SSC Tuatara dethroned the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport to become the fastest production car in the world!
The record-breaking run took place in Nevada on October 10 on a segment of Highway 160 between Las Vegas and Pahrump.
To achieve such a feat, the Tuatara uses a monstrous 5.9-liter twin-turbo flat-plane V8 producing 1,250 hp with regular gas and 1,750 hp with E85 (a mixture of petrol and ethanol).
Moreover, SSC mated the engine to a 7-speed Automatic Manual Transmission developed in partnership with the Italian firm CIMA. Tuatara is made up almost entirely of carbon-fiber for weight reduction. Also, SSC paid a lot of attention to aerodynamics to give the car stability during its high-speed run. With all this arsenal onboard, the Tuatara has a dry weight of just 1,250 kg, translating into a power-to-weight ratio of 1,400 hp per ton!
According to guidelines set out in the Guinness World Record, every manufacturer must record the maximum speed in both directions. Then, they determine the average speed, which is recorded as the official number.
The Tuatara clocked 301.13 mph (484.53 km/h) in the first run and 331.06 mph (532.69 km/h) in the second run. These runs were later averaged at 316.11 mph (508.73 km/h), enough to warrant the title “World’s Fastest Production Vehicle.”
The hypercar broke three other records in the process, namely:
- “Fastest Flying Mile on a Public Road” at 313.12 mph (503.92 kph)
- “Fastest Flying Kilometer on a Public Road” at 517.16 km/h
- “Highest speed Achieved on a Public Road” at 331.15 mph (532.93 km/h)
Behind the wheel of the Tuatara was British professional race driver Oliver James Webb.
“There was definitely more in there. And with better conditions, I know we could have gone faster; as I approached 331 mph [532.69 kph], the Tuatara climbed almost 20 mph [32.19 kph] within the last five seconds. It was still pulling well. As I told Jerod [Shelby, CEO of SSC], the car wasn’t running out of steam yet. The crosswinds are all that prevented us from realizing the car’s limit,” said Oliver in an interview.
Later, SSC discovered that the Tuatara had hit its top speed of 331 mph in the 6th gear with another gear left!
The SSC Tuatara is a testimony to the rapid growth of automotive engineering technologies. Furthermore, it’s also probably one of the last celebrations of internal-combustion engines. From the looks of it, electric cars are about to take over, although they face a few challenges on their own.
Exciting times, anyway!
