You may have never heard of car-tuning outfit Hennessey, but its latest project, the Venom, has just been crowned the fastest road car in the world, after it posted an astonishing top speed of 270mph.

Based on the British Lotus Exige, the Venom is comprehensively reworked by the US company, that lowers, widens and even lengthens the chassis, before fitting a 7.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 motor, capable of delivering 1,244bhp to the rear wheels.

270mph

The Hennessey Venom GT is now the fastest road-legal car in the world

To put that into context, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport – the car which previously held the high speed crown – developed 1,183bhp from an 8.0-litre, quad-turbocharged 16-cylinder motor, and managed a top speed of 268mph.

Hennessey had been claiming for some time that its car was the fastest thing on four wheels, but lacked a venue in which to test the bold claims. Not anymore. Taking to the 3.2-mile runway at the Kennedy Space Centre, the sleek two-seater puts in a cracking performance, accelerating past 200mph like most family cars go past 30mph, and effortlessly going on to 270mph.

Click play above to watch Hennessey’s film of the record-breaking high speed run.