Initial reports said car hit 331 mph, immediately called into question
SSC previously acknowledged controversy, but stood by speeds
Supercar builder and top speed record attempters SSC North America set what it called a production car top speed record in the Nevada desert late last year, with a top speed of well over 300 mph. The record run’s data and film were almost immediately called into question, and the company vowed to try again. This time with more transparency. Now, SSC has posted a statement to Instagram officially acknowledging that it didn’t break through 300 mph on that record attempt.
“We have seen your questions for months now and understand your frustrations. If it hasn’t been made clear up to this point, we would like to acknowledge officially that we did not reach the originally claimed speeds of 331 MPH or even 301 MPH in October of 2020. We were truly heartbroken as a company to learn that we did not reach this feat, and we are in an ongoing effort to break the 300 MPH barrier transparently, officially, and undoubtedly,” read the company statement.
Back in October, company founder and CEO Jerod Shelby admitted that the company had doubts and saw problems with the footage. They did not release more footage or data and instead simply said they would do it again.
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The second record attempt for the 1,750 hp SSC Tuatara was made at the Kennedy Space Center in January, with telemetry experts including Racelogic and Garmin as well as the International Mile Racing Association on hand. That run, on a much shorter surface, saw a two-way run average of 282.9 mph (455.3 km/h). Enough to break the prior record set by the Koenigsegg Agera RS.
Shelby still wanted that 300 mph figure, though. A plan to make another Nevada attempt ended with a crash while in transit and loaded on a truck. Expect SSC to try again when the car and their customers allow.
