Topless Top Speed Record Set by Hennessey Venom GT

Hennessey Venom GT Spyder (Credit: © Hennessey)

Hennessey and Bugatti have been in somewhat of a war as of late, as they jostle for position in the top-speed rankings. While the Venom GT held the record for the world’s fastest production coupe at 270.4 mph—Guinness World Records didn’t certify this record due to the Venom only running one way instead of the required down and back—Bugatti still owned the fastest production convertible record. Not willing to rest on its laurels, Hennessey took aim at Bugatti’s record again, but this time, it’s looking for the topless record with its Venom GT Spyder.

As you can guess, the Venom GT Spyder and its 1,451-horsepower `Murrican-made 7.0-liter V-8 broke the record once held by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport Vitesse. The Venom GT Spyder not only beat the Bugatti’s record, it crushed the record by more than 11 mph, topping out at 265.6 mph.

Hennessey Venom GT Spyder (Credit: © Hennessey)

There is just one issue to this whole world record thing, and that is the fact that it is not certified by Guinness, the typical certifier of all things record breaking. In fact, this run doesn’t even qualify for Guinness’ record, as it was just a one-way run instead of the down and back required by Guinness—this is the same issue that marred the coupe’s record-breaking run. According to Autoblog, however, the always-willing-to-talk John Hennessey said he doesn’t care because Bugatti’s record isn’t Guinness certified either.

You can check out the record-breaking run in the video below.