Let me say that again: THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY MILES PER HOUR.
SSC (Shelby Super Cars) has just released official data logs on the new Tuatara, which is now the fastest car you can buy with big boi money.
Check out this speed run from Top Gear:
Just Getting to 331 mph is absolutely insane in a car that looks like an amalgamation of Koenigsegg, Ferrari, and Pagani’s Zonda. It looks like a “Normal” hypercar! Not without saying, watch that video again and notice just HOW FAST it accelerates through 300mph. It doesn’t even look like the driver Oliver Webb is even starting to put his foot down until 200 shows up on the speedo.
If we look back at the Famous Bugatti Veyron top speed run, you’ll notice that 258 just barely creeps up on the docket and it seems like the car is BARELY able to make it to that speed. The above, well, I’d say the proof is in the pudding.
This is what we hear from Oliver after that insane speed run:
I hope to never do that again," he said, laughing. "I actually don’t think anyone is crazy enough to attempt it anytime soon. I think it’s unwise to even try." He paused. "No one needs to go any faster than that.
Even him just saying that is basically egging on anyone else who owns this car to go faster, and you know they will. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all, it’s the space race for car fanatics!
Think of all the awesome trickle down tech that will emerge in normal cars after this new 300+ mph precedent has been set??
Nothing? oh, yeah. Well while there might not be a ton that will come from the SSC Tuatara that we can all see in the next Honda Civic, but it’s still an incredible accomplishment that fills my heart with sheer wonder and pride!
But why? Why on earth can this car with “only” 1750hp on e85 go so much faster than other cars with more horsepower? The answer lies with its design. See, the car was designed around the cooling/piping necessities of the task at hand. That means they planned out the most efficient way to cool the car before they started designing the actual body work. This meant that they didn’t have to fight weight, aerodynamics, or 16 different radiators as we saw in the Bugatti Veryron.
“Designed in partnership with world-renowned designer Jason Castriota of Castriota Design, the Tuatara’s design achieved an all-time production-hypercar best coefficient of drag of 0.279. From 150--330 mph, the car maintained a perfect aerodynamic balance of 37% front and 63% rear, ensuring precision downforce across all four wheels.”
Coming in at around 2750lbs, the SSC is a far shot from the old Bugatti’s 4000lb+ curb weight, and it shows in the acceleration numbers. This comes in part from the Carbon Fiber Monocoque which handily provides any driver with safety, just oodles and oodles of safety…
Oh, and the car also does need a v8:
“SSC’s V8 powerplant was developed and built in collaboration with Tom Nelson of Nelson Racing Engines. The bespoke 5.9L twin-turbo, flat-plane crank engine produces 1,750 horsepower while using E85, and 1,350 horsepower on 91 Octane. That power is transferred to a CIMA 7-Speed computerized manual transmission working in unison with a state-of-the-art Automac AMT system that operates the engagement and selection of movement in the gearbox.”
Epic, just epic, and words don’t really do it justice on paper, so here’s a pretty great podcast I heard with the lead designer Jason Castriota and Matt Farah on the Smoking Tire:
While I’m sure we’ll hear more, there is word of a Spyder, extra super downforce, and then I’m sure a slew of limited editions for the top 1% of people in the world. I’d think we could look at what Koenigsegg and Pagani have done and paste that on what SSC will come out with. Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…unless of course the broken thing is a shitty Koenigsegg Agera RS with a measley 277mph top speed. Then in that case definitely fix it.
Cheers y’all,
Al