A few days ago we brought you news of a record-breaking top speed run conducted by SSC North America with its Tuatara hypercar (you can read the original story here). Soon we will have an SSC Tuatara record re-run.

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Record-breaking?

The American firm claimed that it had set a new top speed record for production cars at an event held on October 10 in Nevada, USA. Professional racing driver, Oliver Webb, drove the Tuatara on a section of closed motorway outside of Las Vegas to two-way top speed of 508,73 km/h (316,11 mph). SSC released in-car video of the record-breaking runs at the time.

Crying foul

Soon after the news broke several social media critics started to question the validity of the claimed speeds. They used the video from the SSC run and compared it to a similar top-speed run from Swedish automaker Koenigsegg, when it used that same stretch of road in 2017 to set the production car record in its Agera RS. Using fixed points on the road one can see that the Agera RS is covering the same stretch of ground faster than the SSC Tuatara.

Further fuel was added to the uncertainty fire by GPS tracking company Dewetron: “Despite the information published on the website of SSC North America well as on several related and non-related YouTube channels, Dewetron did not validate any data from world record attempts or preceding tests. Not one of Dewetron’s employees was present during the test drive or involved in the associated preparations.”

The culprit

It seemed the problem lay with the video content that that sent out for publication. In a statement from SSC boss Jerod Shelby confirmed: “Somehow, there was a mixup on the editing side, and I regret to admit that the SSC team hadn’t double checked the accuracy of the video before it was released. We also hadn’t realised that not one, but two different cockpit videos existed, and were shared with the world.”

“At first glance, it appears that the videos released have differences in where the editors had overlaid the data logger (which displays speed), in relation to the car’s location on the run. That variance in ‘sync points’ accounts for differing records of the run.”

SSC Tuatara Record Re-Run

The online outcry has prompted Shelby to make the decision to re-run the record attempt. “So as I sat there thinking through, there was just no way to now make this perfect. It hit me. We have to re-run the record.” You can learn more about his decision in the video below.