[CAR ENGINE ROARING]
MATT FARAH: What has driven us to transform the car into a
violent space capsule whose abilities require several
acres of empty tarmac?
You can't measure certain cars today by their 0-60 time.
That's a carrier pigeon in the age of iPhones.
The new ruler requires a runway.
It's the same reason we went from the Wright Brothers to
NASA, from canoe to aircraft carrier.
Because we, as people, have a drive to take
something and master it.
And although we've conquered the gasoline engine, extracted
every last iota of explosive power, in the modern day we
are simply limited by adhesion.
[CAR ENGINE REVVING]
MATT FARAH: Going for a Guinness record is not as
simple as it sounds.
All the right pieces must fit together all at once.
For the team at Hennessey, the process began
almost five years ago.
If there's one thing Hennessey knows, it's horsepower--
so that wasn't a problem.
Its twin-turbo, 7.0-litre V8 makes 1,244 horsepower and
over 1,000 pound feet of torque.
[CAR ENGINE REVVING]
MATT FARAH: Second pull, 995 at the wheels, so that's
medium boost.
So it sounds like it's breaking up because at the top
of fourth gear he's spinning the tires on the dyno.
JOHN HENNESSEY: Exactly.
MATT FARAH: So you're getting wheel spin in fourth at
150-miles an hour.
JOHN HENNESSEY: Yeah.
The traction control, obviously, is turned off.
I mean, the car came in from the pouring rainstorm and the
tires are soaked in water and the [INAUDIBLE]
are wet.
MATT FARAH: So even with wheel spin, that's not enough
[INAUDIBLE].
JOHN HENNESSEY: We may not be able to get it to hook-up on
the dyno today.
Hopefully it's dry on the runway tomorrow.
MATT FARAH: Yeah.
Finding a balance of aerodynamics and plenty of
down force without ruining the Lotus' already attractive
shape is no small task.
So many factors, all of which come together on one day, are
the culmination of a man's five-year-long dream to build
the fastest road car on earth.
This road missile, though it may be street-legal, is
basically a race car.
A no-frills merchant of death, ready to remind you that
nothing will ever feel fast again.
PHILIP ROBERTSON: No modifications, no alterations,
and it has to be a production car with some factory
modifications at maximum.
And the tires also have to be DOT standard.
The attempt must be supervised by a national or international
testing agency for motorized vehicles, which we have here.
The VBox 3I GPS unit is going to be used to give us the
accurate speed of these vehicles.
And we've had the circuit approved as being flat and
level, so there's no advantage there.
To ensure there's no advantage for wind, we have to take a
final figure from an average of two runs in opposite
directions down the same circuit, just so that we have
a completely legitimate attempt.
The existing record for the fastest 0-300 by a production
car was set by the Koenigsegg Agera R at 14.53 seconds.
We've got an extremely fast car behind us, so I'm excited
to see how this goes.
I've got a sneaking suspicion this is going to go well
today, but that's all I'm going to say.
JOHN HENNESSEY: The city of Houston and the airport
system's kind enough to let us have access to
one of their runways.
We have basically an 8,000-foot-long runway that
we're able to run about 7,500 feet on that runway.
And we're here today to see what our seventh production
Venom GT is capable of running from zero, potentially up to
250 miles per hour.
[CAR ENGINE REVVING]
[CAR ENGINE ROARING]
-13.18, 0-300K.
So we're a second and a half.
PHILIP ROBERTSON: He can still go 14-14.2 in the opposite
direction and still beat it.
-Yeah.
[CAR ENGINE REVVING]
[CAR ENGINE ROARING]
JOHN HENNESSEY: I think on our 0-300K we
were around 14 seconds.
So that would average out about a second faster than the
existing record.
DON GOLDMAN: Philip, would you agree?
PHILIP ROBERTSON: I would concur.
That's a new Guinness World Record.
[APPLAUSE]
DON GOLDMAN: That's great.
JOHN HENNESSEY: Partner.
PHILIP ROBERTSON: That was stunning.
Congratulations, Don.
DON GOLDMAN: Thank you.
PHILIP ROBERTSON: Phenomenal.
JOHN HENNESSEY: Let me tell you something.
The Venom GT's a fast car-- one of the
fastest cars in the world.
And today it's the fastest from
0-300K, thank you, Guinness.
But none of that would be possible without this guy
right here.
Don Goldman is the man behind the scenes that
makes the engine go.
DON GOLDMAN: Thank you, John.
And Kevin who helped us.
JOHN HENNESSEY: Absolutely.
PHILIP ROBERTSON: You guys, for the record, all of that
fuel, tire, smoke, everything, all of that work, that grit,
that determination, that teamwork, is actually
producing something quite special.
JOHN HENNESSEY: Just think of the margaritas that are going
to get sacrificed tonight in celebration
of this great feat.
MATT FARAH: The world of hyper cars is a small one.
The Agera R is the invention of a mad scientist.
The Porsche 918, the product of obsessed engineers.
And the Wira, the modern equivalent of a
sculpture by Leonardo.
The Venom GT isn't like that.
It's a thrill ride-- the fastest, scariest, purest,
hyper-exotic money can buy.
We said it last time and we'll say it again, all John
Hennessy wanted to do was go fast.
And according to Guinness, he now builds the fastest
accelerating car on the planet.