John Hennessey, the chairman of Hennessey Performance, celebrated the 25th anniversary of his enterprise by creating the world’s fastest convertible to date: the Hennessey Venom GT Spyder. Equipped with a twin-turbo 7.0-litre V8 engine and a 6-speed manual gearbox, the car effortlessly reached 427.4 km/h on the 4.66km runway at California’s Lemoore Naval Air Station in the hands of Brian Smith, Director of the Ford Performance Racing School, on March 25th.

Certified by the British speed testing company Racelogic and witnessed by Commander Darren Fout, Hennessey’s ultimate Spyder beat its counterpart, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport Vitesse, by more than 18.5 km/h. This wasn’t the first time a Hennessey Venom GT surpassed its competition. In 2014, the coupe version reached 435.3 km/h at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Three units of the Venom GT Spyder “World Record Edition”, priced at US$1.3 million, will be offered to commemorate the record run. Even though these records are astonishing, neither Hennessey’s nor the Bugatti’s speed, achieved in Ehra-Lessien, are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as both vehicles ran in only one direction; the record requires back-to-back runs in both directions.