SSC Ultimate Aero II

[Ecnelis]

So here it is: first images of brand new SSC Ultimate Aero II, designeb by Jason Castriota.

First running prototypes: mid 2011
Est. top speed: 280 mph = 450 km/h
No specs yet

SSC Ultimate Aero II: First Photos Of America's Bugatti Fighter (http://jalopnik.com/5630025/ssc-ultimate-aero-ii-first-photos-of-americas-bugatti-fighter)

[Skatawes]

Est. top speed: 280 mph = 450 km/h

Ow, just like the first one that could hit 430 but had a hard time even breaking the veyron's record?

It is looking incredible though

[kingofthering]

Holy crap! It no longer looks like ass. :D

[wwgkd]

Ow, just like the first one that could hit 430 but had a hard time even breaking the veyron's record?

It is looking incredible though

It broke the VWs record on public roads on a day with 20+ mph winds, not on a multmillion dollar, groomed, perfectly straight track.

It does look a lot better than the old version, though.

[Kitdy]

It broke the VWs record on public roads on a day with 20+ mph winds, not on a multmillion dollar, groomed, perfectly straight track.

It does look a lot better than the old version, though.

Their claim is pretty extreme though.

I am glad it doesn't look like a piece of shit anymore though.

[wwgkd]

Their claim is pretty extreme though.

I am glad it doesn't look like a piece of shit anymore though.

True dat. I doubt they'll ever be able to accomplish it on roads, they'll need a dedicated track which they don't have the funds to build. Course the new veyron is claiming a speed they've never been able to hit, soo. :rolleyes:

[pimento]

They hit it in the new Veryon, they just speed limited the production cars.

[wwgkd]

They hit it in the new Veryon, they just speed limited the production cars.

Ah, my bad. I misremembered that.

[f6fhellcat13]

ummm...

GO AMERICA!!!


...and I would say that looking like a car that was designed by a person and some CAD rather than a person and random parts of other cars taped to a dartboard is a plus.

[Commodore GS/E]

Not sure about the 280 mph. Just remember what the Bugatti engineer said afer the record run was done: "We don't know how much more speed the tires could take." That's wha the Bugatti's street version is limited, too. I don't doubt that it is technically and physically possible, but the tires are something they can't ignore. Which is why i doubt they will go 280.

[RacingManiac]

Veyron also weighs a lot.....I don't know how much this or the first one weighs, but its certainly not impossible if it is not burden like the the Veyron is. Much like Gordan Murray said about the Veyron. You can build a car that has the capability of the Veyron if you do it smarter. You don't need the quad turbo W16 with 1200 bhp to go that fast if you have better aero. VW engineers did a great job with Veyron, but a majority of their effort went into problem solving their design limitation based on the original concept. If they started with their performance target and clean slate to achieve that, the car likely would be a lot different....

[LHamilton_w]

Looks good so far.

The Top Speed War continues...

[Kitdy]

Looks good so far.

The Top Speed War continues...

What you mean is: the Dickwagging War continues, right?

Top speed is the ultimate dickwagging contest.

[Rasmus]

Top speed is the ultimate dickwagging contest.

Agreed. Unless you're a Bonneville racer.

[Kitdy]

Agreed. Unless you're a Bonneville racer.

Absolutely - that is entirely legitimate.

[whiteballz]

Anyone else notice the profile similarities to the P4/5?

[Roentgen]

This car looks MUCH better than the old one, thanks to that Saab dude.

Hopefully, it'll handle as well as the Veyron, rather than just be fast in a straight line... like all American cars...

[wwgkd]

Veyron also weighs a lot.....I don't know how much this or the first one weighs, but its certainly not impossible if it is not burden like the the Veyron is. Much like Gordan Murray said about the Veyron. You can build a car that has the capability of the Veyron if you do it smarter. You don't need the quad turbo W16 with 1200 bhp to go that fast if you have better aero. VW engineers did a great job with Veyron, but a majority of their effort went into problem solving their design limitation based on the original concept. If they started with their performance target and clean slate to achieve that, the car likely would be a lot different....

This. The originaly weighs a Caterham 7 less than the Veyron, and made its top speed run on off the shelf Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s, with no problems. With decent aero and power I don't see them having any trouble meeting the target, aside from a venue. Speaking of bonneville, it would be pretty epic to run it there.

