A new king has climbed to the top of hyper-car hill.
On Saturday, October 10th, a seven-mile, sun-baked, wind-swept stretch of Highway 160 outside of Pahrump, Nevada was transformed into the high-speed runway from which SSC North America’s 1,750 HP hypercar, the SSC Tuatara, made a pair of record-setting runs in the company’s quest to reclaim its title of “world’s fastest production vehicle.”
The Richland based company has been deemed “fastest production vehicle” in the world, with their car hitting a new world speed record averaging more than 316 miles per hour.
The SSC Tuatara is a production car, meaning it is identical to one that a customer can purchase, and in order to break the record the Tuatara had to drive in opposite directions and average two speeds.
“This accounts for winds and road grade that may have favored the vehicle as traveling in only one direction,” says a public statement regarding the record.
After nearly three years of massaging the design, including the addition of an active rear aero wing, the Podium team succeeded in both goals, notching a .279 drag coefficient (nearly identical to the Polestar 2) and achieving a 37 percent front – 63 percent rear aero balance at speeds exceeding 150 mph.
The drive had to be done an a public road, the car had to run on street tires and non-race fuel. The speed of the car was tracked by a certified GPS measurement system.
There were two world-record sanctioned witnesses on site for verification, and during the two trial runs the car averaged a speed of 316.11 mph according to the release. The car hit a speed of 301.07 mph during the first test run, and 331.15 mph during the second run.
“There was definitely more in there. And with better conditions, I know we could have gone faster,” said Oliver Webb, who piloted the record run.
“As I approached 331 mph, the Tuatara climbed almost 20 mph within the last five seconds. It was still pulling well. As I told [the 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.”
SSC North America was founded in Richland, Washington in 1998 by Jerod Shelby. The Ultimate Aero, also created by SSC North America, held the “Fastest Production Car” record in 2007 until 2010, it had been clocked at 256.14 mph according to the release.
“We see ourselves as a piece of history that we hope inspires others to break their own boundaries,” says Shelby.
