316mph the oldfashioned way
American firm SSC have smashed the production car speed record. Here’s how
What’s that, Bugatti? You hold the record for the fastest-ever production car? Not any more. SSC North America has smashed the record with its V8 Tuatara. Driven by British racing driver Oliver Webb, SSC’s creation has hit 316mph, eclipsing Bugatti’s previous 305mph record.
More concerned with extremely focused execution than radical innovation, the road-legal Tuatara is powered by a V8 engine that drives the rear wheels through a seven-speed automated manual. Its carbonfibre bodywork combines low drag with enough downforce for stability at speed.
If neither SSC nor Tuatara means anything to you, a brief history lesson: the company was created by Jerod Shelby and was called Shelby SuperCars until a legal settlement with the estate of US automotive legend Carroll Shelby (no relation) put paid to that. The Tuatara follows on from the Ultimate Aero, a relatively blocky hypercar that toppled the Veyron as the fastest car in the world. Now, more than a decade on, Jerod has given Bugatti a bloody nose again, the Tuatara clocking a two-way average of 316.11mph and a one-way top speed of 331.15mph.
The Tuatara’s engine, a 5.9-litre twin-turbo V8 with a flatplane crank, was developed for SSC by Nelson Racing
Engines. It makes 1750bhp running on E85 ethanol, or 1350bhp using 91-octane pump fuel. During its world record run, it was clocked accelerating from 60 to 120mph in just 2.5 seconds. Bologna-based CIMA is responsible for the seven-speed manual gearbox, which is activated automatically by a mechanism from Automac. The car runs on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s.
The Tuatara, which weighs 1247kg, has 11 heat exchangers: two for the intercooler, four for the engine, two for the gearbox, and one each for engine oil, power steering and air-con.
The carbonfibre bodywork was designed by Jason Castriota, formerly with Pininfarina, whose CV includes work on the Ferrari 599 and Maserati GranTurismo. The SSC has an ultra-low drag coecient of 0.279 (compared to a Chiron’s 0.36), an active rear wing and a shaped underbody that feeds airflow to the powerful rear diffuser. Active suspension lowers the ride height for track and high-speed use (down from 102mm to 70mm at the front; 114mm to 83mm at the rear).
‘Not only does the Tuatara boast a class-leading drag coecient, it also maintains an identical aero balance from 100mph to well over 300mph,’ says Castriota.
‘We came pretty close to meeting the theoretical numbers [of the original Tuatara concept], which is an astonishing thing to do on a public road,’ says Shelby. In keeping with the rules of the production-based class, there will be a run of 100 cars, built in Washington state, at a cost of $1.3 million each.
Surely that’s it now? Maybe not… ‘There’s definitely more in the car,’ says driver Oliver Webb. ‘As I approached 331mph, the Tuatara’s speed climbed by almost 20mph within the last five seconds. The engine was still pulling well, and I know we can go even faster.’
‘We came close to meeting the theoretical numbers, which is astonishing on a public road’ Jerod Shelby