SSC Tuatara Becomes The Fastest Production Car of The World

The SSC Tuatara took the fastest production car title from the Koenigsegg Agera RS, as it set out on a 2.3 miles track at the Jonny Bohnmer Grounds at Space Florida's LLF, Kennedy Space Center. Behind the wheels of Tuatara was its owner Dr. Larry Caplin.

Running Northbound at 2:38 pm local time on January 17, the Tuatara managed to achieve 279.7 mph. While running southbound at 3:28 pm, the supercar hit 286.1 mph. The average of the two opposite runs was 282.9 mph, which beats 277.9 mph speed record of the Koenigsegg Agera RS set in 2017.

SSC installed different satellite tracking systems in the car to be on the safe side and avoid controversies again. These encompassed two Racelogic VBox systems, a Life Racing tracking system, two Garmin systems, and a trap speed system from the International Mile Racing Association.

Jim Lau, technical director for Racelogic North America, was available on the scene to verify the speed record. MA by Eddie Nakato, creator of AR Motorsports, examined and validated the Racelogic VBox's data file autonomously.

"Good satellite signal did all the things they said they did, and the data matches up. It's as legit as it can be," Nakato said.

For making the fastest speed record in December, the automaker changed the final drive ratio from the primary 2.92 to 3.167. The team did it to cut the gearing in a try to achieve extra speed in a smaller distance because of the 2.3 miles track the supercar had to use for this run. The drive ratio remained unchanged for this attempt as well.

Learning from the problems arose in December, the engineers added bigger intercoolers, extra water volume in the water-to-air intercoolers, and improved venting on the dry-sump oil system. The same changes will also be available for all sold Tuataras.

Regarding the powertrain, the SSC Tuatara features a 5.9L Twin-Turbo V8 generating up to 1,750 hp on E85. The engine mates to a 7-speed automated manual transmission developed by CIMA powering the rear wheels.

Source: MotorAuthority