SSC Tuatara Is Officially The Fastest Car In The World

Bugatti's Chiron hypercar has held the record for fastest car in the world long enough; the SSC Tuatara has officially bypassed the Bugatti at a whopping 331 miles per hour! That is almost 20 miles per hour less than the Chiron's 304 mph top speed.

The SSC Tuatara hypercar runs on an incredible 5.9 liter twin-turbo V8 that produces 1,750 horsepower. For this attempt to steal the Chiron's number one spot in the Guinness World Records book, the car had to set an average speed from two rides along the highway. SSC's CEO explains how difficult it was to prepare this important event. "Obviously, we've been preparing for this for quite a long time. It's a big process to get a highway shutdown and do all this stuff legally. We worked with Nevada DOT to shut down a section of highway 160 near Pahrump, Nevada, which happens to be the same stretch of road that Koenigsegg used back in 2017."

SSC didn't use this highway stretch just because Koenigsegg did, though, they say that there aren't many great places to break a record like this. Also, this record wasn't broken right away. During the first run, the car reached a mere 287 miles per hour. But, the second run was much better. "Then he popped a 301.07 mph. So obviously, there was applause because one of our big goals was 300 mph," SSC's CEO said. But, this still wasn't enough.

SSC already had beaten Koenigsegg's record at 293 mph, but 301 was still a bit below Bugatti. Before the last run, the driver told SSC's CEO that the wind would only make things worse. But, they tried one last time anyway. The driver started the car sped down the road, and hopped out and sat down disappointed. This worried the CEO, until the numbers were announced.

"And so they bring up the data acquisition stuff, and satellite equipment, and it was 331.15," he stated. That number officially makes the SSC Tuatara hypercar the world's fastest production car. After the successful attempt, the driver said, "There was definitely more in there. And with better conditions, I know we could have gone faster. As I approached 331 mph, the Tuatara climbed almost 20 mph within the last five seconds. It was still pulling well. As I told [the CEO], the car wasn't running out of steam yet. The crosswinds are all that prevented us from realizing the car's limit."

Not only did the Tuatara break the record of 'World's Fastest Production Car', but it also broke three other records: 'Fastest Flying Mile on a Public Road, 'Fastest Flying Kilometer on a Public Road', and 'Highest Speed Achieved on a Public Road'. This is a great accomplishment for SSC, and by the way, in the case Bugatti and Koenigsegg get any ideas, they have 30 miles per hour to surpass.

Source Credits: CarBuzz