Hennessey Venom F5-M Revealed as 2,031bhp Manual Hypercar Priced From $2.65 Million

Hennessey has revealed the Venom F5-M, a six-speed manual hypercar that makes its global debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on 9 July. For the tiny group of buyers who can afford one, it offers something that has almost vanished at this level of performance: a gated manual gearbox bolted to a 2,031bhp twin-turbo V8. Priced from $2.65 million before taxes and limited to just 12 open-top Roadsters worldwide, it arrives as the most powerful manual road car ever built.

The Texas firm has spent the past few years pushing the Venom F5 to 300mph and beyond. The F5-M takes a different route. Rather than chase a bigger top-speed number, Hennessey has stripped away the automated gearbox and the fixed roof, handing the driver three pedals and open sky. The result is a car built around feel rather than lap times, aimed squarely at collectors who still want to change gear themselves.

What Sets the Venom F5-M Apart

The F5-M is not a standard Venom F5 with a manual bolted in. Hennessey has given it a new carbon fibre tub, fresh bodywork and revised aerodynamics, all reworked around the open Roadster layout and the taller centre console the gearbox demands. The most obvious change sits on top: a 55-inch (1,400mm) dorsal fin that runs from a roof-mounted air intake back to the trailing edge of the rear deck.

That fin does more than mark the car out in a car park. It channels cool air toward the engine bay through a built-in roof scoop, feeds airflow down each flank, and helps keep the F5-M stable at speeds past 200mph. On the first car it also carries a personal touch, with hand-painted Union and Stars and Stripes flags on either side of the trailing end, both rendered in the same gold used for the rest of the livery accents.

Nathan Malinick, Director of Design, explained how the gearbox reshaped the whole car. “Our decision to offer a manual gearbox fundamentally changed the Venom F5. It promoted driver interaction and engagement to the primary focus; it delivered freedom to explore visual presence and aerodynamics in totally new ways; and it enabled a fully-redesigned center console. The F5-M is not simply an F5 with a manual transmission – it is a complete design response to a very different kind of driver involvement.”

A 2,031bhp V8 and a Gated Six-Speed

Under the rear deck sits Hennessey’s 6.6-litre twin-turbocharged “Fury” V8, producing 2,031bhp and driving the rear wheels alone. That figure alone confirms the F5-M as the most powerful manual road car in the world. Hennessey pairs the engine with traction control and engine management tuned to hand power to the road in a clean, linear way, so the driver can meter output gear by gear rather than fight it.

The star of the cabin is the gearbox itself. A billet aluminium shifter sits in a precision-milled six-speed gate, and Hennessey has weighted the short-throw lever to reward every change with a crisp, metallic click as it slots home. Every surface and control has been reworked around the act of driving, from the gate placement to the knee pads.

Professional racer Alex Brundle will drive the F5-M up the Goodwood hill twice a day across the four-day Festival, giving the public an early look at the car in motion. John Hennessey, the company’s founder and CEO, said the open top is central to the appeal. “We’ve always believed the Venom F5 delivers the most intense performance experience on the planet – but with the F5-M, we’ve gone even further. A gated six-speed manual puts the driver completely in control, while the open-top design brings the Fury V8 sound directly into the cockpit. The noise, the feel, and the power delivery are raw and unfiltered – it’s the most all-consuming driving experience we’ve created!”

The First Car Belongs to a UK Owner

The example on show at Goodwood is Chassis 1, and it heads to a British customer. Finished in exposed purple carbon with anodised gold accents, it was specified through Hennessey’s in-house “Maverick” division, which handles one-off design and engineering requests. This car gains a 24-karat gold nose badge and the family name “Sheikh” on the rear deck, repeated in stitching on the driver and passenger knee pads inside.

Only 12 Roadsters will be built, each specified individually, with the remaining cars going to owners around the world and the United States taking the largest share. Hennessey has now handed over more than 40 Venom F5 hypercars in total after the model line launched, and the wider F5 family will not exceed 99 cars.

Price, Rarity and What Comes After

Pricing starts at $2.65 million before taxes, which places the F5-M among the most exclusive road cars on sale. At current rates that works out at roughly 2.1 million pounds before UK duties, though only a handful of British buyers will ever get the chance to hand over the money given the 12-car run.

The F5-M also signals a wider change for the range. Hennessey has confirmed that both the manual gearbox and the updated chassis will spread to other F5 models, so buyers of the Coupe, the standard Roadster and the track-focused Revolution will be able to order the six-speed manual too. For a segment that has drifted almost entirely toward paddle shifts and dual-clutch gearboxes, the return of a proper gated manual at 2,031bhp stands as a rare thing indeed.

The Venom F5-M makes its public debut in the Goodwood Supercar Paddock from 9 to 12 July. Full specifications cover the 6.6-litre twin-turbo V8, 2,031bhp, six-speed gated manual, rear-wheel drive, a new carbon fibre tub and adaptive suspension that adjusts by drive mode.