It’s Christmas time, and that means that the team over at Hennessey is back with another ludicrous speed record with a Christmas tree strapped to the roof of a high-powered car.
After screaming to 294km/h in its highly-modified Audi RS 6 Avant last year, Hennessey’s latest holiday record was set by its Venom 1000 Mustang GT500, which is tuned to 746kW/1156Nm while running on 93-octane fuel.
Hennessey’s take on the Mustang took the Christmas tree to 308km/h at the Continental Tyre Proving Grounds in Ulvade, Texas, with professional race driver Spencer Geswein at the wheel.
The Venom 1000 Mustang GT500 comes powered by a hand-built 5.2-litre V8 fitted with a 2.65-litre Roots-type supercharger, with heavy modifications for the high-flow induction system, fuel rails, injectors and a new air/oil separation system.
To handle the monstrous power upgrades, Hennessey fitted the Mustang with a set of new lines, belts and tensioners, as well as giving the dual-clutch transmission a recalibration to avoid any catastrophic damage.
Previous Christmas tree records have seen Hennessey’s 2018 Dodge Challenger Hellcat Widebody hit 280km/h, followed by the HPE1000 Jeep Trackhawk in 2019 which hit 291km/h. Founder and CEO John Hennessey said:
“Our annual Christmas tree run serves two roles for our growing company – first, testing our performance at a proving ground is a great opportunity to validate our engineering – the Venom 1000 delivers impressive numbers. Second, adding the seasonal twist allows our hard-working team to end the year with some high-speed fun before they slow down and enjoy their families for the holidays.”
