Some pretty shocking news came out recently involving the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. According to Driving.co.uk, the Guinness Book of World Records has stripped the Veyron Super Sport of its "fastest production car" record on grounds that it had breached the rules in its record-setting attempt.

The record, which has stood for three years, was re-investigated after an enquiry by Driving.co.uk regarding a speed restrictor that Bugatti->ke16 deactivated to achieve its top speed. After an investigation by the Guinness World Records, the 267.8 mph the Veyron Super Sport was nixed from the record books because the deactivated speed restrictor did not qualify the supercar as a production model.

“It has come to the attention of Guinness World Records that there was an oversight in its adjudication of the ‘Fastest production car’ which was set in 2010 by the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport,” said Jaime Strang, PR Director of the Guinness World Records.

“As the car’s speed limiter was deactivated, this modification was against the official guidelines. Consequently, the vehicle’s record set at 431.072 km/h is no longer valid. Following this, Guinness World Records is reviewing this category with expert external consultants to ensure our records fairly reflect achievements in this field.”

Click past the jump to read more about this story, including Bugatti's response to having its holy grail record wiped off the record books.

News of Guinness stripping the Veyron Super Sport of the record was met by what looked like a combination of confusion and indifference from Bugatti.

While the company has said that it will seek clarification from the Guinness World Records, it also released a statement saying that Guinness knew about the deactivated speed restrictor before the supercar attempted its record-breaking attempt.

“Guinness knew the Veyron’s speed limiter was deactivated but that for safety reasons, cars subsequently sold to customers would have their speed limiters activated ,” a spokeswoman for Bugatti said.

“It’s not a hard blow if we lose this title. The Super Sport is more than just a world-record car.”

As for who takes the mantle as the fastest production car in the world, Hennessey can lay claim to that title after its resident rocket, the Venom GT, recently hit 265.7 mph in a non-Guinness-record attempt . The time has yet to be verified by the Guinness, but if it stands, it'll take its place at the top of the heap.

How long will it stay there, though, is another matter entirely.