Blowing out candles at 265 mph.
Twenty-five years ago, John Hennessey founded Hennessey Performance with the goal of making performance cars even better than customers could imagine. When he first started the company, he probably didn’t expect to be holding onto two world records just a quarter of a century later.
On March 25th, 2016 at the 2.9-mile long runway at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California, the Hennessey Venom GT Spyder became the fastest open-top sports car in the world. Racelogic, the independent speed testing firm, was on-hand to witness the event with their Technical Director, Jim Lau. The run was also witnessed by Commander Darren Fouts, Air Operations Officer at the base to complete the certification of the world record speed.
Sitting in the driver’s seat of the record-setting Hennessey Performance Venom GT Spyder was Brian Smith, Director of the Ford Performance Racing School. The twin-turbocharged 7.0-liter V-8 engine produces 1,451 bhp at 7,200 RPM and 1,287 lb-ft. of torque at 4,200 RPM through a Ricardo six-speed manual gearbox to the rear Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires. That’s a serious amount of power to handle at any speed, let alone 200+ mph.
With the open runway on a sunny March day, Smith was able to achieve a run of 265.6 mph (427.4 km/h) on the 2.9-mile runway, setting a new world record and besting the big, bad Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse by 11 mph.
“2016 marks the 25th anniversary of Hennessey Performance”, said company founder, John Hennessey. “I thought that this would be a special way to celebrate 25 years of making fast cars faster. I’ve wanted to test the top speed of our Venom GT Spyder, without the roof, ever since our coupe ran 270.4 mph on the Space Shuttle landing runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in 2014. This was a great way to validate the technical excellence of our car which includes high-speed stability with an open roof.”
The impressive new world record has inspired Hennessey Performance to offer a limited run of three “World Record Edition” Venom GT Spyders to celebrate both the record and the company’s 25th anniversary. Each one of the three models will be priced at $1.3 million plus tax.
“We are grateful to have the help of so many friends, family, employees, customers and partners over the past 25 years. We look forward to the next chapter of the Venom with the F5 as we keep making fast cars faster for the next 25 years”, said Hennessey.
What the next 25 years brings for Hennessey Performance will surely involve a great deal of horsepower and a hell of a lot of speed.
Venom GT Spyder World Record Gallery
Source: Hennessey Performance
Do you think the Hennessey Performance Venom GT Spyder can go faster than 265.6 mph?
