The folks over at Hennessey Performance->ke1863 have a lot of reasons to be proud these days. Not only were they able to build a bad-ass supercar->ke177 like the Venom GT->ke4149, but they can add a whole lot of power and enhancements to just about any vehicle out there, be it a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray or a Cadillac Escalade. The tuner's most impressive achievement, however, is being able to smash the world speed record for production cars -- held by the Bugatti Veyron->ke1112 -- with its Venom GT that packs a whopping 1,244 horsepower and 1,155 pound-feet of torque under the hood. Sure, the record won't make it into the Guinness Book of World Records due to the lack of second run and low production numbers, but we all now that the benchmark is now in the hands of an American company.

The record run saw the Venom GT reach 270.49 mph at the Kennedy Space Center took place about three months ago. And if you haven't seen the video yet, you've been living under a huge, heavy rock. The reason we're bringing this achievement back into the spotlight is because the run was featured in Pennzoil's "Breaking Barriers" series, in a video that reveals never-before-seen footage and some of the obstacles the Hennessey team had to overcome along the way.

Breaking a speed record owned by a car built by a multimillion-dollar empire such as the Volkswagen Group ain't easy. What makes things even more impressive is that, compared to VW, Hennessey is just a tiny group of passionate gearheads that are motivated by more than just volume sales and profits -- one of the reasons we love Hennessey so much. That's reason enough for you to watch this 7-minute video and learn why the Venom GT is way cooler than the Bugatti->ke16 Veyron.

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