How fast can a Christmas tree go? It may seem like a strange question, but there are many crazy people who have tried to break the record for thefastest Christmas tree in the world. Among the most active is the American House Hennessey, who after setting a record a few days ago with a Porsche 911 Turbo, today shattered his own record. Attached to a special Audi RS6, the Christmas fir reached 300 km / h, stopping at 294 km/h.
The record: the fastest Christmas tree in the world reaches 300 km / h
But how is it possible that a tree has reached almost 300 km / h? The ingredients to shatter this crazy record are few: a fast enough car, possibly with a roof, a poor test fir tree, an experienced driver and crazy enough to try to beat this record, and a long enough road. Ah, and of course much, healthy Christmas spirit.
And this is exactly how between a speed test and the other for Hennessey’s latest car, the Venom F5, the American computer and manufacturer has decided to take aModified Audi RS6, the professional driver Spencer Geswein, Ford Performance driving school instructor, to see how fast he went. Subsequently, having exceeded the 300 km / h of great momentum, the idea: mount a real spruce of 2 meters on the roof of the RS6.
In fact, Hennessey had already tried and obtained the record a few days ago, reaching 282 km / h by mounting another spruce on a modified Porsche 911 Turbo S 991 with 750 hp. To finish the last test on the Venom F5 with carefree, then, why not try to break the record with the RS6? The result was astounding: 188 miles per hour, which in international measures becomes 294 km / h. Officially, that 2-meter fir is the fastest Christmas tree in the world. Check out the video above to see a real spruce whizzing by at nearly 300 per hour.
The car to transport the fastest Christmas tree in the world, an Audi RS6 modified by Hennessey for… his wife
The Audi RS6 used to set the record for the fastest Christmas tree in the world however, it was not just any RS6. In fact, if the “normal” RS6 produced by the House of the Four Rings reaches 600 HP, this example, painted in the classic metallic gray by “Audi as a representative” received the Hennessey care under the hood.
The 4.0 V8 biturbo German was indeed brought to ben 800 CV thanks to several modifications including an inevitable complete remapping of the control unit and a complete exhaust. If you think this RS6 was created for a wealthy and demanding client, you are wrong. Qhis RS6 is in fact the personal car of the wife of House founder John Hennessey, Hope. With this car, the woman goes shopping, takes the children to school and uses it every day in the Texas town of Sealy. Why does it have 800 hp? Well why shouldn’t it?
A daily car, an everyday car capable of reaching 330 km / h. “We wanted to see what my wife’s Audi station wagon would do without the shaft, and we got to 205 mph (330 km / h).“, explains John Hennessey, founder and CEO of the company. “And then, the real Christmas fun started when we mounted a real Christmas tree on the roof. To our surprise, his estate has reached a respectable speed of 183 mph (294 km / h). We did this to wrap up the most recent high-speed test session with our Venom F5. After all, who needs reindeer when your wife has an 800 horsepower sled? “ Well, I don’t feel like contradicting Mr. Hennessey.
But… who is Hennessey?
If all this seems to you crazy and meaningless, it is only because you may not know the manufacturer very well that has come up with this crazy record. Although it is in fact little known to us, in America Hennessey is an institution. Born in 1991, Hennessey Performance has specialized since its debut in the development of high performance cars. Hennessey has ranged and still ranges between American cars come Ford, Dodge, Jeep, German like BMW, Audi or Porsche, British eat McLaren the Jaguar, Japanese like Lexus and even Italian like Ferrari or Lamborghini. Their mission is one, and it is also the company’s motto: We make cars go faster, we make cars go faster.
Hennessey’s goal is therefore as simple as it is complex to achieve: get the most out of production cars, between speed and power. Some of Hennessey’s projects speak for themselves: notoriety came in 1996 with the Hennessey Venom 650R, a 650 hp version of the Dodge Viper of the time, capable of reaching 350 km / h. Other famous creations of the Texan house are the VelociRaptor, a 600-horsepower version of the Ford F-150 Raptor, the Hennessey CTS-V, a 1000 hp version of the already powerful Cadillac CTS-V, and also available in Wagon version, and the insane The Exorcist. Also present in an episode of The Grand Tour, is a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 brought to 1,000 hp and 1,310 Nm of torque.
The first real original Hennessey, however, was there Venom GT. Based on the chassis of the Lotus Exige, the Venom is 60cm longer than the starting Lotus. This is because behind there is a 7-liter twin-turbo Chevrolet LS7 V8, capable of delivering 1,244 hp and 1,566 Nm of torque. Its goal? Being the fastest car in the world: despite reaching 435 km / h, it did not go down in history as the fastest in the world due to only 29 units produced. To be elected “” fastest production car in the world “, the car must be produced in at least 30 units. For this, Hennessey has prepared a new car, even more extreme than the Venom GT and completely new, the Venom F5.
Appointment next year for the attempt to steal the scepter from the German super wagon
Featuring an all new chassis and a home-developed twin-turbo V8 engine, the Fury is capable of well 1,817 hp and 1,617 Nm of torque. The target? Breaking through the wall of 300 miles per hour, 482 km / h. Today, Hennessey is fine-tuning his Venom F5, testing its maximum speed and then launching it on the market in recent months. In reality, however, all Hennessey Venom F5s have already been sold: if you wanted it … it’s late. Don’t despair though: in Hennessey’s future there will also be one first electrified car, the HyperLux GT.
After attempting to break the record for three consecutive years, first with a Dodge Challenger Hellcat, then with a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk boosted to 1,000 hp and this year with his wife’s 911 Turbo S and RS6, we can’t wait to see if next Christmas can be the one where we can exceed 300 km / h. With all due respect to the poor fir trees used for this scientific experiment.