Hennessey Venom GT Sets New Speed Record

A supercar has become the world's fastest production model after hitting 270.49mph on Nasa's space shuttle landing runway.

The Hennessey Venom GT's run at Kennedy Space Center in Florida just pipped the previous two-seat sports car record of 269.86mph, set by Bugatti's Veyron Super Sport in 2010.

Powered by a 7.0-litre twin-turbo GM-sourced V8 engine, the car powered from 20mph to 120mph in 7.71 seconds and was still accelerating at 1mph per second between 260mph and 270mph.

Former racing driver and Michelin tyre test engineer Brian Smith was at the wheel of the vehicle, which uses a highly-modified Lotus Exige chassis, on the 3.2-mile stretch of runway.

He said he believed the car could have reached even faster speeds if the runway had been longer.

Brian Smith was held aloft after steering the car to more than 270mph

He said: "It was still pulling. If we could run on an eight-mile oval we could go faster than that.

"On the very top end there was a little wandering but hey, we're going 270mph."

But the performance is not eligible for a Guinness World Record, which uses an average speed taken from two runs as the official record.

Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) boss John Hennessey said: "I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. Neil Armstrong was my childhood hero.

The jubilant Hennessey team celebrate their success at Kennedy Space Center

"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 programme." 

So far HPE has built and delivered just 11 Venom GTs to owners around the world.

Each vehicle costs $1.2 million (£720,000) plus shipping and optional extras.

It is built to order, takes six months to complete and the production run consists of just 29 units worldwide.

The car already holds the record for world's fastest from 0-300kmph (13.63 seconds) and 0-200mph (14.51 seconds).

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