I imagine it will see as much use as most of it's compettitors...


This car looks MUCH better than the old one, thanks to that Saab dude.

Hopefully, it'll handle as well as the Veyron, rather than just be fast in a straight line... like all American cars...

It probably will, I don't see any reason to backslide.

[clutch-monkey]

lol top speed- are we caring about this still?

[wwgkd]

lol top speed- are we caring about this still?

I think it's pretty stupid since it tends to undermine the aspects of performance that I value more, but other than our own Napolis, how many people actually drive their super cars? Is this really any worse than handling, braking, or laptimes when none of them ever get used?

[Matra et Alpine]

Even those who chose to drive fast arent' going to reach the maximum speed of any of these vehicles.
There just isnt the clear roads to achieve it.
Perhaps in an arab state, but then you're fighting air temps and sand ingestion :(

So it really does become mine is bigger than yours.
For circuit, then it's acceleration and handling :)
Just these are harder to measure OBjectively.

PS: handling braking and laptimes are key to me and many others who compete !!
Just with the normal club track circuits a refinement of a 50 year old Colin Chapman design with a bike engine pretty much makes it :)

[Badsight]

This car looks MUCH better than the old one, thanks to that Saab dude.

Hopefully, it'll handle as well as the Veyron, rather than just be fast in a straight line... like all American cars...
original SSC weighs 1350 kg

original Veyron weighs over 2000 kg

i dont think veyron owners are going to be matching koeinseggs or shelbys in the twistys

Veyron is a numbers car , an engineering status symbol - rather than a drivers car

[pimento]

original SSC weighs 1350 kg

original Veyron weighs over 2000 kg

i dont think veyron owners are going to be matching koeinseggs or shelbys in the twistys

Veyron is a numbers car , an engineering status symbol - rather than a drivers car

It can't be too bad.. the new one topped the TG lap board after all. Sure it's no super time attack beast, but it won't be all speed and no cornering.

[2ndclasscitizen]

original Veyron weighs over 2000 kg is a numbers car , an engineering status symbol - rather than a drivers car

You'd think someone who'd driven one would know more about it's figures: 2005 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 - Images, Specifications and Information (http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/2419/Bugatti-Veyron-16.4.html)

[Ferrer]

The frontal picture reminds of the Lola T70 Mk3B for some reason.

[RacingManiac]

This. The originaly weighs a Caterham 7 less than the Veyron, and made its top speed run on off the shelf Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s, with no problems. With decent aero and power I don't see them having any trouble meeting the target, aside from a venue. Speaking of bonneville, it would be pretty epic to run it there.

I imagine it will see as much use as most of it's compettitors...



It probably will, I don't see any reason to backslide.


The car will hit less top speed on Bonneville, just because of the traction issue, and they do it in a measured distance. Track like Ehra-Lessien lets a car to have faster head start over a longer, paved straight....

For land speed car its different since they need the extra space to stop.....

[NSXType-R]

Record breaker or not, I'm sure the early adopters of this brand are annoyed that their cars looked like crap.

[RacingManiac]

Record breaker or not, I'm sure the early adopters of this brand are annoyed that their cars looked like crap.

LOL....that is for sure compare to this...lol

[Ecnelis]

New SSC: a TopGear world exclusive (http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/ssc-exclusive-2010-09-06)

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=340895&stc=1&d=1283807779

1350 bhp

[PRC777]

Record breaker or not, I'm sure the early adopters of this brand are annoyed that their cars looked like crap.

I bet you'll see these lined up on eBay Motors.
How much would the old one go for?

[wwgkd]

Even those who chose to drive fast arent' going to reach the maximum speed of any of these vehicles.
There just isnt the clear roads to achieve it.
Perhaps in an arab state, but then you're fighting air temps and sand ingestion :(

So it really does become mine is bigger than yours.
For circuit, then it's acceleration and handling :)
Just these are harder to measure OBjectively.

PS: handling braking and laptimes are key to me and many others who compete !!
Just with the normal club track circuits a refinement of a 50 year old Colin Chapman design with a bike engine pretty much makes it :)

I know you compete. But you don't compete in a supercar, you compete in an RX-8 (among other vehicles.) Many people compete every weekend, but not in supercars, which was my point. So handling, braking and laptimes that somebody else posted become, once again, mine's bigger than yours.


