- Hennessey has revealed the $2.65 million Venom F5-M Roadster, the world’s most powerful manual-shift production car.
- The 1,817 hp F5-M ditches the regular F5’s seven-speed paddle-shift transmission for a six-speed gated manual and gains a large dorsal fin.
- Only 12 manual cars will be built out of a total Roadster run of 30 units, and they are all sold.
Former JLR chassis guru Mike Cross once told me he thought it was no bad thing that there weren’t many 500+hp cars available with manual transmissions because, with that much grunt on hand, drivers had enough to deal with. Heaven knows what Cross would make of the new Hennessey Venom F5-M, which has a six-speed manual transmission and a whopping 1,817 hp (1,842 PS).
The world’s most powerful manual-shift production car is based on the existing Venom F5 Roadster, but swaps that car’s seven-speed automated manual for a true six-speed manual with a billet aluminum shift gate. That’s hooked up to the same 6.6-liter twin-turbo V8 and makes the same power and 1,193 lb-ft (1,618 Nm) of torque. It sounds like an insane idea, and that makes it a great one in our book.
Related: Hennessey Venom F5 Needs Just A Half-Mile To Hit 219 MPH
Hennessey doesn’t provide any performance figures, though it’s inevitable that the $2.65 million F5-M won’t be as quick as its paddle-shift brother in a drag race. Not that the buyers of the 12 cars being built will care, because driving a manual is about the feel not just going fast. And besides, the M is still going to be quicker than just about any other car on the road.
Though the transmission swap is the big news here, it’s not the only feature differentiating the F5-M from a regular F5 Roadster. The three-pedal car also gains a huge 55-inch (1,400 mm) dorsal fin that stretches from behind the seats where the roof-mounted air scoop is located and out to the trailing edge of the rear deck.
Joining the new pedal box and carbon fiber/aluminum shifter in the cabin is a wider console in which the previously vertically stacked circular air vents are replaced by a pair arranged horizontally. Carried over is Hennessey‘s yoke-style steering wheel that features plenty of buttons but no top section to spoil the view of the rectangular digital gauge pack.
“We’re extreme, we’re authentic, plus we’re distinctly and uniquely American [and] these characteristics shine through in the design of the F5-M…and how it performs,” said Nathan Malinick, Hennessey Director of Design.
“This is a car for bold and brave driving enthusiasts who like their hypercars to thrill with wild power, dramatic design, and an experience behind the wheel that is incomparable to anything else on Earth.”
