New Hennessey Blackbird revealed: America’s Koenigsegg takes things back to basics
Car changing is a big deal
This is the new Hennessey Blackbird, a £2 million hypercar from Texas with a refreshingly simple attitude to driving pleasure: A big V8 engine, a manual gearbox and not a touchscreen in sight. Mat Watson tells you everything you need to know.
If you’re lucky enough to be in the market for a multi-million pound hypercar, you might be booking flights to Italy to see Pagani, or Sweden to visit Koenigsegg. Well now you’ll also need to get yourself out to Texas.
That’s because Hennessey has just revealed the Blackbird – a V8-powered, 220mph monster with a manual gearbox and a refreshingly simple interior.
Remember, you can buy a brand new or used car right here on Carwow. And you can sell your car, too. We’re here to help you through every step of your car-changing journey.
New Hennessey Blackbird: what is it?
The Hennessey Blackbird is a bit like a turning up to Concours d’Elegance in Italy wearing a stetson and chaps – it’s the USA’s answer to cars like the Pagani Utopia and Koenigsegg CC850.
That’s because it’s an ultra-rare, ultra-desirable hypercar which has been designed to offer maximum driving pleasure over anything else.
Just 71 will ever be made, and they’ll cost more than £2 million each.
New Hennessey Blackbird: engine and performance
Whereas other car makers are using electrification to chase huge power figures, Hennessey has given the Blackbird a good old-fashioned 6.2-litre V8 engine. It doesn’t even have a turbocharger, yet it’s going to produce between 800hp and 850hp.
It’ll also rev to a whopping 9,000rpm, making it the highest-revving and most powerful naturally-aspirated V8 ever fitted to a production car.
Unlike a Ferrari F80 or Aston Martin Valhalla, the Blackbird sends all of its power to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox. It’s not a fancy electronic manual with an automatic mode like in a Koenigsegg CC850 either – just an old-fashioned three-pedal.
Despite the simplicity, Hennessey says 0-60mph will take just 2.5 seconds. That’s quicker than the CC850, although the 220mph top speed isn’t a match for the Koenigsegg’s 280mph figure.
New Hennessey Blackbird: interior and (lack of) technology
Car interiors are becoming increasingly screen-heavy. Some Mercedes models get 39 inches of touchscreen on the dashboard, but the Hennessey Venom has zero.
That’s right, there’s not a single touchscreen in the Blackbird. The dials are all analogue, and you get a phone mount, called the Hennessey Holster, to control your music and navigation. Cool name, but there’s no hiding the fact you get pretty much the same setup in a basic Dacia Sandero.
It even has a physical key which you put in a slot, rather than a push-button. That’s how stripped-back this interior is.
But there’s a reason for this simplicity. The Blackbird is designed as a long-distance tourer – one which can cover 800 miles a day in comfort. That’s why the cabin is larger and more spacious than the Hennessey Venom F5’s, and why you have enough luggage space for a couple of suitcases.
While you’re ticking off all those miles, this car is supposed to make you feel connected to the car and the road. It’s a GT car for people who love driving, and that’s why there are so few things to distract you inside.
New Hennessey Blackbird: design
The name Blackbird wasn’t just plucked out of thin air – it’s a reference to the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. A spy plane used by the U.S. Air Force from the late 1960s until 1998. You can see bits of that plane’s styling all over this car.
The pitched doors mimic the jet’s tightly-pinched sides, and the car’s low, long stance is inspired by the SR-71 as well.
Then there are the rear stabilisers, which deploy at 71mph and sit at a 71-degree angle. That means, in the UK at least, this car will dob you in for speeding. You can push a button to deploy them at any speed you want though, in case you want to show off.
Then there are those quad tailpipes. The diamond arrangement references the thrusters on the Bell X-1 rocket plane – the one Chuck Yeager used to break the sound barrier in 1947.
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