http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/07/18/say-hello-to-275-mph-tuatara/

7/18/2011 10:00:24 AM

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/07/17/shelby-supercars-crowns-its-newest-creation-say-hello-to-the-tu/

7/18/2011 10:03:07 AM

Better link, thx

7/18/2011 10:05:58 AM

no problem

7/18/2011 11:20:27 AM

will they actually produce anything this time around?

7/18/2011 12:58:31 PM

i don't know but for being designed entirely by reducing drag that thing is sexy as hell.

7/18/2011 2:25:54 PM

^^ "this time around"?

You mean the SSC Ultimate Aero the first time around? Well, they have built and sold around 20 of those... yes, a small number, but a company like that can't really be expected to make any more than that. The final assembly is done by 16 people in a shed behind the founder's house!

Must-click links:

Significance of the name:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3oF7tBHKbk

Pics of the new car and really cool info on the company, the founder, the new car, and the previous record:
http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/ssc-new-fastest-car-world
(TG did that world exclusive photoshoot last summer, and I have the print issue as I happened to be in the UK at that time... http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/ssc-exclusive-2010-09-06 )

Pretty impressive guy!
http://www.shelbysupercars.com/jerod-shelby.php


1,350 hp is nuts... in a car that weighs 2,650 pounds, it is suicidal

1,000 hp per ton!

Not to mention, the designer is the famed Jason Castriota, designer of the Bertone Mantide (2010), Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina (2006), and Maserati GranTurismo (2007).


If they find a good long solid road using Google Earth*, they can probably do 300 mph.

*from the first TG link:

Quote :

"The record top-speed run was done on a public road that Shelby found on Google Earth, a narrowish single-carriageway, just four miles long with a dog-leg a third of the way along that you hardly see on a map but had to be negotiated at a stately 210 mph before the hardest phase of acceleration could start. It's not terribly smooth - I've driven it at a fraction of the record speed. The police wouldn't close it off for more than 15 minutes at a time. Contrast all that with the resources that went into the Veyron. Consider VW's Ehra Lessien test track, and its 5.5-mile, four-lane-wide, dead-flat main straight, with gentle banked curves at either end."

Amazing, just amazing:

Quote :

"Actually though, Shelby absolutely has had the wheel reinvented. An Australian company called Carbon Revolution has developed for SSC the world's first one-piece carbon-fibre wheel - the 19-incher at the front weighs an almost comically light 5.8kg. The new car's entire structure will be made of F1-derived carbon. And by that, the dry weight will fall to 1,200kg-odd. Putting the power-to-weight ratio, even with fluids and the quivering driver strapped aboard, north of 1,000bhp per tonne."

[Edited on July 18, 2011 at 8:36 PM. Reason : ]

7/18/2011 8:19:46 PM

Bump

10/28/2011 6:31:54 PM

http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/ssc-tuatara-0-200mph-run-2011-10-28

Tuatara prototype does SIX 0-200 mph runs, each in <16 seconds

For comparison:

Veyron: 18.3 sec

Agera R: 17.68 sec

Video in link.

10/28/2011 6:46:06 PM

k

10/30/2011 4:49:31 PM