Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Hennessey's Venom GT becomes the world's fastest car reaching a top speed of 270MPH

  1. #1
    Postman vector7's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Where it's quiet, peaceful and everyone owns guns
    Posts
    21,663
    Thanks
    30
    Thanked 73 Times in 68 Posts

    Default Hennessey's Venom GT becomes the world's fastest car reaching a top speed of 270MPH

    Hennessey's Venom GT becomes the world's fastest car after reaching a top speed of 270mph


    • The supercar has become the world's fastest production model after reaching a top speed of 270.49mph on a Nasa runway
    • The £800,000 Hennessey Venom GT is powered by a twin-turbocharged, seven-litre V8 engine which develops an incredible 1,244bhp
    • Pilot Brian Smith claims he could get another 5-10mph out of the car, but the runway in Florida was just 3.22 miles long


    By Daily Mail Reporter
    PUBLISHED: 09:18 EST, 24 February 2014 | UPDATED: 13:36 EST, 24 February 2014


    2,184 shares
    133
    View
    comments

    A supercar has become the world's fastest production model after reaching a top speed of 270mph.

    American firm Hennessey has claimed for some time that its Venom GT is the fastest thing on four wheels.

    But until now the firm hadn't been able to attempt beating the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport's record-breaking 269mph because it was on VW's private test track.

    Scroll down for video



    The need for speed: American firm Hennessey has claimed for some time that its Venom GT (pictured)is the fastest thing on four wheels, but now they have managed to prove it

    WORLD'S TOP TEN FASTEST CARS

    1. Hennessey Venom GT: 270 mph (434 km/h)

    2. Bugatti Veyron Super Sport: 269 mph (431 km/h)

    3. Koenigsegg Agera R: 260 mph (418 km/h)

    4. SSC Ultimate Aero: 257 mph (413 km/h) and the 9ff GT9-R: 257 mph (413 km/h)

    5. Saleen S7 Twin-Turbo: 248 mph (399 km/h)

    6. Koenigsegg CCX: 245 mph (394 km/h)

    7. McLaren F1: 240 mph (386 km/h)

    8. Zenvo ST1: 233 mph (374 km/h),

    9. Pagani Huayra: 230 mph (370 km/h)

    10.Gumpert Apollo and Noble M600: both at 225 mph (362 km/h)

    However, it emerged today that the Texan manufacturer was given access to Nasa's space shuttle landing runway in Florida for a one-off blitz in the 1,200bhp machine.

    The Venom GT managed to reach 270.49mph compared to the average top speed of 200mph in a Formula 1 car.

    The speed makes it slightly quicker than the 269.86mph achieved by Bugatti in 2010.



    More...




    The record was revealed to TopGear.com, with test pilot Brian Smith telling the website that the car was capable of going even faster.

    He said: 'At the very top end, there was a little wandering, but hey, we're going 270mph.



    Full throttle: The Texan manufacturer was given access to Nasa's space shuttle landing runway in Florida for a one-off blitz in the 1,200bhp machine (pictured)



    Pilot Brian Smith said he could get another 5-10mph out of the Venom GT (pictured), but the runway in Florida was just 3.22 miles long

    VENOM GT: THE VITAL STATISTICS

    The £800,000 Hennessey Venom GT is powered by a twin-turbocharged, 7-litre V8 engine which develops a whopping 1,244bhp.

    This gives it a 0-62mph time of just 2.7 seconds. In Florida, it went from 20mph to 120mph in 7.71 seconds.

    Since its launch in 2011, it has been praised by the motoring press while Steve Tyler, from Aerosmith, is among the 11 people to take delivery so far.

    The car reached 270.49mph - making it slightly quicker than the 269.86 achieved by Bugatti in 2010.

    Pilot Brian Smith claims he could have got another 5-10mph out of the car, but the runway in Florida was just 3.22 miles long.

    'It was still pulling. If we could run on an eight-mile oval, we could go faster than that.'

    Smith claims he could get another 5-10mph out of the Venom GT, but the runway in Florida was just 3.22 miles long.

    Bugatti, meanwhile, can make use of Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien test track which has a straight of 5.5 miles.

    Despite the jaw-dropping top speed - which is almost four times the UK motorway and three times the highest US highway speed limit - the Venom GT won't be entering next year's Guinness World Record book.

    They only took the car on one run, and for a record to stand, the driver must perform two runs.

    Nasa would only allow the one run so, for now, the Veyron Super Sport retains the official top spot.

    The £800,000 Hennessey Venom GT is powered by a twin-turbocharged, 7-litre V8 engine which develops a whopping 1,244bhp.

    Venom GT becomes the world's fastest car reaching 270mph





    Competitor: Until now Hennessey hadn't been able to attempt beating the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport's (pictured) record-breaking 269mph because it was on VW's private test track



    Despite the jaw-dropping top speed, which is almost four times the UK motorway speed limit, the Venom GT won't be entering next year's Guinness World Record book. Hennessey only took the car on one run, and for a record to stand, the driver has to drive in two directions. Nasa would only allow the one run.

