SSC Tuatara Aims To Be Nurburgring King

SSC North America redeemed itself somewhat last month when the ballistic Tuatara hypercar set a new official speed record, banishing last year’s controversial speed record attempt. With that feat done and dusted, founder Jerod Shelby has turned his attention to the Nurburgring.

A record-breaking run at the challenging circuit would solidify the Tuatara as an all-round high-performance machine, not just a straight-line speed freak. Last year, the much less powerful Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series registered a record 6:43.616 time around the Ring. Could the Tuatara beat that?

Shelby is obviously confident about the Tuatara’s chances. “We’re talking to a group about Nurburgring, and that will be one of our next focuses after top speed,” the SSC boss said when talking to Muscle Cars & Trucks. This indicates that the SSC team will first try once more to officially reach a new top speed, likely well in excess of 300 mph.

“I think it’s such an extreme and technical track,” continued Shelby. “You gotta have the right driver, you gotta have a great vehicle, and you do a lot of tuning and testing there because it’s not a smooth track.”

Over the course of the next few weeks, Shelby promised that the SSC team will be sharing new videos of what takes place behind the scenes in preparation for another top speed run. The quarter-mile and standing mile times will also be showcased “in a very public way.”

There’s no indication of an estimated Nurburgring lap time just yet, but it’ll take nerves of steel to guide the extremely powerful Tuatara around the Ring. With up to 1,750 horsepower from its turbocharged V8 engine when running on E85 fuel – more than double the power of the AMG GT Black Series – and a dry weight of below 2,800 pounds, it’s got the necessary tools to potentially set a new record.