300

That's the target for the two-way average speed that will make Hennessey's Venom F5 Evolution the world’s fastest production car. We join the test team - and slip behind the wheel ourselves

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PLUNGING BACK TO EARTH AFTER A 50-MILE-HIGH foray into the outer fringes of the atmosphere, the Falcon 9 booster reappears in the skies above Cape Canaveral like a huge lawn dart. A squirt of flame shoots from its base to arrest the hypersonic rate of descent. Straightening and slowing, it settles onto Landing Zone 1, the surreal scene played out in eerie silence. At first it seems the promised sonic boom has failed to materialise, but then two sharp cracks cleave the silence: the final mic-drop moment in a jaw-dropping demonstration of visionary engineering.

We're standing atop the control tower at the Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility. It makes a great —if distant — viewing platform for SpaceX’s latest launch, but we're not here to watch Elon’s brilliant bottle rocket. For behind us, way down below on the concrete apron, another pioneering story is nearing its crescendo.

Hennessey know this place well. In fact, it’s become something of a home from home. The fastest hypercars need a safe space in which to stretch their legs. Especially when they are in their development phase. Just as there are no old, bold pilots, testing production street cars with a 300mph capability isn’t a case of licking the stamp and sending it.

We join the HSV crew at a pivotal stage in the Venom F5’s journey towards the triple ton. Since production car development began in 2021, the F5 has been pushed progressively harder and faster, but the chase for a world record speed can’t be hurried. Especially when you're balancing the desire to shoot for the stars against the need to build and deliver cars to fulfil customer orders.

Hennessey buyers love the brand’s obsession with speed. It’s part of the company’s DNA. So, while the Venom F5 has been billed as a 300mph machine from the very beginning, John Hennessey has always been up-front about the challenges of getting the car to that epic number and the time it may take to get there.