Supercar Blondie tours the new Hennessey Blackbird that takes inspiration from the legendary SR-71 spy plane and the hidden features are mind-blowing

Supercar Blondie was given the chance to take a closer look at the new Hennessey Blackbird hypercar, inspired by the iconic SR-71 aircraft.

John Hennessey himself said the car was ‘built around the things that make driving special.’

This explains the lack of screens and the presence of a manual gearbox.

But there’s another Easter Egg that makes it even more special.

This car was built to be analog

When the car was launched, Hennessey founder and CEO John Hennessey explained the philosophy behind the car and the idea behind its creation.

“It’s built around the things that make driving special: a naturally aspirated engine, a manual gearbox, and a direct connection between driver and machine,” he said.

The engine is a 6.2-liter V8, which sends 850 horsepower to the rear wheels via a manual transmission.

But there are no turbochargers, no superchargers, and there’s no hybrid power.

While this particular recipe is difficult to pull off for ‘normal’ everyday cars, we’re certainly seeing a trend.

So many new hypercars follow a similar pattern, keeping the presence of modern ‘intruders’ that purists don’t love to a minimum.

We’ve seen it with new cars like the Nilu27 or the Capricorn Zagato, but we’ve also seen something similar from legacy brands like Ferrari, which recently launched a manual 12Cilindri.

And of course Bugatti, which created a special infotainment screen that disappears on demand for the Tourbillon.

There are a few tributes to the Blackbird plane

Visually, the Blackbird looks similar to other Hennessey hypercars, but with a few features designed to resemble the Blackbird.

After the launch, John Hennessey said that ‘every detail was designed with purpose’.

And we can see that when we take a closer look.

At the front, you’ve got four diamond-shaped headlights, and the same design was used at the rear for the quad-tip exhaust.

There are also air vents on the front wheel arches that allow the driver to actually see the wheels as they’re moving.

But the biggest and most spectacular Easter Egg is hidden in the taillights.

They’re designed to look ‘alive’ – like they’re burning.

“When the plane takes off, and you’ve got the afterburners – that’s what [those lights] are mimicking,” Supercar Blondie’s presenter Chloe noted.

Chloe also reiterated one of the biggest ‘selling’ points with this hypercar: it has no screens.

Some argue that screens are becoming too big and too pervasive.

This being a limited-edition hypercar, Hennessey decided they might as well get rid of them completely.

And speaking of limited edition, the Blackbird is limited to 71 units.

That’s another Easter Egg tribute to the plane.

The Blackbird hypercar will be significantly less expensive than the Blackbird plane, but definitely not cheap.

You’re looking at a starting price of around $2.5 million.

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