SSC Tuatara-
“After October’s results were doubted, the hypercar went again on January 17 and averaged 282.9 mph after two runs verified by Racelogic.“
The following written content by Viju Mathew
On January 17, while many of us had our eyes glued to the NFL playoff games, Dr. Larry Caplin focused on a 2.3-mile stretch of concrete at the Kennedy Space Center’s Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds in Merritt Island, Fla. There, on the same runway formerly used for space shuttle landings, Caplin took his own SSC Tuatara hypercar to a new production-car speed record, recording two passes in opposite directions averaging 282.9 mph—a feat officially announced this morning by SSC North America.
The accomplishment eclipses the former 277.87 mph benchmark set by the Koenigsegg Agera RS in 2017. Bragging rights nearly went to Bugatti in August of 2019, when a Chiron charged to 304.77 mph. Unfortunately for the French marque, the car was not a production version, and it only traveled in one direction (two are officially required).
Even SSC North America had a recent claim dismissed. In October, engineer and company founder Jerod Shelby (no relation to Carroll) and crew brought the 1,750 hp, carbon-fiber Tuatara to Nevada, initially reporting an astounding pair of runs that together averaged 316.11 mph. The would-be milestone was quickly contested, with Shelby acknowledging soon after the inability to accurately verify results.
“We couldn’t make full sense of our data and we were not 100 percent able to come out and refute these doubts,” Shelby told Robb Report by phone yesterday. “So we made the decision, in-house, that the only right thing to do would be to go re-run for the record,” he said. “And this time, do it in full transparency.”
For the second try, that transparency included GPS and measurement equipment from four separate companies, each of which brought its own staff to install and monitor the equipment without any involvement from the SSC North America crew. Read more from Robb Report.
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