Industry news

SSC Tuatara 331MPH Top Speed Record Called Into Question

A new video breaking the internet suggests that the SSC Tuatara, famous for destroying the top speed record, might have not even broken the 300mph mark.

The video shows Tim Burton aka Schmee150, a well known YouTuber, break down several troubling aspects about the Tuataras top seed run. This analysis of the top speed run leaves viewers pretty certain that the Tuatara only achieved about 280mph. You can see the video below. 

One of the most damning pieces of evidence that Burton uncovered was the fact that the speedo is blurred out in the SSC Tuatara’s top speed run. Which would only be done if they were trying to hide something. This leaves you wondering, what are they trying to hide? The video breakdown goes far beyond mere speculation to back up this conspiracy. 

Nevada State Route 160 just outside Las Vegas, was the perfect stretch of road for the Tuatara to top out. What’s more, and even better for us, is that the road has visible medians spaced apart making it easy to calculate the Tuataras distance traveled. In addition to that we have the on-screen “speedometer” to use as a reference. After calculating the exact distance in between the medians and using a simple distance traveled divided by time taken formula, you can see that the Tuataras “top speed” is a mathematical impossibility. 

If you don’t like that particular way of calculating the Tuataras true speed, then you can also do it by counting the white lines on the road. In addition to that Burton also argued that given the car’s gear ratio, tire size and red line limiter it would be impossible to achieve 331mph without revving the car at nearly 11,000 RPM. That is far past the cars 8800rpm redline. Both of these calculations suggest that the Tuatara’s top speed is around 280mph. 

So do not cancel your Bugatti orders just yet, SSC has some explaining to do. Now the question is, how does the on-screen speedo read 50 mph faster then it should? I’ll leave that for Shelby SuperCars to answer. 

Related Articles

Back to top button