A new king sits on the throne of the fastest four-wheel vehicle on the planet.
The seven-mile stretch of Highway 160 outside of Pahrump, Nevada, was transformed into a proving ground this past weekend from which the SSC Tuatara performed a record-breaking run in the company's goal of reclaiming the title of "fastest production vehicle in the world."
The 1,750 horsepower hyper car, built by the American group SSC North America, demolished the previous record made by the Swedish Koenigsegg Agera RS. In a pair of high-speed runs, the Tuatara - driven by British race-car driver Oliver Webb - clocked an average of 316.11 miles per hour - breaking the Agera RS' 277.9 miles an hour average. Engineers at SSC North had just added almost 40 miles an hour on top of its rival.
For these speeds to be included in the record books, the cars must complete consecutive dashes in opposite directions within one hour of each other. Officials, including those from Guinness World Records, were present during the test runs to independently confirm all the data and validate that SSC did indeed surpass the previous world record.
Another contender - a long tail Bugatti Chiron - reached 304.77 mph on a test track. But since the hyper car prototype was not classified as a production vehicle, the speed doesn't count toward the official record.
According to Jerod Shelby, founder and owner of SSC - formerly Shelby SuperCars, Inc. North America - speed is its main design concept. "When we kicked off the development of the Tuatara in 2010, breaking the production car speed record was our overarching, ultimate goal," Engadget quoted Shelby as saying.
The Tuatara was previewed in concept form during the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. In August 2018 - seven years after its concept debut. The production version of the hyper car was displayed in public. Conceptualized by former Pininfarina designer Jason Castriota, the SSC Tuatara takes inspiration from aerospace.
