Too much of a good thing?

‘By the end of the year the five-liter engine was up to 880 horsepower, and the best 5.4-liter engine in 1973 was eventually good for 1190 horsepower. All the time they kept asking, “Now does it have enough?” And I kept saying, “Still can’t spin the wheels all the way down the straightaway.”’

The words of legendary American racing driver and engineer, Mark Donohue (’Captain Nice’), in his wonderful book The Unfair Advantage – thoroughly recommended if you’ve never read it. In this excerpt, he was writing, as you might have guessed, about his time testing, developing and racing the fearsome and dominant Porsche 917 Can-Am cars, and I think it’s as fun a quote as you’ll find about the desire for more power.

They were words that came to mind recently when I had the chance to spend the day driving Hennessey’s Venom F5 Revolution Evolution Stealth Roadster. Quite the name, I know. But the key part is that word ‘Evolution’ because it signifies an uptick in power for this particular F5. It’s only a 12 per cent lift compared to the standard Venom F5, but it nonetheless equates to an additional 214bhp. A whole warm hatch more. It takes the maximum output from an already absurd 1817bhp to a monstrous 2031bhp. Torque is up 21 per cent to an ample 1445lb ft.