Shelby Supercars unveil their new Tuatara

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Years after Shelby did the Ultimate Aero, they finally came up with another supercar that offers breakthrough performance levels.

What we have here is the SSC Tuatara and it’s one of only two cars (the other being the Hennessey Venom GT) that can really make the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport fear about losing their title.

SSC Tuatara

The Shelby Supercars Tuatara can aim this high for several reason, the most important of which being the record setting power it can develop for a production car.

Thanks to a twin-turbocharged 7.0 liter V8 engine the SSC Tuatara has 1350 horsepower ready to go with a torque figure that’s still to be verified.

Bugatti may be working on a new supercar that’s supposed to be faster than the Veyron SS but for now this is the highest horsepower figure available straight from the factory.

SSC Tuatara

Getting back to the Tuatara, its was conceived from the outset to become the fastest supercar out there and its design is inspired by a lizard which lives in New Zealand. Apparently, the American car got some of the looks from the lizard and it borrowed the name as well.

Design inspiration for the SSC Tuatara is actually even more intimate with the aforementioned lizard than that. As it happens, the Tuatara reptile has the fastest evolving molecular structure (DNA) of any creature on Earth. Also, in the native language of Maori, Tuatara means peaked back, something the SSC car also has.

Considering the heritage, as well as Shelby’s claims, the new supercar is a world away in terms of evolution from the Ultimate Aero.

SSC Tuatara

That remains to be proven, both in top speed figures and other forms of testing as well as in a full release of specifications.

All we know so far is that the Tuatara uses a body that’s only made out of carbon fiber, that mighty engine, rear wheel drive only and one of two gearboxes.

A transmission choice is offered between a seven speed manual gearbox and an SMG Paddle Shift sequential automatic transmission with the same number of cogs.

SSC Tuatara

The new name seems to have sufficient roots to be on a supercar but Shelby Supercars should have included just a little bit more on what this new creation of theirs can do.

Since the goal is to beat the top speed of the Veyron SS which stands at 258 mph, we can safely assume that a figure of around 260 is to be seen but what about the rest of the good stuff?

Source: Carscoop

Lupica G. 19 Jul, 2011

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Source: http://www.automotorblog.com/shelby-supercars-unveil-their-new-tuatara/
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