THE TUATARA TRUTH

Hours after the SSC Tuatara’s high-speed record, the internet had a bit of a moment…

- Pawan Dhingara

The internet has got itself into a knot in recent times and at the center of that knot is one new hypercar record – the 331mph (533km/h) SSC Tuatara. We shouldn’t be all that surprised because top speed runs, since the dawn of the internet, have always come under immense scrutiny. So needless to say, when the SSC Tuatara hit 331mph its celebrations were as high as they were short. Allegations were raised and naysayers nit-picked and dissected the evidence.

First, however, we owe it to the SSC Tuatara to tell the whole story and in the correct order, and that does begin with going over 300mph on a seven-mile stretch of highway in Nevada – indeed the same stretch of road that Koenigsegg used for its own record attempt with the Agera RS.

Steel-nerved racing driver Oliver Webb hopped in the car and clocked a max speed of 301.07 mph (484.53 km/h) on his first run. To get an average speed, he pointed the car in the opposite direction, buried the accelerator and clocked a speed of 331.15 mph (532.93 km/h). Do the maths and the average speed works out at 316.2 mph (508.73 km/h), making the SSC Tuatara faster than the Bugatti Chiron and ultimately the fastest production car ever! And we do mean bona-fide production car: street legal rubber, and fuel that won’t burn off your eyebrows just by smelling it.