SSC North America is a boutique supercar maker based out of Richland, Washington state in the US. Making limited run HyperCars, the company is known for its attempts at setting speed records with its cars. The speed record set by its first super sportscar model — Ultimate Aero — was beaten by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport in 2010. The American company’s second model, the SSC Tuatara, has reportedly clocked 532.93kmph and just snatched the title back with a jump of more than 100kmph to the existing record for a production car.
Record-breaking drive
An official statement from the American outfit says, “with internationally acclaimed professional racing driver Oliver Webb at the Tuatara’s wheel, the record-breaking drive took place on the morning of October 10, outside of Las Vegas near Pahrump, Nevada, US along a seven-mile stretch of State Route 160.” The SSC Tuatara recorded an average speed of 508.73 kmph following two consecutive high-speed test runs of 484.53 kmph and 532.93 kmph. In accordance with record criteria, it travelled in opposite directions, clocking its speeds within one hour, to break the world record for ‘Fastest Production Vehicle’.
To claim a world record, the Tuatara had to:
•Be a production vehicle; it must be identical to the same vehicle a customer might purchase.
•Drive the same route in opposite directions, and average the two speeds. This accounts for winds and road grade that may have favoured the vehicle as travelling in only one direction.
• Achieve this feat on a public road; this ensures ‘real world’ driving conditions that a race track or runway might not offer.
• Have its speed tracked by a certified GPS measurement system, and have two world-record sanctioned witnesses on site for verification.
•Run on street tyres and non-race fuel.
SSC partnered with designer Jason Castriota of Castriota Design for the Tuatara and will only manufacture 100 units of the car. Its design is said to have achieved an all-time best coefficient of drag of 0.279 for a production-hypercar. The company also mentions that the car maintained a perfect aerodynamic balance of 37 per cent front and 63 per cent rear, ensuring precision downforce across all four wheels.
SSC’s V8 powerplant was developed and built in collaboration with Nelson Racing Engines. The bespoke 5.9L twin-turbo, flat-plane crank engine produces 1,750hp while using E85 (Ethanol 85), and 1,350hp on 91 Octane petrol. Power is transferred to a CIMA 7-Speed computerised manual transmission working in unison with an Automac AMT system that operates the engagement and selection of movement in the gearbox. The company release said Tuatara’s carbon-fiber monocoque is lightweight enough to ensure safety and peak performance. Crash structures across the car generate superior shock-absorbing protection. Our Bureau