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Hennessey Special Vehicles crashed its Venom F5 — a $3 million hypercar — while driving nearly 250mph on the Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) runway at Kennedy Space Center in July. Newly reported details show the cost of the crash, which happened while the company was testing out new components of the car.
The crash damaged the runway surface, according to crash-related documents acquired by ClickOrlando. The damage was apparently minimal, and repair, plus subsequent hazmat cleanup, cost $712.70, which was billed to Space Coast Testing, the company that manages runway rentals. Renting the LLF, which was once used as a landing strip for NASA’s Space Shuttle and serves aerospace purposes like delivering the United Launch Alliance’s rocket stages, can cost $2,200 for a four-hour stretch, ClickOrlando reported. It’s unclear if that’s the same rate Hennessey paid.
Hennessey was testing “a new experimental aerodynamic set up” when it “lost downforce on the runway causing the driver to lose control,” the founder John Hennessey posted on Hennessey’s Instagram account after the crash. The driver was unharmed, and the company said it’s investigating the cause. The testing was part of Hennessey’s run-up to an attempt to break 300mph in the car as it chases the record for fastest production car.
The documents that ClickOrlando reviewed were heavily redacted, so no pictures of the crash seem to be available. According to the outlet, this was done to protect Hennessey’s trade secrets.
The LLF is managed by Space Florida, the state’s aerospace economic development agency. According to the Space Florida website, other organizations that have used it include Amazon (for Project Kuiper), United Launch Alliance, and Lockheed Martin. But the LLF’s flat, 3-mile straightaway is also used by automotive companies, including Tesla and Volvo, for real-world performance and aerodynamics tests of their cars.
Alayna Curry, Space Florida’s public relations director, told ClickOrlando that such testing “is not new and has taken place for many years, dating back to the Space Shuttle era under NASA’s management,” and that Space Florida regularly rejects requests to rent the runway.
Hennessey sped up to over 271mph on the LLF while testing components on the Venom F5 in 2022. That’s a little faster than the 270mph its Venom GT managed on the strip in 2014. But the company has been trying to find the right straightaway to get the 1,817-horsepower Venom F5 up past the 300mph mark in a two-way run. (Bugatti’s Chiron did it in a one-way run in 2019, but Guinness World Records apparently requires a run in both directions to set the record.)
Other notable runs at the LLF include when the Bugatti Chiron made it to 261mph in 2018, the McLaren Speedtail hit 250mph in 2019, and a modified electric Corvette hit 211mph the same year.
