What has the body of a Lotus Exige, a 7.0-liter twin turbo V8, and a world speed record? A car that can burst the Bugatti Veyron into smithereens a.k.a the Hennessey Venom GT.
This small tuning company from Texas had taken upon itself to break the record set by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport and become the fastest car on land. It has managed to do it. The Hennessey Venom GT has gone fastest and has set the record of doing 435km/h, a clear 2km/h faster than the Veyron.
The feat was achieved at the Kennedy Space Center on a runway that was built for the Space Shuttle to land on. But even the 3.3 miles of Shuttle landing strip wasn't enough to get the most out of the Venom GT. The Venom GT had enough juice in it to keep accelerating and the test driver Brian Smith ran out of track but not before setting the speed record.
However, Guinness would not have certified this run as a record. For it to become a record, the Venom would have had to do 2 runs; one with and the other against the wind. Guinness also stipulates that 30 examples are required to certify a car as a "production vehicle." Hennessey is only building 29 Venoms and has sold 11.
Then, there is the question of the runway. The Veyron Super Sport managed to do a 433 km/h on the Ehra-Lessein test track, which is oval and is completely opposite to the one used at the Kennedy Space Centre's.
All that said, you can't take away what the Venom GT has achieved thanks to Hennessey. With the 1244bhp fire-breathing 7-0-litre V8, it took the Venom less than a minute to achieve the 435km/h mark and that just says it all.
Hennessey will now focus on breaking lap times rather than the top-speed mark and we reckon they will go to all the tracks across the world to show what the Venom GT can do. We can't wait to hear more news from them!
