Do you know what’s the world’s fastest car? If you answered Bugatti Chiron Super Speed, you’re excused. But you’d be wrong. Earlier on Monday, a customer owned SSC Tuatara set a new world record for speed, after registering over 316 miles per hour average speed.
If that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is. And no, don’t try this at home kids! The land-rocket was driven by a race car driver, Oliver Webb respectively, pictured above, and the mind-blowing speed record was set on a 7 mile stretch of public road, the State Route 160 between Las Vegas and Pahrump.
This is the same place where a Koenigsegg Agera RS reached a medium speed of 277 and change miles per hour back in 2017, and set the previous production car land speed record.
In order to homologate the record, the car must make 2 runs in opposite directions, and the record is basically the speed average of the respective runs. The top speed on the first run was 331 miles per hour, while the second was 301, which makes for 316 miles per hour average.
The SSC Tuatara ran on E85 street fuel and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 street tires. Each of the runs was tracked by 15 satellites, just to make sure.
The SSC Tuatara is a very limited edition, and it will be built in 100 examples. Each car has a price tag of 1.9 million dollars (base price that is) and it’s powered by an in-house developed 5.9 liter V8 engine, twin turbo obviously, that produces no less than 1350 horsepower on 91 octane and God knows how many on E85.
We’re only teasing: 1,750 hp on E85! The engine hits the rev limit at 8800 RPM, and delivers power via a 7 speed automatic/manual gearbox which can shift in less than 1 tenth of a second. And no, it’s not a ZF transmission, but a CIMA. Made in Italy stuff. Finally, the vehicle weighs 2.750 pounds (dry weight) and features a carbon-fiber monocoque chassis and a carbon-fiber body.