SSC Tuatara Is World’s “Fastest Production Vehicle” With Top Speed of 316 MPH

North American SSC Tuatara hypercar has claimed the title of the world’s “Fastest Production Vehicle” with an average top speed of 316.11 mph.

It wasn’t long ago that Koenigsegg set the world record for the fastest production vehicle with their Agera RS and then Bugatti with the Bugatti Chiron, but now the American built SSC Tuatara hypercar by SSC North America has broken the current record for the world’s fastest production vehicle with a blistering average top speed of 316.11mph.

Driven by 29-year-old British professional racing driver Oliver Webb, the record-breaking drive took place on October 10 on a seven mile stretch of Route 160 outside of Las Vegas, using the first production SSC Tuatara owned by Philadelphian based Larry Caplin.

Originally planned to run in November 2019, the record-breaking attempt had to be rescheduled to March after running into problems with shutting down the highway. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the record-breaking attempt was delayed once again.

Pushing the SSC Tuatara to an average speed of 316.11 mph (508.73 km/h), Webb completed the two consecutive high-speed tests needed to set the world record for World’s Fastest Production Vehicle”.

The first run was completed in a time of 301.07 mph (484.53 km/h) in one direction before the second was completed in the opposite direction in an even faster time of 331.15 mph (532.93 km/h).

To set an official record, the two runs had to be completed within an hour, and officials were on-site to confirm the record (using Dewetron GPS to track speeds using an average of 15 satellites).

“It’s been ten years since we held this record with our first car, the Ultimate Aero, and the Tuatara is leagues ahead. Its performance reflects the dedication and focus with which we pursued this achievement,” said Jerod Shelby, CEO of SSC North America. “We came pretty close to meeting the theoretical numbers, which is astonishing to do in a real world setting on a public road. America’s new claim to victory in the ‘land-based space race’ is going to be tough to beat.”

“There was definitely more in there. And with better conditions, I know we could have gone faster,” said Oliver Webb, who piloted the record run. “As I approached 331 mph, the Tuatara climbed almost 20 mph within the last five seconds. It was still pulling well. As I told Jerod, the car wasn’t running out of steam yet. The crosswinds are all that prevented us from realizing the car’s limit.”
Founded by Jerod Shelby in 1998 in Richland, WA, SSC North America is the American hypercar company that also created the Ultimate Aero, a model that previously held the “Fastest Production Car” record from 2007 – 2010 with a speed of 256.14 mph and is the basis for the SSC Tuatara.

“We validate our engineering by building a car capable of going 330 mph,” shared Shelby on the day of the speed run. “We validate our passion by accomplishing this, despite years of setbacks and challenges. And we validate our values by making sure Oliver’s safety was the first and foremost important goal of the day.”

“We see ourselves as a piece of history that we hope inspires others to break their own boundaries,” says Shelby. “The only way we got to where we are today is by breaking our own. Accomplishing a feat of engineering that pushes the limits of a road-legal car by a margin this large is both exciting and inconceivable, even to me. We are entering a time where we are no longer faced by the limit of machines, but by the human factor.”