Hennessey has staked its claim on the record for the fastest production car on sale in the world today. Only, you’ll note if you’ve already read the title and standfirst, that we’ve used the word ‘production’ no less than four times so far. That’s because it’s pretty crucial to Hennessey’s claim to the record.
Venom GT best described as 'utterly insane'
You see, the Venom GT that Hennessey used to achieve the feat (265.7mph, to be precise)... well, it sort of ran out of runway before it could quite top the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport’s outright record of 267.8mph. That’s OK, though, according to John Hennessey, because the big Bug is electronically limited to 258mph in production form – so the Venom GT would be the faster car out on the street.
Another point that stacks in Hennessey’s favour is that they pulled that 266mph – or near as dammit – on a two-mile runway, where Bugatti’s record was achieved with five miles to play with. Whichever way you cut it, 266mph on a two-mile stretch of tarmac is pretty insane, and suggests that given enough tarmac the Venom GT could quite easily have gone on to break the record outright – an attempt at which isn’t being ruled out by Hennessey.
Semantics aside, it’s impossible not to admire the Venom GT. While its stretched-Elise looks might not be for everyone, the 1,261hp and 852lb ft it generates from a 7.0-litre twin-turbo V8 should be enough to get the juices flowing. And Hennessey’s certainly no stranger to high-speed runs; it’s already managed to extract 263mph from a Ford GT and 823bhp from a Cherokee.