Texas-based Hennessey Performance Engineering is a company specialized in squeezing more output from V8-powered General Motors products, Mustangs and a handful of imports. But Hennessey’s biggest hit is a Lotus Exige-based hypercar known as the Venom GT.
The all-American Hennessey Venom GT is, simply put, the only road-legal vehicle to make the Bugatti Veyron put its money where its mouth is. Last year on the 14th of February, the Venom GT was driven by Brian Smith on the Kennedy Space Center’s 3.2-mile (5.15 km) Space Shuttle landing runway at 270.49 mph (435.31 km/h). At the hand of the former race driver and tire test engineer, John Hennessey’s pride and joy set a new world speed record for 2-seater sports cars.
Because of some dubious regulations championed by the Guinness Book of Records, the Venom GT doesn’t officially qualify as the world’s fastest production sports car, but who cares? There’s solid proof of the Veyron-beating run, so it doesn’t matter what Guinness thinks.
The very car that set the speed record is now for sale, and the asking price is $1.4 million (€1.275 million at current exchange rates). On top of its record-breaking status, the man or woman who will buy this Venom GT will also get a powerhouse of a twin-turbo V8 engine.
The all-aluminum eight-cylinder displaces 7 liters and it is said to “obliterate any other production car from 50 to well over 250 mph,” thanks to the 1,244 BHP on tap. Vector in the carbon fiber body shell and all-aluminum chassis, a dry-sump lubrication system and huge 20-inch tires (345/30R at the rear) and you can see where this is going.
The future owner of the mind-boggling Venom GT will also receive Penske double-adjustable coilovers, double A-arm suspension all around, and 6-piston aluminum calipers from Brembo clamping 15-inch carbon ceramic rotors at each corner of the car.
At the end of the day, the $1.4 mil blunderbuss from Texas on hand isn’t only rarer than the iconic Bugatti Veyron, but also a great investment over time. Under the adjacent video, you will find all the specifications of the record-breaking Hennessey Venom GT.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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