Automobile engineers have constructed the fastest production car in the world with the Hennessey Venom GT.
Captured in a stunning high definition video by the Hennessey
Engineering Performance Team, the Venom clocked in a top speed of 270.49
mph. This beats out the previous record of 269.86 mph set by the
Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.
The historic run took place at a 3.2 mile long runway (formerly used
for space shuttle landings) at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape
Canaveral, Florida. The Venom was driven by Brian Smith, director of
Miller Motosports Park in Utah.
Racelogic, the company responsible for the flagship VBOX GPS measurement system, documented and verified the run.
Automobile enthusiasts were impressed not only with the car's incredible speed, but its acceleration as well. According to an article by BBC's Top Gear,
the Venom was able to go from 120mph to 220mph in under ten seconds, a
feat they labeled "extraordinary." The Venom GT has also broken previous
records for fastest acceleration.
The Venom was also limited by the constraints of the runway. "If we
could run on an 8-mile oval we could go faster than that," said driver
Smith in a statement.
Company president John Hennessey expressed his pride in the achievement.
"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.
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)."