You might remember that a while ago, a small North American company by the name of SSC claimed to have smashed the world speed record for a production vehicle with the SSC Tuatara, only to be debunked almost immediately by industry experts and eagle-eyed enthusiasts.
Following that, SSC Founder Jerod Shelby published a personal video admitting that the evidences from the Tuatara record attempt raises more questions than they have answers for, and vowed to return “in a way that’s undeniable and irrefutable”. And indeed – all credits to them – returned, they have.
The SSC Tuatara, in its third record-breaking attempt (after pulling out from the second attempt due to engine overheating issues), have now set a new world record for the fastest production car, with a two-way average speed of 455.3 km/h (282.9 mph), and for real this time – the data collected by the Racelogic VBox measurement equipment on board have been verified by the manufacturer’s technical director, as well as an independent analyst – both of them also on site to witness the run.
The new number is no doubt disappointingly, though not entirely unexpectedly, much lower than the previously-claimed 508.73 km/h. A big reason for that is perhaps the fact that the team only had a much shorter distance of about 5.3 km (including braking zone) to work with at the Kennedy Space Center runway in Florida.
Still, the northbound run at the Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds topped out at 450.13 km/h (279.7 mph), and the return leg brought up 460.43 km/h (286.1 mph), which averages out to 455.3 km/h – still immensely fast, and enough to beat the previous record of 447.2 km/h set by the Koenigsegg Agera RS in 2017.
It is also still a way off of the 490.4 km/h VMax set by the Bugatti Chiron last year, though that attempt was not admissible in the official records book as it’s only run in one direction, and not on a standard road-going car.
Will SSC ever beat the Chiron’s top speed? There’s no way to say for sure, but based on how the SSC Tuatara is still accelerating at the braking point, it certainly seems likely. At least we know that SSC will not be the only one attempting, with the Hennessey Venom F5 and the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut both already planning to take a shot at it themselves.
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