The Tuatara Controversy

The past controversy within the American high-performance car industry is back in the limelight as American based automaker the SSC North America has now officially surpassed the previous land speed record at 282.9 mph. The company previously faced claims that their newest model, the TuaTara had falsified statistics, claiming that their hyper car has surpassed the 300-mph mark. The vehicle’s maker boasted a 316-mph top speed which is the fastest in the production car on the market globally. With the legitimacy being put on the line, SSC had to race to repair its name and status in the industry. Dewetron, a reputable GPS data analysis company, supports SSC’s claims and stated that the 316.1 mph attempt was very much backed by their findings in the recorded data. The discrepancy occurred when the TuaTara’s timed recording of the top speed run was compared clip by clip with the Koenigsegg Agera RS’s top speed run. It demonstrated differences between the speedometer reading on the TuaTara and the projected values presented in the data as it passed certain points on the runway strip.

Source: Car and Driver 2021 (SSC North America)

The 1.6-million-dollar vehicle was set to have a second chance at redemption on a NASA owned runway when technical issues cut the test short, as the top speed run had to bail out at 251.1 mph. Cause? The misfiring of two cylinders determined to be from the overheating of the engine. Reliance aside, the car was projected to have a third test run in the following months to either set its imprint on automotive society as one of the world's fastest production vehicles or as the failure

of the American automotive industry.

Evidently, the automaker has now made a name for themselves in the global hypercar industry as the owner, Dr. Larry Caplin took his brainchild to the highest officially recorded land speed record. With the technological director of Racelogic North America, a data analytics company, there was no question of the validity of the run. The vehicle reached 289.9 mph on a 2 mile stretch on an airstrip and the Kennedy Space Center. A fitting place to break the record due to the location’s historic past in exploration into unknown boundaries.