SSC Tries To Explain Its Controversial Tuatara Top Speed Claim

Earlier this month, the gang over at SSC took one of its insane hypercars known as the Tuatara to a closed stretch of highway and attempted to see just how fast the car would go. The SSC team claimed that the vehicle reached a top speed of 316.11 mph on average during its runs. However, many people who viewed the video of the top speed run disputed the car was going that fast.

SSC's Jerod Shelby has now come forward and is offering some details on the top speed run. He says that the company reached those speeds, and the numbers are on its side. However, he maintains that after the video was posted, they realize the depiction of speed in the run on video was substantially incorrect. He then proceeds into a very long explanation of how the discrepancies came to be.

He says that on October 19, two videos were released with one from the cockpit with data of the speed overlaid and another with B-role running footage. According to Shelby, there was a mixup on the editing side, and he says the SSC team didn't double-check the accuracy of the video before releasing it. That resulted in two different cockpit videos being produced and shared with the world.

He says that each of the two released videos had inaccurate information, and it wasn't their intention to do so. He says that at first glance, it seemed the videos have differences in where the editors overlaid the data logger, which displays the speed in relation to the location of the car on the run. He says that the variance in the sync points accounts for differing records on the run.

SSC says Driven Studios has extensive footage of everything and that it is working with the company to release the actual footage in its simplest form. The team says that the driver was traveling at 236 mph when he shifts from 5th to 6th gear at 7700 RPM. He continued to push close to the top of the sixth gear, reaching 331.1 mph at 8600 RPM. The team is now reportedly gearing up for another top speed run.