Jay Leno Compares The 2029 Hennessey Blackbird To A Miata, Just With 850 HP
Jay Leno got an early look at the Hennessey Blackbird on Jay Leno’s Garage, with Hennessey design chief Nathan Malinick showing him around. The Texas company’s Venom F5 lineup tops 2,000 hp, yet the Blackbird targets 850 hp and shifts through a six-speed manual. Jay loved the idea, and the car he measured it against is one you’d never park next to a $2.5 million hypercar.
Hennessey Built A 2,000 HP Hypercar, Then Went The Other Way
Hennessey built its name chasing top-speed records, and the standard Venom F5 unlocks 1,817 hp in its VMax mode, while the manual F5-M roadster pushes that to 2,031 hp. Malinick told Jay the F5 had basically maxed out performance, and that people expected the next Hennessey to chase 3,000 hp and 400 mph.
Instead, the Blackbird uses a naturally aspirated V8 with no turbos, no hybrid help and no screens. John Hennessey calls it “not a numbers car,” and Jay credits the shift to his friend of more than 30 years growing up. He joked that in your 20s it’s all about horsepower, but with age you start caring about the whole package.
Why Jay Leno Thinks A Miata Is The Right Benchmark
Jay says “there’s really not a car that’s more fun to drive than a Miata,” and he owns one with a supercharger bolted on as a part of his expansive car collection. He loves zipping around in it, and says bringing that same feel to a real high-performance car is exactly what you want.
“To me, all the fun is between 40 and 120,” Jay says, joking that anything faster just earns you a chat with a police officer. He’d rather work through the gears and hear an engine that isn’t muffled by turbos or superchargers. Malinick compared the hunger for analog cars to the watch world’s quartz crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, when cheap quartz watches nearly wiped out mechanical ones before collectors brought them back.
Nobody has driven the Blackbird yet, since the car in the episode is a static proof of concept, so Jay is judging the idea rather than the drive. He also liked that Hennessey is building its own engine, comparing it to TVR’s homegrown Speed Six.
850 HP, A Stick Shift, And A Compass Straight Out Of The SR-71
The Blackbird runs an all-new 6.2-liter V8 developed with Ilmor Engineering, targeting 800 to 850 hp and more than 9,000 rpm. Power goes to the rear wheels through a gated six-speed manual, and Hennessey expects 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds and a 220 mph top speed. A carbon fiber tub helps keep the target weight under 3,000 lbs.
The cabin has no screens, with the required backup camera hidden in the rearview mirror and an SR-71-style whiskey compass in the center stack. Hennessey is targeting more than 800 miles of daily range, with room for two carry-on bags up front. It also runs off-the-shelf Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, so a flat won’t mean a six- to eight-week wait.
The last of the 71 build slots sold within four hours of the Blackbird’s debut at The Quail, so buyers clearly agree with Jay. Each one costs $2.5 million before taxes, with deliveries planned for 2029 to 2030.
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