America’s Most Obscure Hypercar Is Still The Fastest Ever Made

The world of hypercars is fiercely competitive and in order to stand out, manufacturers need to chase unparalleled performance and engineering excellence at all times. Heavy hitters dominate the market, but one quite obscure car is still a formidable contender. Even though the SSC Tuatara is lesser known when compared to brands such as Koenigsegg or Bugatti, it’s still making significant strides, especially when you look at some of its groundbreaking engineering. And it’s even more impressive when you look at those coveted speed records, with a certified, two-way average of 282.9 mph under its belt.

Why the SSC Tuatara is Built for Speed

The SSC Tuatara draws some of its inspiration from aerospace engineering and offers a nice blend of functionality and aesthetics. The fabled designer Jason Castriota is the brains behind the project, and he introduced a teardrop canopy with vertical stabilizing fins at the back, to keep the car firmly planted on the road. Tuatara has a monocoque chassis which is made entirely from carbon fiber to give it great strength with little weight. Overall, Jason’s design enables this vehicle to slice through the air with little resistance, due to its drag coefficient of just 0.279.

At the rear lies a punchy 5.9-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine, which comes out of the Nelson Racing Engines stable, maker of some of the most powerful crate engines in 2024. The engine has a flat-plane crankshaft design so it can rev all day, with a red line set at 8,800 rpm. Expect 1,750 hp if you add E85 ethanol, or 1,350 hp on standard 91-octane gas. Little wonder that the Tuatara can shoot to 60 mph in just 2.5 seconds.

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Power transmits to the wheels through a seven-speed automated manual transmission manufactured by CIMA, which has an advanced Automac AMT system built in. This enables you to shift gears in less than 100 milliseconds, so you’ll always be able to make full use of the power on tap, with no performance drop off.

Chasing the Top Speed Dream with a Speed Bump Along the Way

Of course, the Tuatara is now famous for its record-breaking speed, although some of its speed attempts have been a tad controversial. On October 10, 2020, the manufacturer closed a stretch of SR160 near Pahrump in Nevada to facilitate a two-way average speed run. The company reported 316.11 mph, although some people were to question its validity. Indeed, the company later withdrew the claim as it was unable to verify the data.

Undeterred, on January 17, 2021, SSC North America was able to return a record speed following two high-speed test runs at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Racelogic USA technicians were on hand to measure and validate the attempts and the vehicle had a VBOX 3i 100Hz GNSS system onboard, accurate to ±0.06 mph. On the northbound run, the car set a maximum speed of 279.7 mph, with 286.1 mph on the southbound run. This two-way average was therefore 282.9 mph.

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Hungry for even more PR fodder, SSC took to the test track in Florida’s spaceport again on May 14th, 2022. SSC again persuaded one of its customers, Larry Kaplan, to pilot the car and once again with the dual VBOX GNSS system to log the data. An independent analyst was on hand to verify the recorded speed of 295 mph and, by some accounts, it may even have been able to go faster than the recorded speed if the test track facility had been longer.

Jerod Shelby founded Shelby Sports Cars in 1998 (later to become SSC), and the company has a history of chasing the “fastest production car” record. One of its earlier models, the Ultimate Aero, clocked 256.14 mph in 2007.

With multiple GPS measurement systems in place to check everything over, SSC rightly claims that the Tuatara’s performance is up there in the top echelons of automotive speed records.

The SSC Tuatara Compares Well Alongside Its Peers

How does Tuatara compare with other heavyweights in this sector? Let’s take a look at it alongside the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300 +, Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut, the Henessey Venom F5, and the Agera RS.

Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300 +

The Chiron Super Sport 300 + has an 8-liter quad-turbo W16 engine, which gives 1577 hp. Bugatti claims that the car hit a top speed of 304.77 mph as a pre-production prototype, at Volkswagen’s test truck in Germany. However, this was just a single run and, in the absence of a two-way average, it isn’t a production car speed record. It’s also worth noting that the Super Sport 300 + has a significantly higher price tag of $3.9m compared to the Tuatara, at $1.9m. Another caveat to note is that the 300 mph achieved by Bugatti was in a modified prototype, and the Super Sport 300+ was only ‘visually inspired’ by this, not mechanically identical. Its top speed is no higher than the standard Chiron Super Sport.

Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut

Next, the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut, which has a 5.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine. It’ll give you 1,600 hp if you add E85 fuel and has a theoretical top speed of more than 300 mph. However, the company hasn’t conducted any official speed runs to date, so hasn’t verified the claim. While the Jesko Absolut also has a stunning drag coefficient of 0.278, similar to the Tuatara, it retails for $3.4m.

Hennessey Venom F5

Named after a category F5 tornado, the Venom F5 is another all-American speed-demon that gives the SSC something to think about. It’s 6.6-liter twin-turbo V8 makes 1,817 hp and 1,193 lb-ft of torque, and with a curb wieght of just over 3,000 lbs, set out to become the fastest production car in the world when it was introduced in 2021. In 2024, Hennessey founder John Hennessey pushed a Venom F5 to 219.07 mph in the standing half-mile, while another test driver achieved a VBOX-verified 221.92 mph.

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Koenigsegg Agera RS

Seven years ago, Koenigsegg stopped production of the Agera RS. This hypercar broke five world records in 2017, inlcuding taking the title for the fastest speed ever recorded by a production car on a public road. In 2017, the Agera hit a top speed of 278 mph (GPS-verified two-way average top speed) and recorded a fastest straight-line speed of 285 mph.

How the SSC Tuatara Handles All That Power

To cope with its rocket-like speed requires some dynamic handling and the Tuatara can certainly tackle any of those challenging corners with precision. For example, it’s got an adaptive suspension system that features multiple driving modes. Sport mode is suitable for daily driving and gives you a balance of performance and comfort. The track mode will lower the ride height and put an emphasis on handling and aerodynamics, so useful for any high-speed track sessions. And if you come across any speed bumps in suburban Beverly Hills, activate the lift mode to raise the front suspension, so you can navigate those pesky obstacles more easily.

What You Need to Do to Get One of These Beauties

Can you get one of these cars today? Well, you’ll have to be quick as SSC is only making 100 units per year to ensure that the Tuatara remains quite exclusive in the hypercar market. It will be difficult for them to build at any greater number anyway, due to the fact that each car is built by hand at the company’s facility in Richland, WA. Still, if you get your name on the list, you’ll have the opportunity to customize your Tuatara to your specification. This means that you can get a unique masterpiece to add to your collection.

The SSC Tuatara is a Very Worthy Contender Among the Quickest of the Quick

So, what about the SSC Tuatara? It may not be as well-known as some of its heavyweight European counterparts, but it certainly deserves a second look within the hypercar domain. After all, it’s a good blend of aerodynamic excellence, eye-watering performance, and leading-edge engineering. And it can still make a claim to being the fastest of its peers.

Sources: SSC North America