The car will hit less top speed on Bonneville, just because of the traction issue, and they do it in a measured distance. Track like Ehra-Lessien lets a car to have faster head start over a longer, paved straight....

For land speed car its different since they need the extra space to stop.....

Well if you're not going for an official bonneville record, couldn't you be allowed to run over a longer distance?

But yeah, like I said earlier I doubt that they'll be able to prove any kind of significant improvement unless they somehow get access to Ehra-Lessein instead of running on a strip of highway in the middle of eastern Washington.

[Matra et Alpine]

I know you compete. But you don't compete in a supercar, you compete in an RX-8 (among other vehicles.) Many people compete every weekend, but not in supercars, which was my point. So handling, braking and laptimes that somebody else posted become, once again, mine's bigger than yours.
Ah, mis-read.
I read it as being about the supercars.
Thus can only be about "Mine is bigger than yours".
Real competitors tho' it's not about 'bigger', it's about MEASUREABLE, repeatable, quantifiable driver and car performance.
THEN you aren't comparing dick-sizes :)
VERY few real competitors - oh you get some with fat wallets adn no talent - actually blame their car for results. THey first identify their own mistakes, failing or use their skill/knowledge to make adjsutments for improvements.
I have competed against folks tho' whose first response on not winning is to scream at their mechanics and sign a blank cheque for a new engine !!
"all the gear, no idea" :) :)

and what do you mean the RX-8 isn't a supercar ..... them's fighting words :)

[wwgkd]

Ah, mis-read.
I read it as being about the supercars.
Thus can only be about "Mine is bigger than yours".
Real competitors tho' it's not about 'bigger', it's about MEASUREABLE, repeatable, quantifiable driver and car performance.
THEN you aren't comparing dick-sizes :)
VERY few real competitors - oh you get some with fat wallets adn no talent - actually blame their car for results. THey first identify their own mistakes, failing or use their skill/knowledge to make adjsutments for improvements.
I have competed against folks tho' whose first response on not winning is to scream at their mechanics and sign a blank cheque for a new engine !!
"all the gear, no idea" :) :)


Unfortunately there are idiots everywhere. If only I could be one of those people with more money than brains...



and what do you mean the RX-8 isn't a supercar ..... them's fighting words :)

*backs away slowly, arms in the air* ;)

[Commodore GS/E]

Anyone else notice the profile similarities to the P4/5?

That's because both this and the P4/5 were designed by the same man ;) It also takes some cues from the Mantide (only some minor ones, though).

[roosterjuicer]

Here's my take on rather why i am not crazy about this car.

I feel like this car, like its predecessor, and other cars in the same vein such as the saleen s7, the mossler, the konisegg, etc...all seem more like "kit" cars rather than true production cars. Maybe they are faster or as fast (or just really really fast) as the Veyron but they dont seem like real production cars while the Veyron seems to me to be a "real production car"

Dont ask me how to differentiate between a real production car and a Kit car because logically i cant really explain it. Its kind of like the "hardcore pornography" standard (I know it when i see it).

But this is why cars like this dont really excite me. When a "real" manufacturer makes a super car, i get stoked and start making "mine is bigger than yours" comparisons but when someone just makes a badass light kit car with a huge engine in it, i dont get that excited.

that being said, this does seem to be getting closer and closer to areal production car.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

This actually looks pretty decent to me. I think the names a bit clunky but thats a detail that can be overlooked.

So long as the engineering is solid and the results speak for themselves, I'm much more willing to pay attention to this than the previous one that most definately did look like a kit car.

[RacingManiac]

Here's my take on rather why i am not crazy about this car.

I feel like this car, like its predecessor, and other cars in the same vein such as the saleen s7, the mossler, the konisegg, etc...all seem more like "kit" cars rather than true production cars. Maybe they are faster or as fast (or just really really fast) as the Veyron but they dont seem like real production cars while the Veyron seems to me to be a "real production car"

Dont ask me how to differentiate between a real production car and a Kit car because logically i cant really explain it. Its kind of like the "hardcore pornography" standard (I know it when i see it).

