SSC Tuatara speed record of 316 mph was fake

KUALA LUMPUR: In October 2020, Shelby Supercar's Tuatara supercar claimed a world production-car speed record of 316.11 mph (508.73 kmph). But, the record which surprised the entire automotive industry was fake. The hypercar never actually reached this top speed figure, the automaker recently admitted this on its official Instagram handle.

The post reads, "We would like to acknowledge officially that we did not reach the originally claimed speeds of 331 mph or even 301 mph in October of 2020. We were truly heartbroken as a company to learn that we did not reach this feat, and we are in an ongoing effort to break the 300 mph barrier transparently, officially, and undoubtedly." 

The controversy on this erupted as soon as footage of the record-run was released by the automaker as some of the viewers noted discrepancies in the footage and raised doubts on its authenticity. To prove them wrong, the automaker decided to do another run at the Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds in Florida in January this year. Well, this time the SSC Tuatara did well with an average of 301.07 mph (484.53 kmph) on the first run. But the average of two runs remained at 282.9 mph (455.28 kmph) only. 

Under the bonnet, the SSC Tuatara is equipped with a 5.9-litre twin-turbo V6 engine that churns out a whopping power of 1750 PS and a peak torque of 1818 Nm with E85 fuel. The motor is coupled with a seven-speed robotic-controlled hydraulic manual gearbox. Adding to the car's performance is its lightweight. Thanks to carbon-fibre bodywork that summed up the weight at only 1,247 kg with a drag coefficient of 0.279.

So, now when SSC finally admitted that its original record-run was not real, the Bugatti Chiron 300+ continues to be the world’s fastest production car that made a speed record of 304.77 mph (490.48 kmph) at the famous Ehra-Lessien in Germany. 

Also read: Bugatti merges with Rimac to form a new company ‘Bugatti Rimac’