The SSC Tuatara hypercar was unveiled roughly a year ago at the world-famous Pebble Beach car gathering in California. It was recently announced that production of the new model has just begun, with the very first customer delivery taking place in a few weeks. Just 100 units of the Tuatara will be produced at a purpose-built facility in West Richland, Washington.

Click here to read about a fleet of seized hypercars going on auction soon.

Already testing

The very first SSC Tuatara has already been undergoing testing. You can see a video of the car in action at the bottom of this post and if you click here you can see the car running on the dyno.

When it was debuted last year the SSC Tuatara stunned many onlookers with its sculpted carbon fibre body an incredibly low drag coefficient of just 0,279. SSC (what used to be Shelby Super Cars) said that it’s “the lowest of any production hypercar to date”. The overall shape, penned by Jason Castriota was heavily inspired by the curves of a jet-fighter. Active and static wings manipulate the airflow for downforce and to stability at top speed.

Massive power

SSC Tuatara Hypercar engine

Powering the SSC Tuatara hypercar is a 5,9-litre, twin-turbocharged, flat-plane V8 that is said to rev to 9 000 r/min. On pump fuel, the engine produces 1 007 kW. Fill up the tank with alcohol-based E85 biofuel and the power ramps up to 1 305 kW. SSC claims that the car weighs a scant 1 250 kg.

A seven-speed automated transmission sends power to the rear axle on to a pair of Michelin semi-slick rubber measuring 345 mm wide. No acceleration numbers have been quoted but the company has mentioned that its charge will be able to hit the 300 mph (483 km/h) mark.

It will be interesting to see which carmaker gets to that figure first as Koenigsegg and Hennessey are also aiming for 300 mph. Perhaps SSC will consider a run at the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans with its new rule set.