American Hypercar Wants to Top Koenigsegg's 284 MPH Speed Record
Way back in 2011, SSC North America showed off a concept version of its second car, the SSC Tuatara.
The Tuatara had the lofty goal of being the world’s fast production vehicle. With a 6.9-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine making up to 1,700 hp and an extra-slippery exterior design, SSC claimed it would be capable of doing 0-60 mph in 2.3s and reaching a top speed of 276 mph. There’s been very little movement in the SSC world since the Tuatara first debuted, but the production version could actually be set to make its debut at this month’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
SSC recently sent out a press release and teaser images of an updated version of the Tuatara that it will show in Monterey in a couple of weeks. The new Tuatara is described as a “next generation hypercar that boasts an unmatched drag coefficient, track-level handling characteristics and a top speed that is projected to easily surpass the current world record,” held by the Koenigsegg Agera RS, which stands at 284.55 mph.
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We’re a bit skeptical of SSC’s claims. After all, SSC and the Tuatara fell off the map for nearly a decade after the vehicle was first shown. The automaker claims it was simply taking its time to methodically engineer the vehicle, but we imagine that’s just another way of saying that they ran out of money before coming across additional funding.
If the American company can actually put the vehicle into production, we wouldn’t bet against them breaking Koenigsegg’s record. The company briefly held the title of world’s fastest production car after the SSC Ultimate Aero hit 256 mph, so if it can break this record once, there’s no reason why they can’t do it again.
The SSC Tuatara is set to make its debut on August 24th. For now, you can get a rough idea of how the updated American hypercar will look with the teaser images in the gallery above.
Sam McEachern holds a diploma in journalism from St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, and has been covering the automotive industry for over 5 years. He conducts reviews and writes AutoGuide's news content. He's a die-hard motorsports fan with a passion for performance cars of all sorts.
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