A little-known American automaker has just snatched the title of world's fastest production car.

SSC North America announced Monday that its Tuatara hypercar reached an average speed of 316.11 miles per hour during two record-breaking dashes outside Las Vegas.

The vehicle, which was tested on a seven-mile stretch of a Nevada highway on Saturday, also reached the highest speed ever achieved on a public road, at 331.15 miles per hour, according to the company. The official top speed of 316 miles per hour is the result of two runs in opposite directions, to account for wind and road variations.

SSC said that two independent witnesses were on site to verify the world records.

 

 

The Tuatara, which has butterfly doors and produces 1,750 horsepower from a turbocharged V-8 engine, is the second vehicle built by SSC to earn the title of world's fastest production car, according to the company. It says the model's aerodynamic design was inspired by fighter jets, taking more than a decade of research and development.

 

Here's a video of the run:

The production on video itself is rather terrible, but watching the speed climb on the run is unreal: 300+ and it's still pulling. Bonkers.

I don't know how many people here are NHRA fans, but this thing is hitting top fuel speeds. Just crazy.

Dang.

So who help the record before they broke it?

The Koenigsegg Agera had the previous record at something like 285mph. A Bugatti Chiron hit 304mph a year or two ago, but that was a specially prepped one-off, which doesn't qualify as a "production" car.

ETA: Koenigsegg set their record on the same stretch of road as SSC. There's a video of that run too, and it didn't have any more speed in it. Bugatti set their record on VW's huge proving ground in Germany.

Edited October 21, 20204 yr by charliekwin

Not a lot to do in Richland.  Close to Hanford.  Pretty dry out there.  I used to tell people that there was desert in Washington and they had a hard time believing.  It's not all rain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSC_North_America

 

$2M USD with Batmobile styling:

 

So I'm assuming they sprayed the driver with V-gas* before the test run?

 

 

*Note that I remembered the concept and the show, but couldn't dredge up the details without a little google.

  On 10/21/2020 at 10:51 AM, 240260280 said:

$2M USD with Batmobile styling:

Haha! But with most cars, the little canards and winglets and dips and curves are just there for show. On this car, moving at the speeds it can attain, I bet all that stuff is actually functional!

They'd need to fit me with an adult diaper before getting into that thing.  

Me too!!