American tuning house Hennessey Performance Engineering is crowing after its own production car, the Hennessey Venom GT, set a new Guinness World Record for the world’s fastest accelerating production car. To claim the record, the vehicle completed two runs in opposite directions within one hour of each other that averaged out to a time of 13.63 seconds to go from 0-300 km/h (186.4 mph).
The acceleration runs were piloted by John Kiewicz and conducted southeast of Houston, Texas, on an 8,000 foot-long runway at Ellington Airport on January 10, 2013. The first run, with the assistance of a 6 km/h (4 mph) tailwind, saw the supercar accelerate from 0-300 km/h in 13.18 seconds, while on the second run into a 10 km/h (6 mph) headwind the car took 14.08 seconds to reach the same speed.
This averages out to 13.63 seconds, which was more than enough to claim the world record from the Koenigsegg Agera, which held the previous record of 14.53 seconds.
Powered by a 7.0-liter (427 cubic inch) V8 producing 1,244 hp and 1,155 lb-ft of torque, the record-breaking two-seater, real-wheel-drive vehicle is street-legal and tips the scales at just 1,244 kg (2,743 lb) – or to put it another way, the vehicle boasts a power-to-weight ratio of one horsepower per kilogram of curb weight.
The Venom GT also set a new unofficial acceleration record of 0-200 mph (322 km/h) in 14.51 seconds that bested the Koenigsegg Agera R’s record of 17.68 seconds by 3.17 seconds and shamed the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, which takes 22.2 seconds to hit the 200 mph mark. However, this record remains unofficial because Guinness only recognizes runs made in km/h.
With Hennessey only planning to build 29 Venom GTs, and one third of these having already been sold, such stomach churning acceleration will only be experienced by a select few who can also spare the car’s US$1.2 million asking price.
Video of the Guinness World Record-setting runs can be seen below.
Source: Hennessey Performance Engineering