But this is why cars like this dont really excite me. When a "real" manufacturer makes a super car, i get stoked and start making "mine is bigger than yours" comparisons but when someone just makes a badass light kit car with a huge engine in it, i dont get that excited.

that being said, this does seem to be getting closer and closer to areal production car.

Personally, I think cars like this might be more driven to "why" a supercar is build than Veyron. Veyron started out as a design exercise from a pretty picture to a concept car. Handed to a group of engineer and someone(Ferdinand Piech, probably) said, make it happen. All the others you mentioned, at least to my mind, started as some dude dreaming of building a supercar, and end up creating one. Sure I think on the level of execution, they are not on the level of Veyron or McLaren F1, but in that unmeasurable quantity of "passion", they are probably pretty high on that.

McLaren F1 to me is the ultimate, started out as a dream, and executed to perfection, the Koenigsegg, the Pagani, the SSC or the S7, are like that but without necessarily the detail or execution, but then no one is really like McLaren to be anal to the extreme. Veyron is a committee trying to do a McLaren. Its all very clinical IMO, but in the end less "exciting". And ultimately, from an engineer's point of view, wrong....

[clutch-monkey]

i think the previous SSC looked like an overblown kit car, this one less so. disagree with S7 and koenigsegg looking like kit cars. mosler.. well yeah.

[Ferrer]

I would say that Pagani's attention to detail is quite extreme.

[wwgkd]

Personally, I think cars like this might be more driven to "why" a supercar is build than Veyron. Veyron started out as a design exercise from a pretty picture to a concept car. Handed to a group of engineer and someone(Ferdinand Piech, probably) said, make it happen. All the others you mentioned, at least to my mind, started as some dude dreaming of building a supercar, and end up creating one. Sure I think on the level of execution, they are not on the level of Veyron or McLaren F1, but in that unmeasurable quantity of "passion", they are probably pretty high on that.

McLaren F1 to me is the ultimate, started out as a dream, and executed to perfection, the Koenigsegg, the Pagani, the SSC or the S7, are like that but without necessarily the detail or execution, but then no one is really like McLaren to be anal to the extreme. Veyron is a committee trying to do a McLaren. Its all very clinical IMO, but in the end less "exciting". And ultimately, from an engineer's point of view, wrong....

That is the best I've ever heard that said. Well done.

Also, look into many of these cars and you do see some great details, though the overall development stage is, obviously, much more restricted. Particularly I was taken by the engineering on the S7, with some really cool solutions and attention to details that many people don't generally think of. I think if they had had the budget it could have come close to the McLaren in a lot of ways. Though as you say, McLaren was incredibly anal in their pursuit of the purest supercar out there.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Anyone else notice the profile similarities to the P4/5?

Here I am.
It looks like what the P4/5 wuld have been if it wasn't designed after the Ferrari 330 P4.
Being designed by the same man (J. Castriota) that could make sense. On the other hand that's not what you should do when designing cars for two separates companies. Many designers went trough a period of their lives when they were evolving their styles and all, and that's absolutely fine as long as those are concepts or cars fromt he same company. I guess.

It does look good/waaaay-better than before, but I'm a bit confused on the styling. Sounds like a P5/6 more than anything else. Not that it is a bad thing.

[Kitdy]

Its kind of like the "hardcore pornography" standard (I know it when i see it).

Hardcore pornography = penetration.

Pornography = I know it when I see it.

[Ecnelis]

Top Gear article (scans from flickr.com):

[Kitdy]

I didn't read the TG article, so apologies if the following info was in there.

Autoblog says this car will have a 6.8L TT V8 that revs to 9k and develops 1350 hp. It will also supposedly go 275 mph (~443 km/h) and weigh 2600 lbs...

Sounds a bit outlandish and like a bunch of lies. This car will be fast, but that fast? That light? That powerful? Rev that high?

I dunno.

[clutch-monkey]

that power, with that weight, RWD.. sounds like a few of these will end up in a ditch

[Ecnelis]

SSC: new fastest car in the world? - BBC Top Gear (http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/ssc-new-fastest-car-world)


Want to know what 1,200 horsepower feels like? In a car that weighs a third less than a Bugatti Veyron? It's violent, bonkers, near malicious. A crush on your body, a blur on your vision. As magnetic and sinister as peering over the edge of a cliff at crashing waves hundreds of feet below. A headlong rush - a physical one towards the far-distance, and a metaphorical rush towards the edges of your own self-restraint that, for me at any rate, exposes a gaping shortfall of skill to make the best of torque that can, because there's no traction control, produce extravagant wheelspin in the first three gears and occasionally in fourth beyond 100mph. In the dry.

