Hennessey 'Vette cracks 200mph on Texas toll road

Celebrated Houston-based Corvette tweaker, Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE), has notched up an impressive milestone by cracking 200mph (322km/h) in one of its fettled offerings on a Texas toll road.

Driven by company founder John Hennessey, the HPE-upgraded Corvette hit a v-max of 200.6mph (322.8km/h), making it the first C7 model to break the double-century mark.

According to the company, the run was verified with both the VBox GPS-based data acquisition system and by radar courtesy of Texas DPS State Troopers, who were on hand to supervise the high-speed run.

The record run took place on a closed section of the newly completed segment E of Texas State Highway 99, also known as the Grand Parkway that’s located west of Houston, made available by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).

“The road is perfectly smooth and the Corvette was very stable and easy to drive at 200mph,” said John Hennessey. “I’d put the Texas highway system up against any other highway in the world, including the German Autobahn. Our roads have proven to be smooth and safe at speeds well above 200mph.”

The base-model C7 Corvette ekes out 343kW in standard trim, but the Hennessey version used for the run had more than 522kW at its disposal, all of which were required to break through the aerodynamic brick wall at 320km/h (the standard C7 Vette tops out at 290km/h).

The record-setting Hennessey Corvette was fitted with the HPE600 package (long-tube headers, ported factory cylinder heads, high-flow cats, HPE camshaft and HPE tune) plus a Nitrous Express 100hp nitrous oxide system.

Hennessey Performance also plans to release an HPE700 supercharged upgrade – also allegedly capable of 320km/h-plus performance, but without nitrous-that employs a TVS2300 supercharger, HPE custom camshaft, air induction system, high-flow heads, long-tube headers and HPE tune. All this comes at a cost of $US22,500 in North America.

In addition to the 200mph C7, Hennessey also brought out its first HPE600 supercharged Chevrolet SS that, despite being gear-limited, achieved 164.2 mph (262.4km/h) on the Grand Parkway.