Incredible Hennessey Venom F5 V8 Spits Flames On The Dyno

Hennessey is primarily known for taking cars, trucks, and SUVs from various manufacturers and giving them significantly more power, improved suspension, and modified styling. One of the biggest projects Hennessey has ever undertaken is its Venom F5 supercar. Hennessey wants the vehicle to be the most powerful production car ever made and is seeking the top speed crown.

The engine at the heart of the slick Venom F5 is an in-house built and modified 6.6-liter twin-turbo pushrod V8 engine. While it uses push-rod technology, it makes an incredible amount of horsepower. The engine produces 1,817 hp at 8,000 rpm and a massive 1,193 pound-feet of torque.

Another impressive factoid about the Fury V8 is that 1,000 pound-foot of torque is available across an extremely broad RPM range between 2,000 and 8,000 RPM. That means lots of torque is underfoot anytime the driver steps on the throttle. With the massive amount of horsepower the engine produces, it sits above and beyond other hypercars on the market today, such as the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+, reports Autoblog.

Hennessey has shared a video of a production version of the Fury V8 nestled in the back of a Venom F5 strapped to a chassis dyno. While we don't get to see the power numbers, we get to hear the engine scream and the whine of the turbos. If you see the Venom F5 sitting still, you might expect it to sound like an Italian supercar from Ferrari or Lamborghini.

The V8 engine inside the Venom F5 sounds more like a NASCAR stock car than something from Italy. It's also fun to watch the turbocharged V8 engine belch flames when the throttle is lifted. For those who might not know, a chassis dyno is a machine that's able to accurately record the amount of horsepower and torque produced at the rear wheels.

Typically, when manufacturers quote horsepower and torque numbers, they quote them at the engine crankshaft. Both horsepower and torque are reduced between the engine and the ground because of losses in the vehicle's drivetrain. In some instances, significant amounts of horsepower can be lost before getting to the rear wheels. Another benefit in putting a highly tuned engine nestled inside a vehicle on a dyno is that it can be custom-tuned to produce the most power possible.

Of course, it's not just the enging which makes the Hennessey Venom F5 special. The vehicle's core is a custom-built chassis with a carbon fiber body designed specifically for aerodynamics and low drag: key to achieving a high top speed. Designing and building the car required Hennessey to produce more than 3,000 custom parts just for the car, the automaker says.

While many hypercars today use all-wheel drive to help get their huge horsepower and torque to the ground, Hennessey is building the Venom F5 as rear-wheel drive only. We already suspect that driving a car with over 1,800 horsepower – and yet which only weighs 2,998 pounds – may be a handful.

With its massive power output and low weight, Hennessey says the F5 produces 1,298 horsepower per ton. That is a number that significantly exceeds any other vehicle on the road today. The twin-turbo V8 makes 277 horsepower per liter, and has a power to weight ratio of 1.34 horsepower/kg. Hennessey claims that's the highest power to weight ratio of any road car.

Hennessey built the Venom F5 to exceed 500 kph or 311 mph on an official two-way validated speed run; it intends to achieve this feat with verification by Racelogic / VBOX engineers. Other automotive manufacturers have held the title of the fastest road car in the past and have utilized the same system to verify their speed.

The 6.6-liter Fury V8 engine is a pushrod cross-plane crank motor that weighs 617 pounds. Hennessey uses a cast-iron block with aluminum cylinder heads. Another tidbit noted in the dyno video is that the car has the lumpy sound typically associated with racing cars at idle. Each engine is handbuilt, utilizing lightweight aluminum, titanium, and Inconel materials. Only 24 hardtop Venom F5 hypercars will be produced, with only 12 offered in the US. Each will cost around $1.6 million.