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Jun 20, 2024

Hennessey's Venom F5 Revolution Roadster offers 1,817 hp, rooflessly

Making its debut at Monterey Car Week, we've got to say this Texan juggernaut is the most American way to lose a hairpiece Have you ever looked at the latest utterly insane trackday-focused

Making its debut at Monterey Car Week, we've got to say this Texan juggernaut is the most American way to lose a hairpiece

Have you ever looked at the latest utterly insane trackday-focused multi-million dollar hypercar and thought, “You know, I’d rather it be a convertible”? You have? Well, this might be just the car for you. Say hello to the Hennessey Venom F5 Revolution Roadster, a targa-topped slice of USDA Prime beef. Making its official debut at Monterey Car Week alongside contemporaries like the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport “Golden Era”, this Texan juggernaut takes Hennessey’s maddest hypercar yet and chops its roof off in the pursuit of absolutely annihilating toupees.

Pumping out a monstrous 1,817 horsepower from a twin-turbocharged iron-block 6.6-liter V8, this all-American sledgehammer sports a claimed top speed of more than 402 km/h. We’re talking Bugatti Veyron pace, here. However, even more impressive than the speed is the level of engineering that’s gone into this engine. After all, we’re talking about an overhead-valve pushrod V8 that spins to 8,500 RPM. No wonder the intake valves are coated in titanium and the exhaust valves are made out of Inconel.

The cylinders themselves are oversquare, with a 104.8-mm bore and 98.3-mm stroke, no larger than those in a Chevrolet Silverado HD 2500, and yet Hennessey’s engine still pushes out four times the power of a BMW M2’s S58 twin-turbocharged inline-six, partly thanks to two dinner-plate-sized 76-mm turbochargers. With cylinder pressures like that, it only makes sense that the block is made out of cast iron.

A robust iron block is old-school hot-rod stuff, yet the Hennessey Venon F5 Revolution Roadster is also an exercise in modern ultra-high-performance engineering. Featuring a carbon-fibre monocoque just like a McLaren P1, this Lone Star State rocket-sled weighs less than most Porsche 718 Boxsters.

Despite tipping the scales at a surprisingly reasonable figure, Hennessey hasn’t fitted this thing with all the creature comforts of a cardboard box. Customers get a digital instrument cluster, infotainment, leather-clad parts, and an artfully-sculpted set of paddle shifters working a sequential semi-automated manual gearbox. There’s even a steering yoke with nearly a dozen secondary controls on it, although given the pace of this car, maybe something round would’ve been a better choice.

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Texas isn’t exactly known for serpentine mountain passes, but the Venom F5 Revolution Roadster has promising hardware for when the tarmac gets twisty. At a glance, the presence of five different driving modes, electric power steering, ultra-fancy Penske dampers, and carbon-ceramic brakes almost suggests European handiwork, as if the person in charge of dialing in final settings spent countless hours bombing about rural Italy, stopping occasionally to refuel and roll a cigarette. Make no mistake, though — this thing’s red, white, and blue all over.

If you’d like to get your hands on this slice of American ambition, you’re out of luck. Hennessey only plans on building 18 Venom F5 Revolution Roadster hypercars, and all have been pre-sold, starting from a lavish US$3 million, which is about CDN$4,048,575. Sorry, recent lottery winners. You’ll just have to wait for one on the second-hand market. Still, what a feat, what a triumph, what a rage against the dying light of internal combustion’s future.

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