Subscribe
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE

The need for speed just became a record-breaking event for the Hennessey Performance Engineering team (no relation to the cognac) as they created the world’s fastest car with the Hennessey Venom GT.

While out in Kennedy Space Center Space Shuttle in Cape Canaveral, Fla, the HPE pushed the car’s mechanics to the limit by maxing out at 270 mph.

The Venom GT is a two-seater sports high-powered machine that burned up the every inch of the 3.2 mile asphalt with its V8 engine and 1244 bhp of pure horsepower. There is also a 0-60 mph time of 2.7 seconds, if you’re ever caught in a jam that requires such racecar maneuvers.

Team Hennessey has been at this project since 2007 and their official press release tells the tale in full.

The Hennessey team can now add absolute top speed to its growing list of speed records. The Venom GT also owns the title for world’s fastest from 0-300 km/h (13.63 sec.) and 0-200 mph (14.51 sec.). With a curb weight of 1,244 kilograms (2,743 lb.) and a power output of 1,244 bhp from its 7.0-liter twin turbo V8 engine, the Venom delivers 1 horsepower per kilogram of curb weight, making it the hardest-accelerating and fastest series-produced vehicle in the world.

Achieving the world record is a dream realized for company founder and president John Hennessey. “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 program,” said Hennessey. “Building and validating our Venom GT as the world’s fastest has been a long journey and a lot of hard work. But as President Kennedy once so eloquently said, ‘We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.’ As a result we have built a better car and a better team at Hennessey Performance (HPE).”

“It was still pulling,” said driver Brian Smith after the record run. “If we could run on an 8-mile oval we could go faster than that. On the very top end there was a little wandering but, hey, we’re going 270 mph! The Venom GT didn’t required any big corrections, and the Michelins held traction really well.”

If your interest and bank account funds see eye-to-eye, click here to get the process started in ordering one.

Check out the pics and video of the Venom GT’s Guiness World Record-setting day in the gallery.

Photo: Hennessey Performance Engineering

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12Next page »