The heated international race for "World's Fastest" production car is one that may never end, but for now the title belongs to the American-made Hennessey Venom GT. The previous record of 267.81 mph was set by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport in 2010 famously disqualified by Guinness World Records on a technicality until their ruling was ultimately reversed in 2013. The Venom GT, which had an earlier 265.7 mph trial of its own vetoed by Guinness, changed everything by clocking 270.49 mph at the Kennedy Space Center landing strip.
Though it's still technically unofficial since Guinness requires an average of two runs to account for wind conditions, Hennessey's record-breaking time was GPS-certified by Racelogic. Incredibly, it sounds like it could have been even faster according to driver Brian Smith. Smith reportedly told Car & Driver that the Venom GT was still accelerating at 1 mph per second when he hit the 270 mark, but there wasn't enough road left to work with on the 3.2 mile straightaway at Cape Canaveral. With Smith covering nearly 400 feet per second at those speeds, 3.2 miles ends in a hurry, so it's hard to fault Smith for slowing up. He not only had to look out for himself, but for a street car which retails for $1.2 million.