Evidence and analysis indicates SSC Tuatara ran well short of 304.77 set by the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport in August 2019 in Germany and certified by the German regulatory authority – TUV.
A small jet plane was used along with a helicopter and a drone to follow the SSC Tuatara’s progress along the roadway.
In October, news outlets were stating the claim made by the cars manufacturer that the SSC Tuatara “hypercar” had exceeded 331 mph in a record-setting run on a closed straight stretch of Nevada highway.
Subsequently experts have studied the video of the attempt and concluded that the vehicle did not achieve that speed with one of the most glaring errors of the record claim being the chase helicopter that filmed the run from above was – by its own manufacturers statement – incapable of reaching these anything like these speeds.
When confronted with the evidence, Jerod Shelby CEO of SSC North America who built the Tuatara has issued a statement saying that he accepts the doubts of the claim and intends to repeat the run in an effort to lay a stake on the most precious of reputations in the “hypercar world” – that being the fastest of the pack.
His explanation states the issues is to be discrepancies between what the GPS equipment used to time the recent run reported and what the video of the run actually shows. In that he blames the film production company for “shoddy” editing.
However comparison of the SSC Tuatara run and that by the Koenigsegg Agera on the same roadway clearly shows the Swedish car to being significantly quicker , reaching 277.87 mph.
Racelogic Software which logs data from moving vehicles, calculated that the Tuatara’s top speed on its run was actually a mere 223.75 mph over 100 MPH less than the claim although they do believe that based on the data, the car is capable of considerably higher speeds.
Does this actually matter? The Tuatara is a fast and powerful car, whose few owner/drivers will never get the chance to take it to over 300 MPH.
This new fashion for speed records is dangerous, and so removed from mere mortals and what we can achieve that this cult of speed should be viewed as simple petrolhead engineering for social media that’ll one will kill the test drivers who hot an unlucyk bump in the road or a cross wind.
However to buyers of these mega money toys one up-manship is everything.
Cars like this can sell for 10 times their original price with the right history in their lives ..famous owners , seen in a film, or a brief moment in the global headlines as the fastest car of its time.”
