- It should come as no
surprise that we here at donut are big fans of top speed runs. I especially loved when
Bugatti hit 253 miles per hour in their iconic Veyron, and then broke the 300 mile
per hour mark in a modified pre-production version of the Chiron. So it was pretty mind blowing when I heard about a new speed run
claiming a production car did a whopping 331 miles per hour. (electronic music) An automotive manufactured
named SSC North America showcase their hypercar called Tuatara. When the company released
a video of its speed run, claiming a top speed that seems to be tearing at the laws of
physics as we know them. You ever heard of general
relativity it's by this artist named Einstein. You
probably never heard of him. However, this video has created
a ton of controversy online. After some people started taking
a closer look at the video, very quickly, things started to unravel. Suddenly viewers all over the internet were claiming that it was faked. - Why is this video not what it seems? - The GPS speed seems so
different from being visual speed. - SSC denied these claims, of course, but let's unpack the
sequences of events that led to this controversy. What was the catalyst
that sparked debate among viewers of the video? What kind of investigation was
done to back up their claims and how did SSC handle the
backlash? Most importantly, how fast did the car actually go? (electronic music) - Thank you to Nord VPN for
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speed running question, we need to get some background info. Unless you're a car nerd like myself, you've probably never heard of
SSC North America before and that's okay. To be fair. America doesn't really have a bunch of household supercar brands like Europe does
with Bugatti, McLaren, Ferrari, Konigsegg, et cetera. So before we get the controversy, let's discuss the origins
of SSC North America. (soft guitar music) Formerly known as Shelby
Supercars SSC North America is an American automobile manufacturer
that was founded by Jared Shelby. And before you ask, no, he is not related to the
automotive legend, Carol Shelby. When Jared was a kid, he used to compete in karting
and actually traveled across the country to compete.
Unsurprisingly, this fueled his passion for the super
cars that were coming out of Europe and dreamed that one
day he could build the perfect supercar himself. When he got older, he became a mechanical
engineer for a medical device company he co-founded called Advanced Imaging Technology where he managed aspects of the
mechanical and ergonomic design. And finally, in 1998, he made the leap and
founded SSC North America in Richland, Washington. During the early stages of the company, they are focused heavily
on creating a bespoke American-made supercar to break into the high-performance market. You may remember their
first effort called the Ultimate Aero and for an upstart company, it's fair to say that this was a pretty damn impressive first attempt. The 1200 horsepower
monster, famously beat the Bugatti Veyron's initial
production speed record of 253 when it hit 256.18 miles per hour, which was verified by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2007. It is immensely difficult
for an upstart brand just to compete, let alone, knock
down a titan like Bugatti, who might I remind you is
owned by VW one of the largest automotive manufacturers in the world. It was a true David beats
Goliath moment for SSC. Eventually Bugatti struck back with the Veyron Super Sport, which
averaged an incredible 267.9 miles per hour on two runs in 2010. A couple of years have paSSCd
and several other cars had come and gone taking and passing
the mantle of the world's fastest production car. Keen
to get back on the fray, SSC in 2012 began development of their next generation supercar. Then in 2019 at the Pebble
Beach Concours d'Elegance SSC announced the Tuatara. (electronic music) The SSC Tuatara is a hypercar
armed with some neck snapping stats. It has a carbon fiber
body and carbon fiber monocoque chassis. So the car only weighs 2,750
pounds and is powered by a 5.9 liter twin turbocharged V8
pushing out 1,750 horsepower and 1,341 pound feet of torque
when running on E85. That corn juice. To put that in perspective, the Tuatara is lighter than a BRZ, but with nine times the horsepower. Insane. SSC did a ton of work to ensure that the engine runs smoothly at it's 8,800 RPM redline by
placing a water pump booster in the nose of the car to assist pushing the coolant to the forward radiators. The car also has a seven speed robotized manual transmission. Meaning the clutch and gear
selection are electronically operated. Constraining
the hydraulic driven components and sensors are producing high force engagement. All this results in a car that can shift gears in less than 100 milliseconds. Snappy af. With all that out of the way, we can get the price of this
engineering achievement, which sits at $1.6 million. Ooh, that can almost buy a
two bedroom in Las Villas. So far everything seems
to check out, right? This has all the makings of an
incredible machine that could do 300 plus pretty easy, right? (record scratching) Well, we wouldn't be making
this video if that was true. Things began to spiral downwards for SSC starting in October of 2020, when SSC released a video of
the Tuatara doing a speed run on a stretch of closed
road on Nevada highway 160. That day SSC did two
runs in both directions, which is standard procedure
for top speed runs. And the first run, the Tuatara did 301.07 miles per hour. During the second run, the video showed the car
achieved an astonishing 331.15 miles per hour. Now here's where the doubters
started to raise their eyebrows. Most of the time when a speed
record like this is achieved, the new record holder only
improves the previous record speed by a few miles per
hour, maybe 10 miles at best. In this instance though, the Tuatara average of 316 miles per hour, absolutely demolished the
previous record holder by 38.2 miles per hour. This giant leap seemed almost
impossible. And I'm not the only one that thought that. Viewers online and in the comments, looked at the video, claiming that SSC tampered with
it to give the illusion that Tuatara was going at the speed at claimed. Once the initial doubters spoke out, momentum began to build
around the question, whether the video was an honest
interpretation of the SSCs performance. Even some notable YouTubers