But that's an original I'm driving. The spectacular white car in this gallery is its yet-unnamed replacement. Which will have some vital driver aids, but will also have another 150-odd horses, better aero and a whole lot less weight. Oh. Good. Grief.

It'll cost $970,000, or L626,000 plus tax, when it goes on sale late next year. And its maker says it'll do 275mph. The ever-intensifying fastest-car-in-the-world battle is being played out before us. If you're male, you might remember being eight years old, and trying to pee higher against a wall than your mates. Which is about as relevant as the top-speed war. No one drives that fast. It's like having the world's most waterproof watch: a human would be crushed at that depth. You're supposed to wear the watch on the inside of the submarine,guys. And building a car that can go so fast always compromises other aspects of performance: it adds weight and compromises normal-speed agility. And yet...

And yet we all love to see the limits probed. The SSC I'm driving is the actual one that broke the world production-car speed record, in 2007, at 256.14mph. The car that beat the original Bugatti Veyron. The record stood for nearly three years until the Veyron SuperSport scraped it back in July.

Back in 2007 you could have legitimately questioned whether SSC really was a production-car company at all. The record car was just the sixth SSC made. Anyway, Jerod Shelby, founder and prime mover of SSC, the Shelby Supercar Company, wanted to get the car right before he chased publicity. But SSC has done 15 now, and the company is still very much here and has taken several orders for this wonderful-looking new car. Being on to its second model and into its second decade puts SSC a major step beyond the usual here-today-gone-tomorrow hypercar dreamers who pop up at motor shows with their overwrought but underfinished cars.

But most of all, here's the single fact that gives SSC credibility: that the vast Volkswagen Group built the Veyron SuperSport for the explicit purpose of winning the record back. Goliath was not only admitting that David existed, but felt it necessary to take up his mighty cudgel against David's catapult. Actually, Jerod Shelby is perfectly happy that Bugatti did top his car's speed. "No, our new car isn't a response to Bugatti, because we didn't know they'd break the record again. But their timing is exactly right for us as we're about to launch the car that will get it back."

SSC is absolutely one man's dream, one man's car. Jerod Shelby (no relation to Carroll, and good grief how he must be fed up with answering that question) made his fortune designing medical equipment, then in 1999 set out to build a supercar from scratch. He did it, with just a handful of employees and very little use of bought-in components. His final assembly plant is a shed behind his house.

The record top-speed run was done on a public road that Shelby found on Google Earth, a narrowish single-carriageway, just four miles long with a dog-leg a third of the way along that you hardly see on a map but had to be negotiated at a stately 210mph before the hardest phase of acceleration could start. It's not terribly smooth - I've driven it at a fraction of the record speed. The police wouldn't close it off for more than 15 minutes at a time.

Contrast all that with the resources that went into the Veyron. Consider VW's Ehra Lessien test track, and its 5.5-mile, four-lane-wide, dead-flat main straight, with gentle banked curves at either end.

In initial testing of the SSC, Shelby used a professional test driver. But he got spooked by the high-speed wheelspin, so he was replaced by a 71-year-old mate of Jerod's, Chuck Bigelow, who'd never driven the car before the final few tests. His only qualification was that he wanted to do 200mph before he died. (Thereby raising the possibility that those two events might have been separated by a very short interval.) He eschewed seatbelts and a helmet, doing the runs in a baseball cap.

For Shelby, doing 256mph was a lot more important than peeing high against a wall. If doing 256mph is a dicey business even when you own the road, the fact that SSC had done that speed gave the company instant credibility. They were no longer 16 guys in a shed. They were the designers and builders of an engine, a transmission, a chassis, an aero and cooling package that were more robust than any other on the planet at opposing the implacable violence of the speed-cubed law of drag.

To the next production cars Shelby added power steering, servo brakes, traction control, ABS and then a Brembo carbon option, not to mention a speedo you can actually read. Having driven the car without any of those, I can't emphasise highly enough how much they were needed. There's also an active air brake now for really big speeds, but I won't fib and claim my open-road drive would have made use of that.

