When Mr. Elon musk has sent the Tesla roadster car to the outer space, a well to be known North American supercar manufacturer SSC (Shelby super cars – Seriously not related to auto legend Carol Shelby) has been working on a hyper car with an out of the world design and performance since 2011. Their efforts crossing all the way over the Troposphere – the SSC Tuatara is born and ready to shock the world by its road presence. yes, I specified road presence – It is holly molly going to be a production road car. As we have broken the suspense lets see about the brand where it all started.

The SSC North America is an American automobile manufacturer founded in the late 1998 by Mr. Jerod Shelby (Whos is not associated with Carol Shelby in any way). The company’s purpose of build was to specialize in the production of ultimate sports cars.  The SSC revealed their very first model “Ultimate Aero” in 2004 and showcased its full potential by paving up a Guinness World Record on fastest production car; putting up a top speed of 412 Kph (256mph) from 2007 – 2010 where it lost its title to Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. The production of Ultimate Aero was stopped on 2015 to open on new brighter opportunities for the future.

Here we have the SSC Tuatara, the successor of the ultimate aero model. The name Tuatara was inspired from a reptile that has its habitat only in New-Zealand. This reptile is knows for its pike over its back and quick movements over preys which is sad to be reflecting on its striking appearance. The Striking sleek body of Tuatara was designed in collaboration with one of the worlds renowned designer Jason Castriota. Those smooth curves travelling over the body offer simplistic and aerodynamic qualities, while maintaining a unique profile that stands out from the rest of the hypercars.

The Butterfly doors opening wide provides both spacious seating cab tub and stunning curbside attraction. There is a glimpse of a transformer autobot when front and rear deck lids are lifted, exposing the robust carbon fiber monocoque and intricate suspension system. The luggage compartment is strolled up to the front deck as the rear mid area is filled by performance elements and components. The teardrop canopy under the roof provides the driver and passenger with sweeping views over the outside environment. While the moody interiors strapping the driver inside mystery cocoon, capturing your vision is an advanced and beautiful HMI (Human – machine interface) gives critical driving and vehicle information on a digital driver display, as well as making you touch gentle over the central loaded information console, where all functionality are available.

Hiding inside the rear deck lid is the mid-mounted twin turbocharged 5.9 liter V8 mated with an 7 speed AMT glittering all over your eyes when you see it. Like elegance meeting power, the SSC have partnered with Nelson Racing Engines to fabricate and manufacture this roaring V8. The car itself can pull up to 1750 Hp while using E85 fuel (Combination of petrol and ethanol using 91 octane). The superfast attitude beast with sky high performance specifications is all set for core competence with the Bugatti Chiron Supersport which was crowned the fastest production car on a world record attempt with 300+ mph on the board.

The Record setting attempts:

The World record attempt to fetch the fastest production car title on 10th Oct 2020 on a 7-mile stretch of state route 160 between Las Vegas and Pahrump Nevada. The Guinness book of records had to put forth their criteria’s in order to follow and continue the record breaking run.  The criteria required speed runs average with two-way drive and both runs to be done within an hour of each other to account wind and gradients. Also this record attempt need to be run on a public road and use street tires and street fuel as well as speed tracking from satellite.

To handle this unmatched beauty and the beast hypercar, Oliver Webb known for his miraculous performance in the 24 hours of Le man’s GT class races was called in for the hyperdrive. Webb along with the bolting performance of the car clocked a top speed of 499 Kph (310.07 mph) in the 1st run and pulling itself higher as the engine starts pouring out energy the Tuatara clocked 532.9 Kph (331.15 mph) in the consecutive second run. Spoken by Webb “As i approached 331 mph, Tuatara climbed almost 20mph within last 5 seconds. It was still pulling well, the car wasn’t running out of steam yet. The crosswinds are all that prevented us from realizing the car’s limit.”

The Bugatti Chiron Super sport on the other front set a record speed of 490.4 Kph (304.73 mph) on a single run only. Also the test run took place on Volkswagens own test track at Ehra Lessian and not on a public road. Finally on this current scenario Webb bolting in the Tuatara has averaged 508.73 Kph following in 2 consecutive runs in opposite directions. As per the words from officials so far – in compliance with the Guinness World Record criteria, Tuatara has completed runs in opposite directions, clocked its speed within one hour, used non-race fuel , wearing street tires and speed tracked by GPS from around 15 satellites.

And this is how the SSC Tuatara has trashed the speed records of the legends and celebrating their efforts. In this competitive automotive world there are still more wonders to be discovered and shown to the world. Let’s not keep our jaws dropped and keep it closed for the next record break news.

To know more about SSC Tuatara pls visit below link:

https://www.sscnorthamerica.com/tuatara

The record attempt video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0dnQz126cE

By –

Siva Sankar GR (Cva)