HENNESSEY VENOM GT HITS 270.49 MPH — A NEW WORLD SPEED RECORD

On February 14th, 2014, automotive history was made…again. John Hennessey — a man obsessed with speed — took his Hennessey Venom GT supercar to the Kennedy Space Center’s 3.22-mile shuttle landing strip in Florida. There, the team recorded a top speed of 270.49 mph with Director of Miller Motorsport Park, Brian Smith, at the wheel. This makes it a “new world record for 2-seat sports cars.”

Of course, this puts to shame the Bugatti Veyron’s 267.8 mph Guinness-verified top speed set back in 2010, and outlasts Hennessey’s previous speed record of 265.7 mph. But how did this stunning supercar manage to trounce its previous record? It was in the oil — more specifically, the Pennzoil (and the extended runway).

Working together with Pennzoil and their high-performance synthetic oils, Hennessey and his team were able to watch this hopped-up supercar top its previous speed record by nearly 5 mph. This to go along with the ride’s 2,743-lb curb weight, 2.7 second 0-60 mph time, and 7.0-liter twin-turbo V8, of course.