Monterey Car Week starts in eight days, which means that car people everywhere are about to be overwhelmed by bespoke, low-number hypercars and supercars. While many of us enjoy performance cars, there’s something about modern ones that can sometimes feel anodyne, derivative; all specs and no heart.
And then there’s the Hennessey Blackbird, so named for the iconic high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. If you’re a Hennessey hater, I regret to inform you that it looks very, very, very cool.
Much like the Lockheed aircraft that lends it a name, the Blackbird’s refreshingly off-kilter design and clever details have allowed it to outrun the possible threats to it caused by my jaded autojournalist cynicism. Further evasion is provided by a real, honest-to-goodness six-speed manual, a naturally-aspirated V8, and a lack of screens.
Look At Those Round Fenders
With the Venom GT, Hennessey demonstrated it could build something that was more than just a faster Viper or Cadillac (or Ford Probe). With the Venom F5, the Texas-based company helmed by John Hennessey showed his team could pull enough partners to create something almost entirely from the ground up that could compete with the world’s fastest cars.
Those were both attractive, streched-out hypercars, though neither of them felt like they were particularly avant-garde in terms of design. There’s something about the Blackbird, though, that feels a little more unique and forward-thinking. Inspired by the SR-71, the surfaces are almost organic in execution.
Everything in modern exotics seems like it’s been reduced to the absolute limit of what material science will allow in order to achieve extreme aerodynamics. There’s a lot going on here, and I’m not even sure it all works as individual elements, but together it creates something that feels discernibly differentiated from other cars out there.
While not as long and slender as the SR-71, the massive rear flanks pull off the same trick of letting the viewer know that the power here resides aft of the cockpit. Just as a bit of comparison, here’s what the SR-71 looks like in profile:
The most obvious callout to the SR-71 are the stabilizers in the rear, which deploy at 71 mph and sit at a 71-degree angle. Get it? It’s 71 degrees. Here’s what it looks like in action:
That’s such a silly, unnecessary choice. More supercars need silly and completely unnecessary choices. Part of me wonders if the designers of modern McLarens won’t look at this car and think to themselves, They made a fun supercar, I wasn’t aware that was something a person could do!
“Beauty is not a byproduct, it must be intentional. With Blackbird, every decision our team made, inside and out, was guided by our vision to create the ultimate touring hypercar: one that strikes a perfect balance between elegance and aggression, beauty and purpose, inspiring people to fall in love at first sight,” said Hennessey Design Director Nathan Malinick.
I’ll be damned if they didn’t do it.
The Interior Might Be Even Better
I am a Texan, though I did not find my home on the range. I’m not even an all-hat, no-cattle Texan. I’m a no-hat, no-cattle Texan (unless you count my Astros ballcap). I see this photo, though, and think: Maybe I should get a Stetson? I think I could pull it off. I still say y’all.
This is a “GT” and not a pure sports car, I suppose, and the goal here is feel and not just fast. The word Hennessey uses is “analog,” and the idea is that it should be extremely fun to drive and comfortable for 800 miles every day (or, about six hours in something this fast).
While this isn’t going to fit your whole family, there’s enough luggage space for two full-size carry-on bags, four cupholders, and a lot more room than its F5 sibling.
We’ll I’ll be dipped like a Dilly Bar, that looks pretty darn good, too. The centerpiece is the gated six-speed transmission. To the automaker’s credit, this is a hallmark of all of the cars in this series, so it’s not a surprise. It does look good, though.
The rest of the floating binnacles are sort of the bare minimum, with the tach dead-center (the speedometer does appear to be some sort of screen, and this might help with the mandatory rear-camera requirement):
People do still want to hear their navigation/music and likely see a screen for that, so how does Hennessey get around this? A “hidden technology” strategy, wherein there’s some sort of “bespoke Hennessey holster” that keeps the device charged and connected to the infotainment. In this way, the Blackbird maybe shares something with the Slate Truck.
It’s Aiming To Be The Highest-Revving NA V8 In Any Road Car
The stacked quad-exhausts definitely give the impression of the GAU-8 Avenger cannon from the A-10 Warthog rather than the SR-71, but it’s still in keeping with the aeronautical theme.