    This gives it a 0-62mph time of just 2.7 seconds. In Florida, it went from 20mph to 120mph in 7.71 seconds.

    Since its launch in 2011, it has been praised by the motoring press while Steve Tyler, from Aerosmith, is among the 11 people to take delivery so far.

    Romans International, the high end sports car dealership in Surrey, sold the UK's only Venom GT last year.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...#ixzz2uRoOS9jM
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


    Nikita Khrushchev: "We will bury you"
    "Your grandchildren will live under communism."
    “You Americans are so gullible.
    No, you won’t accept
    To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
    outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of
    To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
    until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.

    To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
    ."
    We’ll so weaken your
    To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
    until you’ll
    To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
    like overripe fruit into our hands."



  2. #2
    Postman vector7's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Where it's quiet, peaceful and everyone owns guns
    Posts
    21,663
    Thanks
    30
    Thanked 73 Times in 68 Posts

    Default Re: Hennessey's Venom GT becomes the world's fastest car reaching a top speed of 270M

    American Supercar Takes Title of ‘World’s Fastest’ From Bugatti








    The Hennessey Venom GT has set a speed record for a production car after hitting 270.49 mph on the space shuttle’s landing strip. At that speed, former race driver Brian Smith was covering nearly 400 feet per second while eclipsing the previous record of 268.86 mph held by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.

    John Hennessey is a Texas boutique builder who believes that if more is better, too much is almost enough. The superlative Venom GT is a 1,244-horsepower monster fashioned by stretching a Lotus Exige, then stuffing it with a 7.0-liter Corvette ZR-1 engine with a pair of turbochargers. For those looking to own this kind of insanity, a Venom GT starts at $1.2 million.

    That price is a bargain compared to Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport, the other supercar in the ongoing race for the top speed record. Hennessey and Bugatti have been competing for years, with bragging rights going back and forth between their headquarters in Houston and Alsace, France. This latest round occurred on Valentine’s Day, when Hennessey’s crew and the independent speed recorders from Racelogic descended on the 3.2-mile landing strip at Cape Canaveral. By the end of the day, Smith had made a GPS-verified run of 270.49 mph (435.31 km/hr).

    Hennessey’s data indicates the car was still accelerating at 1 mph per second, according to Car & Driver, and Smith said he could go faster still “if we could run on an eight-mile oval.” That’s a dig at Bugatti, which set its record on Volkswagen’s test track in Germany.

    Of course, the term “production car” is generous, because the Venom GT, like other cars that have held the title, is a highly exclusive machine built one by one. Few people will ever see one, let alone drive one. None of this matters to the arbiters at Guinness, who have a broad definition of “production.” An automaker must build at least 30 cars to qualify, and the car making the run cannot be a one-off or a track-only machine. It must pass emissions tests, and it must have headlights, turn signals and all the basic amenities you’d expect in any car you’d drive on the street.

    There are nuances, of course, and the rules have led to some very public arguments over the meaning of “production” and what it means to hold the title. It’s an interesting argument if you’re into that sort of thing, and has made for a compelling drama over the years.

    The latest chapter opened in 2010, when the Veyron Super Sport set what everyone thought was the production car speed record of 267.81 mph (430.998 km/h) at the Ehra-Lessien test track owned by Volkswagen, Bugatti’s corporate parent. It turned out the Super Sport that made the run did so without the speed limiter that limits sultans, oligarchs and crown princes to a mere 258 mph. (Go faster than that and you risk having your tires disintegrate beneath you.) That prompted Guinness to deem the car a one-off, non-production model.

    Even before Guinness started looking into the speed limiter issue, Hennessey announced the Venom GT had achieved 265.7 mph. That’s nice, Guinness said, but that number is unsanctioned and unofficial, so no record for you. All of this meant that the 256.14 mph benchmark set in 2007 by the SSC Ultimate Aero, another American supercar few people have ever heard of, stood.

    That didn’t last long. Guinness reassessed its decision to disqualify the Veyron Super Sport and awarded the “world’s fastest” title to Bugatti in 2013. “A change to the speed limiter does not alter the fundamental design of the car or its engine,” Guinness said of its decision. The trophy went back to France, along with bragging rights. Hennessey could not let that go unchallenged.

    To further complicate the debate, this record is only for top speed only. While Bugatti held the title of “fastest,” the Venom GT earned the title of “quickest” production car when it went shot from zero to 200 mph in 14.51 seconds–more than three seconds faster than the Koenigsegg Agera R and more than seven seconds faster than the Veyron Super Sport.

    Although Hennessey appears to hold a legitimate record, he may not hold the official record. To claim the Guinness record, a car has to surpass the previous benchmark twice, in back-to-back runs going opposite directions. Smith made his Valentine’s Day run in one direction only, Hennessey told Top Gear, because that’s all NASA would allow.

