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SSC Confirms They Lied, Tuatara Didn’t Hit 301 Mph, Let Alone 331 Mph!

Last fall, SSC took the car world by surprise when the Tuatara supposedly hit 331 mph (533 kph). However, as it turns out, it was bogus, and that’s not a rumor, but official confirmation from the North American automaker themselves.
SSC Tuatara 14 photos
Photo: SSC
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In a recent Instagram post, Shelby SuperCars (SSC) has confirmed what some were already suspecting, that the Tuatara hypercar didn’t hit 331 mph. As a matter of fact, they have yet to officially break the 300 mph (483 barrier).

We have seen your questions for months now and understand your frustrations,” SSC wrote. “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.

The car company added that they were “truly heartbroken” to “learn that we did not reach this feat.” On a more positive note, they also said that they are “in an ongoing effort to break the 300 mph barrier transparently, officially, and undoubtedly.” They ended the post by thanking “those who were supportive and understanding of our unexpected incident in April that has delayed our top speed efforts.

According to the TopGear report dating back last October, British racing driver Oliver Webb drove the Tuatara at 301.07 mph (485 kph) on the first run, and hit 331.15 mph (533 kph) on the second attempt.

I know we could have gone faster, as I approached 331 mph, the Tuatara climbed almost 20 mph within the last five seconds,” Webb allegedly told the quoted website. “The car wasn’t running out of steam yet.

In a strange turn of events, the official record-breaker, which hit 282.9 mph (455 kph) in January, was damaged earlier this year, when the truck carrying it to a said pursuit of a new top speed world record was hit by high winds near Salt Lake City. The trucked flipped over and apparently caused severe damage to the hypercar.

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About the author: Cristian Gnaticov
Cristian Gnaticov profile photo

After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s.
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