“0.279”
Welcome to the first Hyper car, Straight-line review. Where we will cut through all the waffle and get to the good stuff on the ludicrous numbers that these cars produce. So, let’s get into it.
“Who is SSC?” You’re probably wondering. Well SSC, stands for Shelby Supercars. They are a North American car company, set out to design and manufacture American supercars that will stand up against the European dominated industry of high-performance production cars. Anyway, there’s your history lesson now onto the car before I bore you to death.
0.279µ. Any ideas as to what that figure is for? Those of you that know physics might know that this is indeed the drag coefficient of the SSC Tuatara. Why is this important? Why not start with the POWER? Well, this car is set out to compete with the likes of Bugatti and Hennessy in the race to 300mph. Yes, Bugatti have hit 300mph, but they didn’t run in both directions and take an average. So, to me, it doesn’t count. The reason why the drag coefficient is so important, is because at that kind of speed, in a car there is an immense amount of force pushed against the windscreen by the air. Comparing drag coefficients with the Tuatara and the Chiron. 0.279 and 0.35, respectively. Now 0.07 might not seem a lot, but the highest drag coefficient is 1, which would mean, in a perfect physics world, your car wouldn’t move. So, a 7% decrease in drag at these speeds is immense. This also means that the cars stability remains the same from 100mph all the way to 300mph up.
I have always thought that the cars SSC make are faster than Bugatti. SSC originally held the world record for fastest production car, with the ultimate aero and a top speed of 258mph. And, guess what? I think they are going to do it again with the Tuatara.
Diving into the figures. POWER! 1750bhp when run on E85, an ethanol fuel, and 1350bhp on 91 octane fuel. 0-60? Well, SSC claims it’ll do that in under 2.5 seconds and the standing quarter in under 9.75 seconds and top speed… still to find out. Made entirely from carbon fibre, this thing is light, less than 1250kg light, that’s lighter than a VW Golf and this thing has almost 1800hp!! I think this isn’t just going to do 300mph, I think it’s going to make mince meat of that figure.
The only thing it comes down to, as mentioned in my previous Hyper car blog, is the tyres they use on the car. Will the tyres they use be able to withstand the temperatures at 300mph and will they be able to supply the grip it needs? SSC have done the work. It’s now down to the tyre manufacturers.
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