Update: Hennessey has revealed that its 2016 Venom GT Spyder has set a new land speed record for open-top production cars. Full details here.
Hennessey’s Venom GT has entered the record books, although the company remains quiet on what record the 1,451-horsepower supercar has actually achieved.
An announcement is due to be made later today as part of the Texan firm’s 25th anniversary celebrations.
It’s possible the car broke the production land speed record as Hennessey used the hashtag “worldsfastest” in an Instagram post alongside this photo of a 2016 Venom GT running down an airstrip at California’s Naval Air Station Lemoore.
ALSO SEE: Nissan sets drifting record with GT-R Nismo
We know a less powerful version of the car reached a verified top speed of 270.49 in 2014, which is faster than the 267.8-mph land speed record set by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport in 2010. But since Hennessey was only allowed to make one run that day the speed wasn’t made official. The folks at Guinness, the semi-official keepers of such records, require two runs in the space of an hour, one in either direction.
Another potential record could be the lesser production land speed record for an open-top car, which stands at 254.04 mph as achieved by the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse in 2013. That’s because this latest attempt was achieved by the Venom GT Spyder, the convertible version of the Hennessey supercar.
The current Venom GT made its debut during last year’s SEMA. It features a twin-turbocharged 7.0-liter V-8 delivering 1,451 hp—in a car whose curb weight is just 2,743 pounds. Incredibly, Hennessey has a more potent successor in the works that will likely end up doing battle with Bugatti's 1,480-hp Chiron.
Stay tuned for an update.
_______________________________________
