270mph supercar breaks the speed record

The Hennessey Venom GT sets new speed record previously held by Bugatti’s Veyron.

15:40 25 February 2014

The Hennessey Venom GT has become the world’s fastest production model after it hit 270.49mph on NASA’s space shuttle landing runway. This beats a previous record set by the Bugatti Veyron, which recorded 269.86mph in 2010.

Powered by a 7.0-litre twin-turbo GM-sourced V8 engine, the car zoomed from 20mph to 120mph in 7.71 seconds and was still accelerating at 1mph per second between 260mph and 270mph.

The now fastest car was tested by former racing driver and Michelin tyre test engineer Brian Smith. He said that the car had the potential to reach even faster speeds if the runway had been longer.

"It was still pulling. If we could run on an eight-mile oval we could go faster than that.

"On the very top end there was a little wandering but hey, we're going 270mph."
Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) boss John Hennessey said: "I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. Neil Armstrong was my childhood hero.

"Even though the astronaut thing didn't work out for me, I am humbled to have had the opportunity to set our speed record on the hallowed grounds of the American space programme."