied us with a quoted 0-200mph time: 10.3 seconds.

The Evolution upgrade isn’t all about power though. Okay, it’s mostly about power, but Hennessey’s also fitted a new adaptive suspension system that alters ride height, stiffness and steering response, and gets a unique setup for each of the Venom’s five drive modes – Sport, Road Race, Drag, Wet, and Oh My God I’ve Just Uncorked 2031bhp And Soiled Myself, which Hennessey shortens to F5 mode.

This suspension works in conjunction with revised aerodynamics, with a new front splitter, heavily reworked underbody and a new rear Gurney flap, all of which is said to bring improvements to stability both at high speed and under braking.

Finally, and separately to the Evolution upgrade, Hennessey’s developed a new Touring package, designed to increase day-to-day usability, clearly a concern for lots of people with 2031bhp at their disposal. Changes include the option of new, more bolstered Touring seats, and a radical new item called a *checks notes* cupholder.

The engine, suspension and aero changes brought by the Evolution package are now available on new Venom F5 orders. Existing owners, meanwhile, can send their car back to Texas along with a cheque for $285,000 (around £215,000) and get the package retrofitted too.