The SSC Tuatara still needs to jump through a number of hurdles before it reaches the production line but the carmaker continues to show off the vehicle to prospective buyers. Earlier this month, the vehicle made an appearance at Miller Motorcars and while the design is more than seven years old, it still looks more like a spaceship than a production car.
SSC, led by Jerod Shelby, famously revealed the Tuatara at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance with bold performance ambitions. However, financial difficulties prevented the vehicle making its way to production and for years, it seemed as though the project was dead.
However, SSC surprised many at the 2018 Pebble Beach event in August by revealing an updated pre-production prototype and confirming once again that the car would see the light of day.
In recent years, the market for multi-million dollar hypercars has exploded thanks to custom creations from the likes of Koenigsegg and Pagani and SSC hopes to join these elite European companies with the Tuatara.
Will it happen? We’ll have to wait and see but in the meantime, we can at least enjoy looking at the hypercar.
SSC says that when the Tuatara hits the market, it will be powered by a twin-turbocharged flex-fuel 5.9-liter flat-plane crank V8 that revs to 8800 rpm and delivers 1350 hp on 91 octane fuel and 1750 hp on E85. The automaker says that this engine and the vehicle’s slippery shape will be enough to send it to over 300 mph (482 km/h).