Hennessey Venom GT hits new, unofficial, speed record (video)

The Hennessey Venom GT has achieved a new world record top speed for a production car of 270.49mph on a runway at the Kennedy Space Centre.

Top speed records for production cars is starting to seem pretty irrelevant as there’s almost nowhere an owner can ever hope to hit those record speeds.

And the performance of cars like the new McLaren P1 – where  performance and handling are much more the focus than outright top speed – has added the the irrelevance.

But that doesn’t stop some car makers aiming for the bragging rights of the world’s fastest production car, and John Hennessey and his Hennessey Venom GT are back with another claim on the title.

After posting a top speed of 265.7mph at Naval Air Station in Lemoore, California last year, the Hennessey Venom GT has been out on the runway at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida where it set a new top speed of 270.49mph.

Which is all very impressive, and shows that if you stick enough horsepower under the skin (the Venom GT has 1244 horses from its V8 in a modified Lotus) you can go very fast indeed. Who knew?

But sadly for Hennessey the new speed won’t be making the Guinness World records list.

To qualify, Hennessey would have needed to do at least two runs and take an average (NASA would only let them do one run) and to qualify as a production car you have to be building 30 or more. Hennessey aren’t.

So, the Hennessey Venom GT is now the fastest production car in the world. Or not.