On Wednesday, the SSC announced that it has an average peak speed of 283 miles per hour During two runs. But, this effort, completed on January 17, was made in more difficult situations than before. The car was driven by an amateur rather than a professional, driver. And, for that reason, the power of the car was low.
The company will continue the effort, however, Shelby said. His next efforts will begin in the spring, he said. With driving the car at full power through the entire run.
The $ 1.9 million Tuatara has butterfly doors and a turbocharged V-8 engine. The SSC says the aerodynamic design of the model was inspired by fighter jets and took more than a decade of research and development. Tuatara is named after a New Zealand lizard, derived from the Maori word for “back peaks.”
Tuatara’s most recent run can already be considered a record. But what has been set as a record for “the world’s fastest production car” has been controversial, with no internationally recognized body recognized, and no official definition of a “production car”. Swedish supercar maker Konigseg claims to have the fastest production car record for its Ezra RS, which reached 278 miles per hour on the Nevada Highway in 2017. A modified Bugatti Chiron ran 305 miles per hour on a test track in Germany, but the car was considered a pre-car. Product prototype.
The first attempt to break SSC Tuatara’s last fall record was on a closed stretch of highway in the Nevada desert outside of Las Vegas. SSC is making its new efforts on the former space shuttle runway in Florida. Formerly known as Johnny Bohr Proving Grounds, the former landing strip is now used to test cars at extremely high test speeds.
But, instead of seven miles of highway in which to go more than 300 miles, SSC Tuatara now has only 2.3 miles. It is necessary Different, more aggressive techniques If there is any hope of passing 300 miles.
During a recent attempt in January, SSC Tuatara was approached by its owner, Larry Kaplin, a dentist and Founder of DOCS Health, a healthcare provider for large companies. To get the car up to speed, Kaplin had to press the gas pedal to the floor for 50 seconds. The car reached 244 miles in an hour at a distance of one mile, according to the SSC.
“Larry scored a run that was more difficult, at least by a factor of four, than we tried in Nevada,” Shelby said in an email.
Since Caplin is not a trained racecar driver, Tuatara’s power was largely reduced by using the car’s onboard computer. Only on the last run, and only in seventh gear, was the car allowed to make its full 1,750 horsepower, Shelby said.
“I was completely impressed,” Shelby said in an interview. “After we got him to 250 miles an hour, during this run I saw his in-car camera. And it was very quiet, not playful. It felt very well designed and I thought ‘we can do this.'”
With that much power, the car had the highest one-way top speed of 286 miles per hour and its combined average top speed, both ways, was 283 mph, the company said.
The SSC claims with its claim that its car has reached a speed of 331 miles per hour and has an average top speed of 311 miles per hour in two opposite directions in its original attempt. To keep records like Guinness, organizations need to keep speed records in both directions to ensure that wind or lines are not a factor. But despite serious questions about his video proof, Shelby still felt he had to do it again to answer critics. (Shelby is not related to Carol Shelby, the well-known founder of Shelby American, the famous founder Shelby American, the company that makes Shelby Cobra sports cars and Shelby Mustangs.)
“I think this production car’s speed record is all marketing,” Shelby said, “and this is an in-house engineering design challenge where we want our customers, the Tuatara customers, to know that they’re the fastest car in the world.”
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