Tag: Tuatara

  • SSC Tuatara falls short in new land-speed record attempt, will run again

    SSC claimed to set a new land-speed record for a production car in October with its Tuatara supercar hitting a two-way average of 316.11 mph. Issues with the run and how it was measured prompted company CEO Jerod Shelby to abandon that claim soon thereafter, but he promised to make the run again. Now, that’s happened, but it didn’t go as planned, and no land-speed record was set.

    Last Wednesday, Nürburgring taxi driver Robert Mitchell posted a video to YouTube detailing the SSC Tuatara’s Dec. 12-13 record attempt.

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    The SSC team ran the new record attempt at the NASA runway in Florida, the same runway where Hennessey Performance Engineering set its record in the Venom GT Spyder.

    During the first attempt in October, the SSC team used a Dewetron TRIONet chassis with a GPS card and a laptop computer to process the satellite tracking data. For this new record attempt, the SSC team put redundancies in place for satellite tracking with two Racelogic systems including a VBox and an OEM system, a Life Racing tracking system, and three Garmin systems all installed in the Tuatara. Some were installed on the roof of the car and some were placed in the frunk. The latter posed an issue due to wires running out of the hood into the car, which caused the hood to keep popping open during high-speed runs at over 200 mph, according to Mitchell.

    The first record attempt placed professional race car driver Oliver Webb behind the wheel, but for the second attempt the owner, Larry Caplin, raised his hand and said, “I’m driving, I’m the owner of the car, this is my car,” according to Mitchell.

    Since Caplin had minimal seat time in the car, SSC decided to reduce turbo boost and slow down the engine timing, then build things back as Caplin became more comfortable.

    SSC Tuatara record run

    SSC Tuatara record run

    During Caplin’s second-to-last run, the Tuatara hit 244 mph in 6th gear at the runway’s halfway point. At that point, the car became so hot that the engine software began to pull the timing to save the engine. The issue affected two spark plugs, though nobody checked the plugs and didn’t realize the issue existed.

    A chill box was installed to cool the intercooler and the entire engine for nearly two hours to restore a proper temperature. The boost was increased to within 3 pounds of full power, and Caplin went out for one more run.

    This time the Tuatara hit 251.2 mph before the halfway point when Caplin aborted as he felt the car wasn’t building speed as it should. At this point, the SSC team realized two cylinders had lost power, and the record attempt was over. The 251.2 mph run was done with two cylinders not firing properly.

    Motor Authority reached out to Shelby to confirm Mitchell’s story on the record attempt and has not heard back as of the time of publication.

    SSC plans to run the record attempt again at the NASA runway in January, according to Mitchell. Click on the video above for a deeper explanation of the run.

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  • SSC to re-run Tuatara land-speed record attempt, not submitting current run to Guinness

    The SSC Tuatara is not the fastest production vehicle on the planet, at least not yet, officially.

    After much controversy, the world will get to find out what the Washington-based automaker’s Tuatara supercar can do, again. On Friday night, SSC CEO Jerod Shelby released a video on the company’s YouTube channel stating the Tuatara will make another run for the record in “the very near future.” The move effectively abandons SSC’s claimed record of 316.11 mph set on Oct. 10 near Pahrump, Nevada.

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    “We’ll run it again, with every backstop in place, so the speeds clocked on the next run are irrefutable,” Shelby said to Motor Authority.

    To ensure the accuracy of the data from the next record attempt, the Tuatara will be equipped with “multiple GPS companies’ equipment in the car” and “their staff on site looking over our shoulder analyzing every run, every detail,” Shelby said in the video.

    The record run’s data from Oct, 10 will not be submitted to Guinness World Records. “I don’t believe Guinness would even review the submission due to all the controversy,” Shelby told MA. The initial run’s GPS satellite data has yet to be verified by an independent third party.

    Per Guinness World Record’s rules, two independent third-party witnesses were on site at the record attempt to verify the data and certify they saw it. The independent witnesses were Brian Shoemake of Pahrump Life magazine and Nevada legislator Gregory Hafen II.

    SSC has not said whether there was a discrepancy with the calibration of the Dewetron satellite GPS tracking system during the first run, which would have caused the data gathered by the system to be inaccurate.

    Shelby told MA Guinness will not be on site for the next record attempt as the organization doesn’t send its own people and relies on having two witnesses on site to certify the record. He also said it is yet to be determined who the driver will be and when the next run will take place.

    SSC claimed the attempt on Oct. 10 in Nevada consisted of passes of 301.07 mph in one direction and 331.15 mph in the opposite for a two-way average of 316.11. Now, that figure will not be recognized as a new production-car land-speed record. However, SSC will make another attempt to set the record.

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