It appears that America has finally dethroned the Buggati Veyron SS in the quest to become the fastest production car in the world. The Hennessey Venom GT clocked 270.49mph (435.3 KM/H) at the Kennedy Space Center, the highest speed ever recorded by a production car. The previous record of 269.86 mph (434.3 KM/H) was clocked by the Buggati Veyron SS on the Ehra-Lessien test track in 2010.
The 1,244 BHP Venom GT was driven by Brian Smith during Valentine’s day at the Floridan runway where the space shuttle landings took place. The Venom is powered by a 7-litre twin-turbo General Motors-sourced V8. “At the very top end, there was a little wandering, but hey, we’re going 270mph!” says Brian Smith. “It was still pulling. If we could run on an eight-mile oval, we could go faster than that” he added.
However, the Venom GT is yet to be officially declared the fastest production car in the world as the officials from the Guinness Book of Records were not present at the time. To qualify for a Guinness speed record, a car must make two runs, one in either direction, with the two top speeds averaged out for the official time.
Due to bureaucratic reasons, the Hennessey was not allowed to make two runs by NASA. Furthermore, Guinness insists to qualify for the production car record, 30 units of such cars must be built first, and Hennessey plans to build 29 of these only.
Company boss , John Hennessey, was however pleased with the overall outcome and has future plans to bring the Venom GT to Top Gear test track, hopefully to dethrone the current fastest car in Dunsfold, the Pagani Huayra. Not bad for a car those chassis was based on from a small lightweight sports car called Lotus.
[Source: Top Gear]