As with other Hennessey vehicles, there’s a 6.2-liter V8 developed by long-time high-performance engine builder Ilmor Engineering. The target is for 800-850 horsepower with a 9,000 RPM redline, which will probably sound hilarious. As with the Venoms, it’s connected only to the rear wheels.
While focused on an “analog” experience, it’s still capable of a run to 60 mph in just 2.6 seconds on the way to a top speed of 220 miles per hour. I think this makes it more of a supercar than a hypercar, though there is one way in which it is a hypercar.
Yeah, It Costs $2.5 Million
If you care about the price, you are not the customer for this car, and there are, per Hennessey, already more than 2/3rds of the 71-total production run spoken for at its debut. Still, $2.5 million is a lot of money to give anyone, and there have been questions about John Hennessey’s behavior in the past (not the bit about him taking an edible and writing a musical, that sounds awesome).
For his part, Hennessey seems to have built multiple Venom GTs and Venom F5s (there are at least three that are going to be for sale at Monterey next week). I have sat in a Venom before, and it was very real.
In some ways, you can see this as a vehicle built with a similar ethos to the Pagani Utopia, which also prioritized the analog over everything else and, in 2022 dollars, cost about $2.2 million.
The biggest difference, though, is I’m not sure how big of a hat you could store in the Pagani.
Top photo: Hennessey
Yeah, I’d rather have about 440 $5,000 rusty, junky classics that are way more awesome…just need a whole field to put my 440 cars! preferably a bunch of Mopars w/ 440’s in them; those would be a lot more than $5K each though! I think I’d settle to have 200 or 300 cars…yeah. (ha ha)
Yeah, it was a faster Lotus Exige.
While I am a certified lifelong Hennessey hater, I’m also open-minded enough to admit that this looks terrible.
Manual or not, it’ll never be driven. All 71 of them will be unloaded into a climate controlled garage and they’ll sit there until they’re sold to the next guy with a climate controlled garage.
I’ll be the first to admit I’m thoroughly jaded, but who cares about these kind of cars anymore?
There are plenty of legitimate reasons to hate Hennessey, but I can admit the design looks cool. I’ll be at Car Week next week, hopefully I have a chance to see it.
I was going to write out an anecdote about the SR71 getting intercepted at altitude by an English Electric Lightning, but there’s a gigantic video playing over my screen.
John Hennessey is a shyster. This is vaporware, nothing more.
Dudes been at it for a LONG time. I’m surprised the cycle continues.
Bernie Madoff lasted three decades. It’s been said many wealthy people are easier to scam than poor ones….
The Pagani Murlica
Looks like someone bought their exercise clothes 3 sizes too small
I do think the motorized stabilizers are kind of fun to watch, but like some other rear-mounted fripperies, they are a huge tip-off that you may be exceeding posted speed limits to cops in the know. I find the interior incredibly off-putting. The seats look like torture and maybe just it’s that shade of brown but that expanse covering most of the dash and the IP just doesn’t do it for me. And what is that touch-tone keypad thing under the exhausts? Probably reversing lamps, but it looks weird.
I like the idea that stuff like this and t50 might re-enforce to mainstream mfgrs that manuals and tactillity are desirable, but otherwise it’s another anonymous McSupercar.
Hennessey Catanus
Everything about this car is overdone, from the dual orientation stripes on the wheel to the arbitrary stabilizer deployment, so why are the seats a work of USSR-grade minimalism?
At least it’s pretty.
Does anyone else feel like hypercar styling hasn’t evolved in the last 10-15 years?
This could easily be a McLaren or Rimac from 2010. I know the whole “generic Grand Theft Auto supercar” trope is overdone, but it really applies here.
For $2.5M I’d want something fresher.
Also, the SR-71 similarities are a real stretch here. If it wasn’t for the aggressive marketing making the association, I’d miss it entirely.
It really has, but I’d go further and say design language in every industry feels like it’s stagnated. From phones, to computers, to TV shows, to movies, to music… etc.