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| The fastest car in the west, for now. |
After a nine-year wait since SSC North America first announced plans to reclaim the world’s fastest car title, the boutique American car company did so on Monday, when Manchester-born racing driver Oliver Webb (29) drove the SSC Tuatara at 509 km/h on Route 160 outside Las Vegas.
While Guinness has not yet
certified the speed as a world record, on-site officials, using Dewetron GPS
measurements that tracked the speed runs with an average of 15 satellites,
verified the 509 km/h speed.
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| The original Tuatara. |
The Tuatara is named after tiny, lizard-like reptile from New Zealand but is powered by a big, 5,9-litre, twin-turbocharged, V8 engine that makes 1 304,97 kW (1 750 hp) on a high performance fuel.
SSC
partnered with Nelson Racing Engines to build the engine, Linder Power Systems
for the sub-assembly and Automac for the seven-speed automated manual gearbox.
The aerodynamic body and stylish down-force wings that prevent lift-off was
designed by Jason Castriota, who also worked at Pininfarina, Bertone, Saab and
Ford.
To meet production criteria, SCC will build 100 Tuatara units, each selling for $1,6 million (over R26
million) SCC — then still trading as Shelby SuperCars — first teased the Tuatara
in 2011, after the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport clocked 412 km/h to take the title
of fastest production car from SCC’s Ultimate Aero.
Last year, on August 2,
Bugatti test driver Andy Wallace moved the record even higher — to 490,48 km/h
in a prototype Chiron Super Sport at Volkswagen’s test facility in Ehra-Lessien.
The Oxford-born Wallace was 59 years old, and he will no doubt be keen to show
the Yanks and the lad from Manchester what a 60-year-old toppie can do in a
superfast Volksie.
Gearheads cannot wait.
