2019 SSC Tuatara revealed at Pebble Beach

The 2019 SSC Tuatara has finally been unveiled after a long wait, with its technical specifications and performance expectations now also revealed.

The American hypercar, expected to challenge the Hennessey Venom F5 for the title of Fastest US-built car, utilises a 1.3MW (1305kW) 5.9-litre twin-turbo V8, which redlines at 8800rpm and runs on either E85 or premium unleaded (on which it makes 1006kW).

7

Founder and CEO Jerod Shelby unveiled the hypercar at Pebble Beach this weekend, joined by designer Jason Castriota. It’s the first we’ve seen of the car since it was first made publically known back in 2011.

Named for a New Zealand lizard which has a faster rate of evolution than any other animal according to studies, the Tuatara had been teased in three shadowy photos earlier this month.

Since then, we’ve also been told exactly what its ‘unmatched’ drag coefficient is, something SSC is very proud of – just 0.279.

7

It prominently compares this to the 0.36 of the Bugatti Chiron, and the 0.33 of the Koenigsegg Agera and Hennessey Venom F5.

This also plays to its claim that the Tuatara will top 300mph, or 482.7km/h. That’s the same speed Hennessey is aiming for with the Venom, and it’s faster than the speed achieved by the Koenigsegg Agera RS and Bugatti Chiron.

7

The Agera RS holds the record, with an official record of 447km/h according to the average top speed of two runs – it managed 457.5 on one of those.

So who will win the race to 460km/h? 470? If the claims stack up, we’ll see a 480km/h hypercar before long.