The SSC Tuatara top-speed controversy is far from over. Jerod Shelby, founder and CEO of SSC, released a video where he says SSC is going to rerun the top-speed record.
This comes just a couple days after SSC said there was an editing issue on the video side that can account for the inconsistencies that bring into doubt the 331-mph top speed. You can watch the video at the top to get Shelby’s full statement.
“We were seeing different speeds for the very same run,” Shelby says in reaction to watching the videos back. “The more we looked, and the more we tried to analyze, the more we were concerned there were doubts in the relationship between the video and the GPS.”
Dewetron, the maker of the tracking equipment used for the run, still hasn’t analyzed the equipment, and at this point we don’t know if it ever will. Shelby thinks the level of controversy around this run is enough to totally rerun it.
“No matter what we do in the coming days to try to salvage this particular record, it’s always gonna have a stain on it … we have to rerun the record, we have to do this again,” Shelby says. “And do it in a way that it’s undeniable and irrefutable.”
Shelby says SSC will prepare for another run and do it in the “very near future.” This time, the Tuatara will have multiple GPS units from different manufacturers in the car. They will have the GPS companies’ staff onsite. Additionally, Shelby invited some of the YouTubers who called the record into question with video analyses in the beginning.
What this video didn’t do is completely explain what happened in the original runs. Instead, it effectively abandons those previous record claims in pursuit of a second top-speed run. There’s still no announcement on who will be doing the driving in this second run. Oliver Webb drove the Tuatara in the first run, but he has yet to come forward as the driver for the second run.
As it stands, the Tuatara’s original claimed 316 mph run is not going into the record books. We’ll be eagerly awaiting this second run.
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