What’s the fastest car in the world? Depending on who you ask, it’s either a prototype Bugatti Chiron or a Koenigsegg Agera. Both of those hypercars can generate over a 1,000-hp and hit extremely high speeds, but Hennessey says that its Venom F5 can do even better.

The Hennessey champion

Hennessey is a notorious car-tuning company that makes high performance versions of existing cars. However, when it’s not doing that, Hennessey is creating limited runs of hypercars with the aim of beating speed records. And with the Venom, which is a modified Lotus Exige, Hennessey actually managed to create the fastest car in the world at the time.

The Venom originally had a 1,241-hp engine that could accelerate it from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just 2.7 seconds. It topped out at a top speed of about 270 miles per hour and that was better than what the Bugatti Veyron could get. Hennessey held the title for some years and it did that by continuously upgrading the Venom. Eventually, it had a 1,451-hp engine.

However, in 2017, Koenigsegg’s Agera bested the Venom and posted a top speed of 277 miles per hour. And more recently, a prototype version of the Chiron blasted past that and posted a top speed of 304 miles per hour.

The Venom F5

In response, Hennessey is creating the Venom F5, which it hopes will dethrone both the Agera and the Chiron. The Agera is technically the record holder according to the Guinness Book of World Records, but that won’t stop Hennessey from trying to beat the Chiron anyways. 

The Venom F5 will be a total revamp of the Venom. Not only is Hennessey beefing up the engine, but it’s also modifying pretty much every other part of the car in the hopes that it’ll get more speed. According to Top Gear, the Venom F5 will have a 1,817-hp engine. The Chiron also has an 1,800-hp engine, but Hennessey claims that the Venom F5 will be much lighter than the Chiron.

That’s because Hennessey has also been doing a lot of weight saving measures on the Venom F5. Hennessey says that the Venom F5 will be almost 1,000-lb lighter than the Chiron, despite having an engine that delivers the same amount of horsepower. If what Hennessey says is true, then the Venom F5 may be able to beat the Chiron.

Back when Hennessey announced the Venom F5 a few years back, Road and Track estimated that it’ll cost about $1.2 million to make. However, given the recent developments, the Venom F5 will likely cost much more than that.

Can Hennessey do it?

Although Hennessey has won the crown in the past, there are reasons why this Venom F5 may not be as fast as Hennessey claims it will be. Namely, Hennessey incorrectly thought that the Chiron could not break the 300 miles per hour barrier because of its tires. Instead, Hennessey claimed that the tires on the Venom F5 will be able to do that.

As Jalopnik showed, physics simply disagrees with Hennessey there. And surely enough, the Chiron broke the 300 miles per hour barrier before the Venom F5 did. This isn’t to say that the Venom F5 won’t be able to hit 300 miles per hour, but it goes to show that Hennessey’s claims should be met with some skepticism. 

And once again, the official speed record for a production car still belongs to the Agera. That’s because to set that record, the car has to drive in both directions and then the average speed between those two runs becomes the average top speed of the car. The Chiron only hit 304 miles per hour in one direction, whereas the Agera averaged 277 miles per hour in both. The Venom F5 may be able to beat the Agera’s record right now, but time will tell.