THIS is the world’s most powerful open-top hypercar yet! – The Hennessey Venom F5 roadster that could do 300 MPH

It seriously feels like August is a hyper car launch month. Hennessey have unveiled their Venom F5 roadster taunted to be the world’s first 300 MPH roadster. This comes right in the mix of launches by Bugatti, Mclaren and Koenigsegg with their Mistral, Solus GT and CC850 respectively. Let’s have a look!

The Venom F5 roadster is basically just an open top version of their fixed roof Venom F5 which is a monster in itself. The roadster comes with the same Fury V8 that powers the fixed roof sibling producing an implausible and possibly absurd 1817 BHP making it the world’s most powerful roadster yet! Even the Bugatti Mistral produces just around 1600 HP. Although, power figures don’t mean as much when it comes to proper engineering, it is still astounding that Hennessey can produce 1800+ HP from a V8. “American motor” as they say it!

While the Venom F5 might not look as striking or as much of a tasteful art piece as the others, it is no less from an engineering stand point. No one knows who’d come up victorious in this battle for land speed records, it certainly is the best set of competitors we’ve had in years. Most conspicuous is the hypercar’s new roofline. In contrast to the F5 Coupe, the F5 Roadster’s roof has been re-engineered with a removable panel crafted from rigid carbon fiber composites. The single-piece roof is fully insulated against the elements and lined with soft Alcantara upholstery. The weatherproof panel is secured with four quick-release bolts and a pair of high-strength latches to withstand the hypercar’s staggering acceleration capabilities and aerodynamic forces at extreme speed. The lightweight roof panel weighs a mere 18 lbs (8 kgs), making removal and installation easy for one person.

Owners may choose to store the panel in a bespoke Merino wool travel bag or as a standalone work-of-art on a custom-made, sculptural pedestal – devised by Hennessey’s in-house design team to enhance the ownership experience. This has been seen in the Koenigseggs ever since they launched the CC8S 20 years ago but, Hennessey did find a creative way to make their roof mechanism stand out. The roof pedestal, crafted in carbon fiber like the roof panel, replicates the design themes from the Venom F5 Roadster. Viewed from above, its ‘blade legs’ as Hennsessy likes to call it, traces the shape of the car’s rear decklid, while the side profile uses the hypercar’s bodyside air intake form. A streamlined stand displays the ‘Venom F5 Roadster’ script on the front face of the base in the same eight-microns thin aluminum as the car’s ‘H’ nose badge. At power levels of over 1800 HP and top speeds of 300 MPH, a thick sharp badge might not be the safest choice!

The Venom F5 Roadster features a new tempered glass engine viewing window. This panel, in the middle of the rear engine cover, spotlights the massive ‘Fury’ V8 engine in all its glory. Its engineering was no simple task – developed and certified for use in jet aircraft. According to Hennessey, the sizeable glass panel can withstand aerodynamic forces exceeding 300 mph and temperatures beyond 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (540 degrees Celsius). The engine viewing window is encapsulated within a removable carbon fiber engine cover that features intricately-milled heat extraction holes that match those in the rear bumper. Additional heat extraction is achieved by dual aluminum air vents, four on each side of the glass panel, which match the vents behind each front wheel.

The Roadster is further distinguished from its coupe sibling by its unique wheels. Forged from aluminum alloy and then milled, the lightweight wheels feature seven pairs of spokes, each resembling an elongated Hennessey ‘H’. Milled into the outer face of each wheel rim is the ‘Hennessey’ script, mirrored by the ‘Roadster’ script on the opposite side. Owners may opt to upgrade the Hyper Silver wheels to highly polished aluminum – this exclusive finish requires a painstaking process of hand polishing that takes weeks to complete. The wheels are secured with five titanium nuts, an alloy revered for its strength, heat tolerance, corrosion resistance, and extremely low mass.

Hennessey’s Venom F5 Coupe was engineered from the outset with an open-top version in mind, so only minor adjustments were required to deliver coupe-rivaling chassis rigidity, strength, and stiffness – this ensures that drivers may access the same crisp handling characteristics as the Venom F5 Coupe with or without the roof in place. This is a completely different approach when compared to the Bugatti Mistral which was designed from the ground up to be the Chiron’s roadster version and not just a Chiron without a roof.

Here’s what John Hennessey had to say, “We created the Venom F5 to be the ultimate expression of a hypercar. The Roadster version takes the Coupe’s speed, exhilaration, and awe, plus a sprinkling of respect-inducing fear, to a new, truly visceral level that brings owners closer to the Venom F5’s extreme performance. Our 1,817 bhp ‘Fury’ engine screams behind the exposed cockpit, with its roar unobstructed by a roof – it is an unmatched automotive experience.” At $3 million a pop, this isn’t exactly a cheaper alternative to the hypercars. But, dare I say it, the engineering aspect definitely makes this rocketship for the road – worth it.