Shelby SuperCars (SSC) is an American manufacturer of supercars founded in 1998 by Jerod Shelby. The company is known for the Ultimate Aero TT; equipped with a twin turbocharged V8 which produces 1,287bhp (960kW) this car beat the Bugatti Veyron as the world’s most powerful production car. On September 13, 2007 the Ultimate Aero was clocked at 414km/h (257mph), resulting in the title of fastest production car in the world. This record has been reclaimed by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.
SSC has developed a new car which should take the title once more.
It’s called the Tuatara, a foppish pronunciation of Twitter. Who knows why? :)
Deep Thoughts: Why are we as attracted to rich boy useless toys as we are to rich boy useless politics?
I get 60 MPG on my Prius
Fast and loud. Stops her falling asleep.
#2. I get 50 on my Harley, and I’m having more fun!
>an American manufacturer of supercars
May we ask what happens when it comes to a corner?
It so nice to see auto makers who spend millions of bucks designing cars that only fairly rich people can afford to drive around in. And can only be driven to its full potential, on test tracks, or Germany’s highways. But when you want them to come up with something more practical, that runs on very little fuel, or is battery powered, and is still quite affordable for all. Then they look down at the floor, or out the nearest window, like scolded school children. And give some lame excuse, how it can’t be done. Oh, we can ONLY go back to the Moon, or to Mars. But we can’t design a car like that! That’s way too hard, and no fun at all. And all the research money when into designing the impractical models, we’ll never sell. DUMB!
My CTS V Caddy cost millions less and burns 5 Prius worth of gas.
Jerod Shelby seems like like a spoied rich boy with a vanity project when Carroll Shelby always seemed like the real deal.
#4 I’m sure you are! I used to own a Kawasaki when I lived in Ft Lauderdale, Fl and know the feeling.
Watch out for the blond bimbos doing their hair and make-up while on a cellphone.
>> Dallas said,
>> I get 60 MPG on my Prius
But can you hit 60 MPH?
(just kidding)
The most fun I ever had with cars were the old 1960s British sports cars in the 1970s.
I think my TR3 was most beloved. I loved my “Bugeyed Sprite” a lot, too.
I drive an old Miata, now, which is a million times better built than those British cars. Still, it’s not the same.
Greg Allan==ha, ha. We are so similar except in the ways that we aren’t? I had a 59 bugeye as my first car. Overhauled the engine and still recall that with the manifolds off and what not I could lift it out of the car all by myself. Fun car. More like a go kart that was street legal. Always salivated for an MGB.
Cars we could work on. I feel sorry for the kiddies today. I’m just a stick in the mud: hacking into a secured website just doesn’t strike me as much fun as doing wheelies on the levee.
@Glenn E.
Market share. If you are a small company and want to build cars you can either.
1, Design something cheaper, safer, more efficient, more practical than a VW or Toyota.
Go to the bank and ask to borrow $10-20Bn to setup a worldwide set of plants, component suppliers, dealer networks etc.
Then try and compete with VW and Toyota – who are perfectly capable of making small, cheap efficent cars and selling them in countries where the government allows them.
2, You hand build a few very very expensive supercars. Using the deposit/first sale to buy the components and not borrowing a cent.
It’s a bit like how dvorak readers all write Android/iPhone apps rather than deciding to produce their own desktop CPUs
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.”
Read more: http://foxnews.com/leisure/2011/07/18/say-hello-to-275-mph-tuatara/#ixzz1SaCtC2gq
I guess this is the same thing as the sports fans who go apeshit when “their” team wins a contrived “championship of the world”. Shallow, meaningless, and when all is said and done, just plain stupid.
#10 For me the fantasy was the Alfa Romeo Spider. Driving with the top down listening to something from the Glenn Miller Band.
Now I drive a Prius and my husband (when Texas allows it anyway) drives a 2011 Volvo C70 Convertible. We also have a couple of scooters we use around the neighborhood.
#14. Faxoff, take a chill pill. Do you have to suck the fun out of everything? Someone needs to put you on suicide watch.
#15. I once owned a FIAT (Fix It Again Tony) Spider. Close as I could get to an MGB, and a hell of a lot of fun. I called it the tinker toy….always tinkering with the engine to keep it running.
Ever have your battery not charging correctly and take the cover off your voltage regulator and turn the separating screw a quarter turn to reduce the space between contacts?
Tinker toys doesn’t get any better than that. More fun than reinstalling your OS that was.
ha, ha.
Again–I feel sorry for the kiddies. Lego cars just don’t have the torque.
#16–McCullough==and by engine, you mean carburetors right?
YOU KNOW: the British had the jump on the USA in computer development–by a decade at least. They just couldn’t bring it to market as they couldn’t figure out how to make them drip oil.
Bobbo, said,
“Ever have your battery not charging correctly and take the cover off your voltage regulator and turn the separating screw a quarter turn to reduce the space between contacts?”
Yes! I helped my dad restore many fifties Fords that had a generator and a separate mechanical regulator. My first car (a 1968 Ford Cortina) also had a generator (which did not charge well at idle). My second car (a 1971 Ford Pinto) had an alternator. Moving up to the big times with that car!
#14. Faxoff, the Packers are the Super Bowl champions. ‘Nuff said.
Hey if your lucky, you can get that thing up to 50mph on the 405 freeway…
[your = you’re – ed.]
Mr. Shelby, you just spent millions developing the fastest car in the world. Please spend $200 on a professional sound person to record your voiceover with a decent mic. Argh.
#18. Carbs, plugs, dist. caps, timing…even replaced freeze plugs in my 64 Mustang…did all my own work. We learned how to do or it didn’t get done.
And yes, my first Triumph motorcycle always had that telltale spot of oil lurking beneath. If it wasn’t there, I knew my brother was in for an ass kicking.
I think British Leyland was responsible for more oil spills than BP itself.
Nice, I guess for those with nothing better to spend their money on. At least it’s made in a country that didn’t viscously attach the USA or it gas half my family :).
Okay, Dallas, is it true that Toyota purposely made the Prius the 2nd* most hideous car of all time just to slow down initial sales so that they could keep up with production?
Oh, and I did 67 mph on the 405 Saturday. Both ways. Past LAX. With the cruise control on!
*1st place goes to the Pontiac Aztec.
I want to see a head on crash of this and the Veyron. Maybe on Myth Busters. Proving the myth that having this much speed could be fatal.
Or maybe proving that buying one of these is nature’s way of telling you that you have way too much
a) money
b) time on your hands
c) preexisting attributes.
Looks like a car for someone with a small pee pee.
In 1961 my first car was a 59 BMW Isetta 300. My first new car was a 69 Datsun 2000. Nothing I’ve owned since has come close to the fun those cars gave me.
Waiting for Top Gear.
They say that the tuatara is a living dinosaur.
As usual the comments are WAY better than the story. Good job guys.