Remember the controversy surrounding the SSC Tuatara top speed run? Well, they are back and have grabbed the title of the worlds fastest production car.
Rather than going back to the Nevada State Route 160 where the first attempt took place, SSC gained access to the Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds at Space Florida’s Shuttle Landing Facility.
To avoid any validation issues, the Tuatara was equipped with multiple satellite tracking systems including two Racelogic VBox systems, a Life Racing tracking system, two Garmin systems, and a trap speed system from the International Mile Racing Association.
The Tuatara managed to run a two-way average of 282.9 mph (455.3 km/h), hitting a maximum 286.1 mph (460 km/h) on the southbound run.
That’s some way off the 508.7 km/h it “set” on a closed section of Nevada road, but enough for the company to beat the official 2017 record that stands at 447.2 km/h and was set by the Koenigsegg Agera RS.
This time around, instead of a professional racing driver the SSC Tuatara was piloted by its owner, Dr Larry Caplin.
What makes this record so impressive is that it was achieved on a run of just 3.7 km, instead of the 11 km stretch of state highway used in the previous record.
Commenting on the run, SSC CEO Jerod Shelby said: “We took a different approach this time in accelerating the car to the higher speeds.
“Larry Caplin, who owns the car, used a ‘drag race’ style of acceleration during the record runs, pulling full throttle and boost for 40-50 seconds.
“Back in October, we were leaning into the speed much slower and used only about 20-25 seconds of full throttle and boost during the run. Larry pulled off a run that was far more difficult, at least by a factor of four, than what we attempted in Nevada.”
Caplin said that another SSC Tuatara record attempt is planned and that he is “excited to come back and break 300mph (483km/h)”.