began their own investigations. Shmee, for example, had a video breaking down
where the issues with the video started. Using Google maps, he calculated the distances
between the medians on the stretch of road SSC used, and then compared the time it
took and the video for the car to pass the medians to the
telemetry data that SSC was showing on screen to make a
long and mathematically dense story short. The telemetry data that SSC
displayed was showing that the Tuatara traveled faster than
what the actual video was showing. That's weird. This discrepancy created even
more doubt among viewers that the video wasn't an honest
depiction of the run and that the run was fake. Even worse, our boy, Jason from Engineering Explained, had a video where he
ran his own calculation. - Hello everyone. And welcome. - That's a lot of equations there, buddy. And he came to the conclusion
that the car actually only reached 240 miles per hour, which is obviously well short
of the 331 that SSC initially claimed. Two separate people
that have studied the video and made calculations about the
Tuatara's actual speed came to the same conclusion. Which was that the visual
depiction of the run and the GPS data did not match. This was not a good look
for SSC and mind you, these are smart people,
smarter than me even. I know you look at me, you're like, "dang that guy's got
glasses. So he's smart." That's not true. I just can't see well. So, what did they have to say
about all the controversy? Understandably SSC came out
and stated that their initial claims were accurate
and said that they used Dewetrons equipment to track the runs. And even said that it received
a letter from Dewetron on October 22nd, that confirmed the quote
accuracy of the equipment and speed sensors they had supplied SSC. Dewetron is an Austrian based
manufacturer of test and measurement systems. This seems like a pretty
reasonable and sturdy response to the allegations that they
faked to run. However, things got even worse for SSC when Dewetron themselves came
out and released a statement saying the following. Quote, "Dewetron did not validate
any data from the world record attempts or proceeding tests. Nobody of Dewetron's employees." I apologize. The quote continues, "Nobody of Dewetron's employees
was present during the test drive or involved in the
associated preparation." They continue, "Since the
results of the measurement data highly rely on the right setup
on the regular calibration of the systems and sensors in
use as well as many other parameters, we are not able to guarantee
the accuracy or correctness of the outcome." Ouch. The Dewetron equipment was
the cornerstone of SSC defense of their speed run. And shortly after Dewetron
released a statement SSC finally came out and
admitted that the video they had initially released was incorrect.
At face value that run had two major errors. First, they did not have Dewetron
employees on location to certify that their equipment was installed and functioning correctly at the time of the run. And secondly, they did not take special care
to make sure that the video of the run was displaying the
correct visual information. And didn't even double-check
before posting it online. So it is difficult to be certain
whether SSC really did make those mistakes or if SSC really
thought that they could fool the public because those kinds
of mistakes are borderline comically careless. Or is it possible that the
employees of SSC North America were so obseSSCd with their work, that they fell victim
to confirmation bias. Resulting in them
accepting whatever results they found and chose not to double-check. I guess we'll never know. (electronic hip-hop music) After some time paSSCd, SSC did another run in January
of this year at the Johnny Bohmer proving grounds at
the Kennedy space center in Florida. And this time they came prepared, they had RACELOGIC on
site to measure the run. They even had Life Racing,
Garmin, and the IMRA all show up. They all agreed that
RACELOGIC's Vbox is the most respective measurement tool
and use that for the run. However, SSC still had several redundant
systems in the car just in case they messed up.
So far, so good, right? So how'd it perform? Well, the Tuatara hit 279.7 miles
per hour on its northbound run and to 286.1 miles per hour
on it's southbound run. And the average of those two
runs is 282.9 miles per hour. Good enough to break the
prior record, 277.87. Therefore setting the record for the world's fastest production car. But still SSC wasn't satisfied
and wanting to attempt to run again, except disaster struck
while being transported. The Tuatara was heavily damaged
in Utah while on its way to Florida. After the enclosed trailer
flipped due to intense winds. That's a pretty painful end
to this chapter of SSC's journey. (trumpet music) The road Jared Shelby had to
take to get SSC North America to where it is today was pretty
long and particularly tough, but I'm glad they made it. No one can argue that the SSC Tuatara, isn't a fun little car. We're talking about a car that
is faster than the Bugatti Veyron however its legacy
is at risk of being forever tainted by the speed run controversy. Unless Jared Shelby and SSC
North America actually achieves its goal. It'll only be remembered as the
car that didn't go 331 miles per hour. And that's a real shame. So get there. You guys can do it. - Show your support for
America's favorite off-roader and America's favorite off-road team with the brand new hi team t-shirt. - I think he means the low team t-shirt - And I said America's
favorite off-roader and off-road team hi team. - Yeah, low team. That's what. - High team? - Low team, low team. - Nolan, people only like
you guys, ironically, - I don't think that's true, James. - Dude, this is a classy
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in this beautiful light blue color, letting people know that you're a easy going fellow or lady. - Well, whichever team
you want to represent, whether it's high team or the wrong team. They're all available at
donamedia.com for $29.98, which is so much cheaper than $30. - So much, so much cheaper James. Thank you very much for
watching this episode. If you like supercar content, we've talked a lot about them
in the past couple months. Put some videos down here.
If you liked this video, go ahead and hit that like
button. Thank you very much. That's all I ask follow donut, all social media at donut media. Follow me @nolanjsykes. Be kind,
I'll see you next time.