    “We wanted to run in both directions, but the NASA guys wouldn’t let us,” Hennessey said. “The morning was relatively calm, about a 3 mph quarter-crosswind. If we’d run in both directions, the result would have been pretty much the same.”

    Even if Smith had made a second pass, Guinness almost certainly wouldn’t have recognized it. Hennessey plans to build just 29 Venom GTs, one short of the number Guinness requires for “production” classification. But don’t bet against Hennessey building just one more, if only to thumb his nose at Bugatti with another run for the official record.





    Guinness’ record books won’t officially recognize the Venom GT’s performance.


    Records are a funny thing, because despite what your eyes tell you, there's always an arbiter whose sole purpose is to make it official. And those people have rules, which is why despite going faster than any other production car on Earth, ever, the Hennessey Venom GT won't officially wrest that crown from the mighty Bugatti Veyron SuperSport.

    Wait, what?

    Hennessey took the 1244-hp Venom to Kennedy Space Center and unleashed his boutique hypercar on the runway NASA used for space shuttle landings. The result? 270.49 miles per hour, besting the fastest number recorded by the Bugatti, 269.86 mph:

    Which brings us to the wrinkle. In the eyes of Guinness, the Bugatti is still the world's fastest production car. As TopGear.com explains, to get official status, the car must complete two runs, which are then averaged. In addition, the manufacturer must build a minimum of 30 cars. NASA reportedly allowed just the single run on its landing strip, and Hennessey is only building 29 Venom GTs.

    Convenient? Maybe. But numbers are numbers. No matter what the record book says, John Hennessey's Texan hypercar went to Florida and drove faster than any other, on tarmac otherwise reserved for astronauts.

    Fitting. And cool as all hell.

    Best of all, Hennessey thinks there's still more venom to be squeezed from his car, so to speak. Let the forum arguments rage.

    READ MORE: 10 insane rides by boutique automakers

    To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


    Nikita Khrushchev: "We will bury you"
    "Your grandchildren will live under communism."
    “You Americans are so gullible.
    No, you won’t accept
    To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
    outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of
    To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
    until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.

    To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
    ."
    We’ll so weaken your
    To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
    until you’ll
    To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
    like overripe fruit into our hands."



  3. #3
    Literary Wanderer
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Colorado
    Posts
    1,590
    Thanks
    5
    Thanked 6 Times in 6 Posts

    Default Re: Hennessey's Venom GT becomes the world's fastest car reaching a top speed of 270M

    Sweet. Doing it big in Texas. Glad to see that VW has been dethroned. I wonder when the car will be featured on Top Gear?

  4. #4
    Creepy Ass Cracka & Site Owner Ryan Ruck's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Cincinnati, OH
    Posts
    25,061
    Thanks
    52
    Thanked 78 Times in 76 Posts

    Default Re: Hennessey's Venom GT becomes the world's fastest car reaching a top speed of 270M

    That's a fast car!

    Good question MMCO. It is surely worthy of being featured to earn a spot on the Power Lap board. Maybe we'll see it next season...

  5. #5
    Super Moderator and PHILanthropist Extraordinaire Phil Fiord's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Posts
    3,496
    Thanks
    16
    Thanked 11 Times in 11 Posts

    Default Re: Hennessey's Venom GT becomes the world's fastest car reaching a top speed of 270M

    Nice car. I suppose when the bulk of humanity dwindles and dies, I will be able to locate one and maybe even drive it. Maybe. I don't suppose roads will be clear then either.

  6. #6
    Senior Member Toad's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Minot, ND
    Posts
    1,409
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts

    Default Re: Hennessey's Venom GT becomes the world's fastest car reaching a top speed of 270M

    I wonder why NASA allowed them only one run instead of two? It's not like they have shuttles incoming every 5 minutes.

  7. #7
    Creepy Ass Cracka & Site Owner Ryan Ruck's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Cincinnati, OH
    Posts
    25,061
    Thanks
    52
    Thanked 78 Times in 76 Posts

    Default Re: Hennessey's Venom GT becomes the world's fastest car reaching a top speed of 270M

    Quote Originally Posted by Toad View Post
    I wonder why NASA allowed them only one run instead of two? It's not like they have shuttles incoming every 5 minutes.




Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 0
    Last Post: September 22nd, 2013, 04:38
  2. Leon Panetta: U.S. "reaching the limits of our patience" with Pakistan terror safe ha
    By American Patriot in forum Terrorism Around the World
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: June 7th, 2012, 14:40
  3. Replies: 0
    Last Post: June 10th, 2010, 21:08
  4. Replies: 4
    Last Post: April 21st, 2010, 16:49
  5. America's Fastest-Dying Cities
    By Ryan Ruck in forum News
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: September 5th, 2008, 16:33

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •