The automotive world is awash with electronics. It seems like almost every week there’s a new acronym for some new system, be it BSM or EBD or PAEB or EGR. WTF. Despite increasing power, pushing a car to its limits is arguably getting easier thanks to these, enabling normal people to look like driving gods while the car’s brain takes over from the driver’s. And while some people may enjoy this, reveling in their ill-gotten speed, there’s a growing audience of people rejecting modernity and embracing tradition. At least one Hennessey scratches the itch. The Return to Analog RM Sotheby'sThe more things forge forwards, the more some people yearn for the past. While it can be said of every facet of life, it’s certainly true in the automotive world. The digitization of driving has led to some of the most interesting cars in the world, but it’s also pushed the act of driving further away from those behind the wheel.There’s little need to know the workings of a modern car, partly because they’re a mass of wires and cables and 1s and 0s, unintelligible to anyone without a laptop. You hop in, press a pedal, and off you go. There are still die-hard driving fans though. Those for whom power steering, ABS, and traction control are unnecessary obstacles between you and the car. For those people, manuals are the way to go. And even better than a standard manual? One with a gated shifter. Among Manuals, Gated Shifters Are The Holy Grail Cars & Bids Manual cars are already for a more mechanically inclined driver, making them another moving part in its system. While some manuals hide these systems underneath a leather (or worse, pleather) sheath, a gated shifter wears its mechanism proudly. Doing away with the covering and turning it into another feature. A luxury that only a special few can afford. With this mindset, you won’t be surprised to learn that they’re almost exclusively in high-end cars.Ferrari is arguably the king of gated shifters, turning them from simple car parts into works of automotive art. Whether in the 599 GTB Fiorano or the 250 GTO, the gated shifter adds a touch of class (and shininess) to the interior of any Maranello-made vehicle.It’s not just the prancing horses that are kept behind the gate, though. The first-generation manual Audi R8 had a gated shifter which, when mounted to the 5.2-liter V10, controlled 525 horsepower. Lamborghini also got in on the gated game, fitting them in Diablos, Countaches, Miruas, Jalpas and, more recently, the Murcielago LP640. The Italian brand didn’t subscribe to the same spherical gear knob design that Ferrari did though, so you’ll find some more… interesting gear knobs in the Italian cars with bulls on them.MecumDespite the gated shifter’s undoubted style and panache, they still largely died out. As fun as they were, they just didn’t do the job as quickly or as well as electronics could. Dual-clutch transmissions could change gears quicker and smoother than a real human was able to, and with less strain on parts too. That’s not to say that they’re completely dead, though. The gated shifter will always have its fans, and one in particular wanted a gated shifter in a car with over 2,000 hp. The Hennessey Venom F5 LF Has 2,000 HP Behind The Gates David Alpert / HotCarsThis isn’t your regular Hennessey Venom F5. Okay, “regular” might be the wrong word here, given that the standard model makes 1,817 hp and 1,193 lb-ft of torque from its 6.6-liter twin-turbo V8. But, for all the power the normal F5 makes, the LF makes more. Much more.If, somehow, more than three times as much horsepower as a Porsche 911 GT3RS isn’t enough for you, this F5 Evolution well and truly calls your bluff. The Evolution makes an insane 2,031 bhp and 1,445 lb-ft of torque from its also 6.6-liter twin-turbo V8, which is enough to take you from 0 to 200 mph in 10.3 seconds and your passenger from stable to a quivering mess.As if having all that power underneath your right foot wasn’t enough, it’s all going through a nice, shiny, six-speed gated manual box. Get that wrong, and it’s not just a money shift; that’s a small fortune shift. Fortunately, that’s something that Hennesseyhas thought about, with some level of rev-matching built in, but it’s a brave person who puts that to the test. And speaking of bravery, it’s something you’d need to have in spadefuls to get behind the wheel.David Alpert / HotCarsThe car can clear 100 mph in second gear and hit around 150 mph in third, en route to that aforementioned 200 mph from a standing start in 10.3 seconds and beyond. It’s a brutal amount of speed to control with a metal stick and a clutch pedal. Other cars with more than 2,000 bhp, like the Lotus Evija and Ford Supervan, at least have the good grace to be powered by electricity, removing the need for gears altogether. Even the Koenigsegg Gemera, which makes 2,300 bhp and has a V8 engine, gets 800 of those horses through electricity.This car’s engine is nicknamed “Fury” for obvious reasons. The one in the regular F5 weighs 617 lbs, has twin-turbochargers (the “largest mirror image turbos in the world”), and makes 1,298 hp per ton, but the Evolution’s has had a slight rework to bump it up another ~200 hp. Why The Hennessey Venom F5 LF Even Exists David Alpert / HotCarsThis particular Hennessey Venom F5 or, to give it its full name, the Hennessey Venom F5 Revolution Evolution LF, is a mixture of Hennessey’s products. The everyday Venom F5 is your more road-friendly 1,817 bhp car, while the Venom F5 Revolution is the track-focused version with more aerodynamics. The Evolution part refers to a separate $285,000 package that, among other things like multiple drive modes and improved aerodynamics, bumps that power up past 2,000 bhp.Now, the more observant among you will have noticed the LF at the end of the car’s name. That’s because the LF is a 1-of-1 commissioned exclusively for entrepreneur and Ferrari Challenge race winner Louis Florey (hence the LF acronym). The car itself is the first from Hennessey’s “Maverick” division, which is for custom-built machines, and is how this 2,000 bhp monster came out of the factory with its Cocoa Brown carbon fiber body, “horology-inspired switch gear” and, of course, its six-speed gated shifter. Not Hennessey’s Only Bonkers Car HennesseySince its creation by founder John Hennessey in 1991, Hennessey has made some truly insane vehicles. There’s the 1000 hp Trackhawk HPE1000, based on the already mad 707 hp Jeep Trackhawk. And the Hennessey Venom GT, one of which was owned by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, and which makes 1,244 horsepower. Or the GT500 Venom 1200, which is a Mustang with, you guessed it, 1,200 hp.The Venom F5 is the company’s latest step in its commitment to pushing the boundaries, with the LF being the ultimate extreme of that. It might only be a 1-of-1, but how many people are really going to trust themselves with that much power in a gated shifter? Perhaps the reason it’s a one-off is that Louis Flory is the only man brave enough to drive it. Only time will tell.Sources: Hennessey