Hennessey Built the Fastest, Craziest Stick-Shift Hypercar Ever Made, Company Rep Explains

To mark the occasion, autoevolution was happy to sit down with a leading man on the F5-M project, a maverick of a man whose keen engineer's eye signs off on so many aspects of every vehicle that runs through the Texas performance shop. Say hello to Nathan Malinick, Director of Design at Hennessey Performance Engineering. With the possible exception of working under Wernher Von Braun building the Saturn V, his full-time gig working under leading man and gearhead royalty John Hennessey must make Malinick's boss one of the most unique in the world.

As Malinick was eager to share, the process of taking a 300 mph-capable hypercar with an automated manual gearbox and swapping it out for a proper stick shift is the exact opposite of easy or straightforward. "Where it all begins is with the tub, and this is essentially an all-new carbon tub for us to package this gearbox," Malinick said of how radically different the F5-M is to the standard car. "The reasons for that are the front and rear bulkheads plus the firewall had to be adjusted to house the physical linkages and the new setup for the pedals."

As it turns out, the simple switch from foot controls mounted and hinged on the interior floor pan rather than the top of the footwell necessitated months of development and hundreds of thousands invested in R&D to make it happen. From the height and position of the center console inside the cockpit to the position of the HVAC vents and the amount of foot space in the driver's footwell, the internals of the Venom F5-M's interior needed to be comprehensively altered, modified, and otherwise reconfigured to form the space around the new transmission tunnel.

With acres upon acres of milled aluminum making up the vast majority of the new components inside, it's a welcome reprieve from endless grey plastics that larger OEMs would've implemented to make similar changes to one of their sports cars. For Hennessey, it's a sign they're still toeing the line between the most passionate tuners in America and a legitimate OEM just as well as they always have. "When you touch it [the interior], anything that you interact with, whether it's carbon, aluminum, titanium, or leather, that it's all the right materials," Malinick said of the extra attention to refinement at the heart of the Venom F5. "At this price point, our customers know the difference."

In truth, you might get the impression the cockpit of a Venom F5-M was pulled from some kind of military aircraft rather than a hypercar. Its steering wheel and milled aluminum toggle switches are more reminiscent of the control yoke from an AC-130 gunship or something of the sort. Meanwhile, those twin center HVAC vents appear to be inspired by the dual exhaust nozzles of an F/A-18 Super Hornet Navy fighter. According to Malinick and his team, this was a very deliberate design language. "With every detail, we've really tried to introduce a level of drama and storytelling that adds depth and value for the customers, on top of refinement," Malinick stated.

As it happens, Malinick spent time on staff with the design team for the Brazilian-based Embraer S.A., makers of airliners and military aircraft of all shapes and sizes. Looking at the exterior design of the Venom F5, regardless of the choice of transmission, is nothing short of aeronautical in its appearance. "To set this car apart from the standard Venom F5 Roadster, we have a beautifully sculpted and revised roof scoop that has an integrated rear vertical stabilizer in it," Malinick said of the exterior aero kit seemingly straight out of Lockheed Skunkworks.

"Additionally, it's got dive planes in the front of the car. It also has a livery designed specifically for this car. Because one of the other pieces we've been really excited about this year is the craftsmanship we're able to offer that we think is second to none." With multiple layers of carbon weave and color-matched paint making up the Venom F5's body shell, you'd be hard-pressed to figure that out for yourself with how smooth and blended each layer is. Acting just the same as a single sheet of steel or aluminum, it makes for both an impressive visual appearance plus it's a benefit for the ever-important aerodynamics of the F5, one of the only hypercars theoretically capable of reaching 300 mph in a flat-out sprint.

With that vertical stabilizer fin sticking out prominently like a Boeing 747 or something, it's easy to envision all this clever aero working in tandem to keep the Venom F5-M stabilized at ultra-high speeds. That prominent American flag flanking the side of the vertical fin completes a look so "murica" in its execution, we're supprised it doesn't play the Top Gun anthem every time you turn the key. But buyers have the option to fit whichever decal they want on this panel for racing or customization purposes.

As an impact statement to Koenigsegg, McLaren, Bugatti, and the other hypercar juggernauts of the industry, the Venom F5-M signals that even as automakers try to shun away traditional analog forms of driving, a handful of dedicated petrolheads are still interested in providing a genuine sports car experience the way they all used to be built for the past nine decades plus, just with more power than most old English sports from the 60s put together.

Only 12 Hennessey Venom F5-Ms will be manufactured for the entire planet. Of those, every single one has already been sold. It is likely to die-hard loyalist customers who already own multiple Hennessey builds, including the Venom F5 or its predecessor, the Venom GT. More to the point, the Venom F5-M only saw the light of day because Hennessey listened to customer feedback, indicating that Venom customers wanted a more engaging and primal driving experience than what a racing-focused automated manual transmission could provide.

One thing's for sure, any automaker that genuinely listens to its client base is a rare breed. For that, we owe Hennessey a great deal of gratitude. If only GM and VW were as receptive to their target audience as this is nowadays. One can only dream, right? But what do you all think? Does a proper manual gearbox sort of defeat the purpose of such a ludicrously overpowered vehicle? Or do you admire Hennessey's moxy for daring to build a car tailor-made to its customer's demand, regardless of whether the request is a little bit ridiculous? Let us know in the comments down below.

Many thanks to Nathan Malinick and the entire Hennessey team for taking the time to sit down with us. If only to make us jealous of a car we'll never be able to afford for about 40 minutes. Check back soon for more interviews and profiles right here on autoevolution.