- The Venom F5 Revolution has reclaimed the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) track record.
- It beat the previous record holder, the Czinger 21C, with a lap time of 2:10.90 seconds, which is 0.43 seconds faster.
Knowing that a rival supercar brand held the lap record at its local track can’t have been easy for Hennessey, but the Texan firm won’t be losing any more sleep over the matter. Hennessey has revealed today that it has smashed the lap record at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin with its Venom F5 Revolution.
Wearing street-legal, but very much track-focused Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires, the Revolution lapped COTA in 2:10.90, beating the 2:11.33 time set by the previous record holder, the Czinger 21C, by 0.43 seconds. And underlining just how much supercar technology has advanced in the past decade, the F5 also proved nearly 7 seconds faster than McLaren’s legendary P1 hybrid, which previously completed the 3.41-mile (5.5 km) course in 2:17.12 seconds.
The F5’s 1,817 hp (1,842 PS), 6.6-liter, twin-turbo V8 accelerated it to speeds as high as 193 mph (311 kmh) on the fastest part of the track and driver, former Le Mans class winner, David Donohue, experienced up to 1.59g of lateral force during cornering, and 1.61g when asking everything of the carbon ceramic Brembo brakes.
Related: Hennessey Pours Gas On The Fire To Reach 300 MPH
The Revolution-spec Venom doesn’t get any more power than a regular F5, but it does feature multiple chassis and aero tweaks that make it more capable on a track. Brian Jones, formerly chief engineer on the AMG One, and now employed full time by Hennessey, oversaw the Revolution project, which added a full-width carbon rear wing, larger splitter and rear diffuser, revised suspension tuning and improved cooling to the stock Venom F5 coupe.
Hennessey says that while the standard coupe has sold out, a handful of build slots are still available for the Venom F5 Roadster and Revolution, and it must be hoping that bagging the COTA record will add a name or two to the order bank. But the company, based in Sealy, around 100 miles (160 km) from the track, will be expecting to generate even more exposure later this year when it pushes the F5 beyond 300 mph (483 kmh).
A non-Revolution model achieved more than 270 mph (435 kmh) during development at the former NASA Shuttle Landing Facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida, and the firm is now looking for a suitable runway or public road with enough space to achieve a true vmax – and hopefully beat the 304.8 mph (490.5 kmh) record set by Bugatti’s Chiron SuperSport 300+ in 2019.
