Posted on 07/18/2011 7:59:15 AM PDT by Red Badger
Right now the fastest production car in the world is the hyper exclusive--and hyper expensive--Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, which is capable of a top speed of 268 mph. The previous record holder was the less refined, yet still very capable, Ultimate Aero from America’s own Shelby SuperCars (SSC), which itself stole the record from the original Veyron.
Now SSC is set to reclaim the manufacturer of the world’s fastest production title from Bugatti with a brand new supercar, a supercar that will go by the name Tuatara (pronounced twu-tar-ah). Yes, SSC has taken a page out of Pagani’s book and given its latest supercar a name almost as strange as Huayra, but there is some reasoning behind the decision.
The name Tuatara was inspired by the Maori word for a lizard found in New Zealand. The Maori are the indigenous people of the tiny island nation. The Tuatara lizard boasts the fastest evolving DNA in the world, and this fast-paced evolution is something SSC’s designers think their new supercar encapsulates.
As the founder of SSC, Jerod Shelby explains: “Most manufacturers essentially use the same basic model and body shape for up to 10 years, while only making small refinements to it each year. After only three years in production with the Ultimate Aero, SSC’s Tuatara is about to monumentally evolve in the areas of sophistication, design, aerodynamics and shear all-around performance. We felt that the fastest evolving DNA was a perfect definition of SSC’s latest project.”
Along with the new name, SSC also released more specs for its upcoming supercar. Its body will be composed entirely of carbon fiber and wrapped around a chassis made of the same stuff. The crash structures will be aluminum, however, though the wheels will also be made from carbon fiber.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Captain Slow has a new record to aim for.
“A Tuatara is a lizard that isn’t particularly fast.”
I was wondering about this choice of name myself, but I think it’s the car’s appearance, not the speed. A tuatara has a third eye on the top of its head.
Now give it a service ceiling of 20,000’ MSL and I’ll take TWO...
May? “Captain Slow”, as they call him? You may mean Hammond.
Nope. He means Captain Slow. They put him behind the wheel of a Veyron on a very long straight and he got quite fast.
This car is in my little town of 5000 or so.
Laguna Beach?...........
Really? What’s the price of that thing? (Hint: No one knows. They haven’t said.)
That’s right.
I remember the episode. They had a closed track and he put it over 230mph or something even faster.
I stand corrected, Sir.
That is if he doesn't get lost on the track.
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