Customer vehicles are already being produced. Head over to their website if you’ve got pockets deep enough to afford one. Photos courtesy of the SSC website.
Photos courtesy of the SSC website
The Tuatara that broke the record was a customer owned unit. Photos courtesy of the SSC website
Reaching speeds of up to 474km/h is no easy task, but stopping at those speeds without the use of a parachute is mind-blowing. Photos courtesy of the SSC website.
The vast majority of us will likely never experience speeds above 400km/h. Above 300km/h is where the lines start to blur, and you’re forced further and further into your seat. The accessibility of speeds within the 400km/h are fantasies for most and a reality for the slim few that own the likes of a SSC Tuatara, 474km/h doesn’t even scratch the surface of what it can do.
Photos courtesy of the SSC website
A handful of hyper cars are battling it out to see who can go the fastest and claim the title of the fastest production car out there. At the very top of the ladder – unsurprisingly- is Bugatti with its Chiron Super Sport 300+. SSC has tried day in and day out to dethrone the Fremch hypercar maker but has fallen short numerous times, but that doesn’t mean it’s not impossible. In 2020, SSC claimed they had broken the famed “300mph barrier”(482km/h), but after some criticism and scrutiny, those claims were proven to be false. Despite that slight hiccup, the SSC team has come back once again to attempt to reach that fabled 300mph mark.
The Tuatara that broke the record was a customer owned unit. Photos courtesy of the SSC website
With the help of Racelogic’s dual VBOX GNSS systems and the numerous backup sensors, this attempt was going to be done the right way. Piloting this R31 million hyper car was Tuatara customer and hyper car collector Larry Caplin. Impressively Caplin used his own SSC Tuatara. Even more impressive is the fact that this entire run from 0km/h to 474km/h happened on a 3.7km runaway. The Tuatara went from one end of the runway to the other end in just over 1 minute. This run marked a new achievement for the SSC as this has been their fastest run so far.
“The sheer rate of acceleration that the Tuatara was producing all the way through 295 mph really told us that this car is not even close to reaching its ceiling. All the data and imagery has given us a clear picture that the limiting factor wasn’t the car, but the fact that we ran out of runway,” said SSC North America founder Jerod Shelby.
Reaching speeds of up to 474km/h is no easy task, but stopping at those speeds without the use of a parachute is mind-blowing. Photos courtesy of the SSC website.
The SSC Tuatara is powered by a specially designed twin-turbo V8, mated to a CIMA 7-speed electronically controlled transmission. The V8 built by Nelson Racing Engines produces 1304kW when fueled with methanol. Its aerodynamics and design allow it to maintain a class-leading drag coefficient of 0.279 while maintaining a constant weight distribution of 37% in the front and 63% in the rear.
Customer vehicles are already being produced. Head over to their website if you’ve got pockets deep enough to afford one. Photos courtesy of the SSC website.
“We have cracked the door open and given the world a glimpse of what the Tuatara truly is capable of. Now it’s time to focus on letting customers experience this package that we are incredibly confident in”
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Keyword: WATCH: SSC shatters high speed record with a Tuatara owner at the helm