A new era of electric hypercars is about to begin, spearheaded by the Rimac C_Two and Pininfarina PF0. Both cars will boast extraordinary performance, delivering outputs approaching 2,000 hp. Hennessey Performance, on the other hand, has no plans to embrace electrification and will continue to stuff ridiculously powerful, old-school combustion engines in its future production cars like the upcoming Venom F5 hypercar. "If everybody is moving in one direction, I like to go the opposite way," John Hennessey told Top Gear.
"If the market is moving towards electrification, we are the old-school guys who believe in a maximum power to weight ratio delivered via a 1,600bhp-plus, twin-turbo V8 internal combustion engine," he said, referring to other famous tuners like Colin Chapman and Carrol Shelby and the cars they were building more than 50 years ago.
To be fair, the Venom F5 doesn't need electrification to boost the performance. Its twin-turbo 7.6-liter V8 already produces a claimed 1,600 hp, and Hennessey says the engine has been tested at well over 2,000 hp.
Hennessey also doesn't seem phased by its rivals, either. "Giving our customers the most exciting driving experience is what it's all about for us," he said. "However, I love that Christian and the Koenigsegg team are always pushing themselves to build faster cars. And don't forget about Bugatti – if they decide to build a Chiron Super Sport you can bet that it will be a contender."
The final horsepower figure for the production F5 will be revealed "in due course," but Hennessey claims it will deliver the required power to break the 300-mph barrier. Hennessey plans to build the first prototypes of its 300-mph hypercar in June before revealing the production version to customers in August at Pebble Beach.
The final production car won't be publically revealed until 2020, however. Before then, Hennessey will be testing the F5 at higher speeds from September this year. Only 24 examples are being produced, each costing $1.6 million, but only a few are still available.