Manoli Katakis 
The SSC Tuatara recently finished a record-setting top speed run at the Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds Space Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida. There are still plans for SSC founder Jerod Shelby and his team to further push the top speed limits of this all-American hypercar (more on that very soon), but after that, there’s a very clear goal in mind: a hot lap around the infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife.
We recently caught up with Jerod Shelby, who shared with us all the details he could.
“We actually are looking at (running the SSC Tuatara at the Nürburgring),” said Shelby. “We’re talking to a group about Nürburgring, and that will be one of our next focuses after top speed.”
That’s not to say Jerod is taking this next SSC Tuatara endeavor lightly.
“We do understand that is an extreme challenge,” he said. “I think anybody that says ‘we’re gonna go down there and set a great lap time,’ I think they’re crazy.”
He’s not wrong. Several high profile companies and brands that have attempted to conquer the The Green Hell have been burned at least once. Who can forget the terrible Koenigsegg One:1 crash that happened in 2016? Or Tesla’s attempt with the Model S Plaid that ended on a flat bed? Or why Chevrolet never published a C7 Corvette Z06 or ZR1 ‘Ring lap time?
All of these mishaps happened in the hands of hardened drivers hustling these vehicles to the highest limit. A lot can go wrong in a split second. Everything has to go right for the SSC Tuatara.
“I think it’s such an extreme and technical track,” said 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.”
As for estimated lap times, Shelby didn’t want to spoil any surprises.
Focusing on the fact that the SSC Tuatara is foremost demonstrating its abilities as the fastest production car in the world, there’s plenty to share in that regard.
“What we’ve done the past couple of months and what we’re going to continue to do in the next couple of months over the top speed side… we’re going to be sharing a lot more videos in the coming weeks to show exactly what goes on behind the scenes,” explained Mr. Shelby.
Top speed and ‘Ring lap times aren’t the only things that customers are interested in when shopping for a $1.9 million hypercar that goes from 60-120 in 2.5 seconds. Of course, the quarter-mile time comes into mind.
“As soon as we’re done showing the top speed of the car, we’re going to – in a very public way – we’re going to be showing the quarter mile, and standing mile as well,” he said.
As for entering high-speed events like The Texas Mile, Shelby said he’d leave it up to the customers.
“Potentially. That’s something we might do with a customer. If a customer wanted to do that and we supported that,” he noted.
