Shelby Super Car's (SSC) Tuatara

11,303
United States
Marin County
Can't wait for this. Truly a stunning looking thing, which especially amazing since the Aero was so....kit car looking really.




1,350hp+
260mph+
7 speed DSG
 
Not a fan of his infomercial style sell, plus the fact he pronounces Maori completely wrong....sweet car but wrong name IMO, SSC SuperNova or something would be epic badass but ohwell.
 
Did anybody notice the Top Gear Magazine at the table :).
Now for the car, it looks good and it's going to be fast in straight line but what about the corners? And the name is stupid in my opinion. "tuatara". It's not a name for a super car.:D
 
Did anybody notice the Top Gear Magazine at the table :).
Now for the car, it looks good and it's going to be fast in straight line but what about the corners? And the name is stupid in my opinion. "tuatara". It's not a name for a super car.:D

By all accounts I've seen, the first car was good in the corners, I should imagine this one will be as good or better. Can't really see it being used on a track day though.

I'm pretty excited about this car, it looks just so...American. Hard to put my finger on why, but it just seems right. The creature the car takes it's name after is pretty cool itself, here is the wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuatara

They are capable of living over 200 years. Pretty awesome.
 
So this car is going to be cut open by Han Solo to fit a young Luke Skywalker in? At least thats what the name implies for its use. :sly:

In all seriousness though, I think it looks quite good. With 1,350bhp, they need to make it really light. If its heavy, we can just forget about it accelerating as fast as a Veyron. Though it will have a good top speed I can tell. This might put the Veyron SS to same.
 
Your wrong, read it again.

Tuatara probably have the slowest growth rates of any reptile,[14] continuing to grow larger for the first 35 years of their lives.[8] The average lifespan is about 60 years, but they can live to be well over 100 years old.[8] Some experts believe that captive tuatara could live as long as 200 years.

They COULD live as long. Doesn't mean they can't. He said they're capable, which means they could.
 
Eunos_Cosmo
By all accounts I've seen, the first car was good in the corners, I should imagine this one will be as good or better. Can't really see it being used on a track day though.

I'm pretty excited about this car, it looks just so...American. Hard to put my finger on why, but it just seems right. The creature the car takes it's name after is pretty cool itself, here is the wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuatara

They are capable of living over 200 years. Pretty awesome.

I wonder if Mitch ever saw one? But yeah I like it except for those fin things :yuck:
 
Does anyone know why the old Ultimate Aero didn't really catch on? I remember Clarkson just wrote it off because he's an idiot, but surely there must be a better reason...
 
Trust him to totally screw up the pronunciation of the word Tuatara, calling it "twa-tara". :rolleyes: It's just like when Americans say Melbourne (pronounced Mel-burn) as "Mel-BORN", really grinds our down under gears!

Here's how it SHOULD be said, at 0:06-0:07.



Notice, it's "TOO-A-TA-RA"! 👍

Return to gazing at this wannabe batmobile.
 
Does anyone know why the old Ultimate Aero didn't really catch on? I remember Clarkson just wrote it off because he's an idiot, but surely there must be a better reason...

I don't think it was made really to sell. IIRC they only planned to make something like 30 or 50. I think it was more of an engineering exercise to put the company on the map. Upstart companies need a serious 'bang' to get noticed. Companies like Hyundai did so by selling insanely cheap cars, but they are now growing into something more substantial. Pagani did it by crafting a piece of art basically. SSC has done it by breaking a world record. The new car looks truly world class.
 
Trust him to totally screw up the pronunciation of the word Tuatara, calling it "twa-tara". :rolleyes:

My first thought was "Oooh, a car named for the millions that post inane rubbish on Twitter"...
 
Seems like a good car. My only problem with SSC is that they chase pointless top speed records. Because of this, the car's 260 mph or whatever top speed overshadows any interest in track testing it. If I had one, first thing I'd do would be install a massive wing and regear it to 200 mph.

I hope this one gets more attention besides the speedometer.
 
If they hadn't broke the record, they would have been utterly forgotten. Remember the empty promises of Vector? Or Lotec? Or any of the other startup supercar companies? They needed that record more than anything to get noticed.
 
If they hadn't broke the record, they would have been utterly forgotten. Remember the empty promises of Vector? Or Lotec? Or any of the other startup supercar companies? They needed that record more than anything to get noticed.

Could have gone for the Nurburgring record. Or maybe had a racing program like Saleen (probably harder to do though).

It's true that the record has probably helped them; I'm upset that it has to be that way though. 260 mph must be a blast, but you can't really do it on the road, and you can't really do it on the track. And no matter how fast you go in a straight line, it probably doesn't hold up to going fast in a corner. The Aero has a good chassis and it might just be able to tear up most race tracks, but it would be even better if they traded in the low Cd for downforce and stability. I doubt we'll ever see it though because now SSC has the reputation of a "top speed" manufacturer.
 
It has it's alien balls hanging near the ground, other than that I think it's pretty stunning to look at.
 
Needz Moar pics

ssc-tuatara-920-6.jpg


ssc-tuatara-920-8.jpg


ssc-tuatara-920-9.jpg


MENACE:
ssc-tuatara-920-5.jpg
 
Could have gone for the Nurburgring record. Or maybe had a racing program like Saleen (probably harder to do though).

It's true that the record has probably helped them; I'm upset that it has to be that way though. 260 mph must be a blast, but you can't really do it on the road, and you can't really do it on the track. And no matter how fast you go in a straight line, it probably doesn't hold up to going fast in a corner. The Aero has a good chassis and it might just be able to tear up most race tracks, but it would be even better if they traded in the low Cd for downforce and stability. I doubt we'll ever see it though because now SSC has the reputation of a "top speed" manufacturer.

One option they could do to both uphold that image and branch out to being known for track work is to have two levels of the car. One with whatever insane horsepower and top speed figures they feel necessary, and another with around 550-600hp and more aggressive aero for a track model.
 
SSC wants the Nurburgring lap record with the Tuatara

4/09/13

The "top speed" record came with a stigma... Enthusiasts felt that the whole engineering focus must have been directed at achieving that one top speed feat. We found it difficult to get people to see around our top speed record and recognize all the other engineering feats produced by the SSC team, such as ride quality, passenger comfort, record braking handling, braking, and driver predictability. SSC has its sights set on the one-lap record at Nurburgring to showcase the engineering prowess of the SSC Tuatara.

http://www.sscnorthamerica.com/news-040913.php
 
Which lap record? Not that I expect it to be capable of competing with any of the current lap record holders.
 
Well I'm glad to hear an update, but I still can't help thinking this might become vaporware again - which would be a shame because this car is quite stunning.
 
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