But then he realised that people wanted more, and although he'd pretty much overseen every detail of the car so far, he was smart enough to realise it was something he wasn't personally able to supply this time. In design terms, the car needed an extreme makeover to play in the top league.

It was supercar-generic on the outside. The interior was frankly a bit kit-car. Shelby is candid: "I designed it. The aerodynamics were much the most important thing to me, and the appearance was only semi-important... and the interior was unimportant." He's a self-professed control freak, but in this case he now admits this was a crushing error in the eyes of actual customers. Luckily a hotshot designer had just become available.

Jason Castriota has one of the absolute premier-league supercar design CVs. An Italian-American who made his name in the former country and has since set up a design practice in the latter, he seemed a perfect fit. He knew the market for supercars, and he knew the super-expensive end of it through working with owners on multi-million-pound one-off commissions. He was also passionately interested in aerodynamics.

When Shelby first rang him, Castriota, like the rest of us, needed convincing that SSC was no flash in a pan. "I was very sceptical. After all I'd worked for the biggest and the best. But when I did finally meet them and had a ride in the car, I understood this is a well-done product. Jerod raced karts, was national champion and beat Michael Andretti. And he's an engineer by trade. Once I got immersed in the project, I saw it was an amazing challenge. They need to set their sights much higher than merely breaking the world record and selling a handful of cars. They need to make a special product, a true American supercar with the best technology, for the world stage."

That special product is this white car, the first of which will be delivered in a year's time. The four-cam 6.8-litre twin-turbo engine will rev to 9,000rpm and make 1,350bhp. Even the blowers are SSC's own design. It's already doing these numbers on Shelby's dyno. Unlike the current car, which has some steel in the structure, the new one will be all-carbon except for aluminium crash rails beyond the wheels front and back. Its transmission is the same all-SSC unit that has been proved in the current car, with the same triple-disc carbon clutch, but it'll have the option of sequential paddle shifting.

[Ecnelis]

SSC: new fastest car in the world? - BBC Top Gear (http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/ssc-new-fastest-car-world)


Shelby was so obsessed with the aerodynamics that he named the car after the science. He has a compadre in his new designer. “I studied aerodynamics a bit in school and read tons of books,” says Castriota, “but I had an even better training on site, being able to go into the wind tunnel with Pininfarina’s and Ferrari’s aerodynamicists."

"It’s a lot of fun to use aerodynamics to create something new. If you want to make a splash you need something striking. And classically beautiful dash; the mid-engined proportions are supermodel proportions. The black teardrop canopy is suspended above this long main volume. And the strong volume of the air intake sits on top of the rear wheel like a cannon. Then you flip it with the negative space in the lower body side, air exiting from the front wheels and air feeding into the rear radiators. Real function, like the dihedral rear stabilisers. That all creates dynamic tension, layers of volume and detail."

Shelby has performed astounding feats to engineer the current car. "At the start I figured that in three years and $4m I could get SSC on the map," he grins, "But I was exponentially off the map. Initially the McLaren record was 240mph and I thought I'd need about 900bhp. In the meantime the Veyron took the record up to 253 and I got rather concerned."

In the end it took him seven years to get the record, and he won’t say how far his cost estimate undershot. But let’s keep some perspective: he obviously did it all for what Bugatti spent on office stationery.

That doesn't mean he thinks he's capable of actual miracles. So he isn't reinventing the wheel for the brand-new car. Anything that can be re-used from his existing Ultimate Aero will be. The whole bottom end of the engine for instance is the same; it's just that he's replacing the pushrod heads with OHC. The suspension, the Brembo carbon brakes, the steering aren't changing for the new car. Nor the apertures for the dihedral doors, which are notoriously tricky to do as neatly as this. The sizes of the 10 radiators and their apertures live on. So do the wheelbase and overall dimensions, except it's slightly narrower at the back because it was too big for FIA GT racing should any owner want to have a crack.

Actually though, Shelby absolutely has had the wheel reinvented. An Australian company called Carbon Revolution has developed for SSC the world's first one-piece carbon-fibre wheel - the 19-incher at the front weighs an almost comically light 5.8kg. The new car's entire structure will be made of F1-derived carbon. And by that, the dry weight will fall to 1,200kg-odd. Putting the power-to-weight ratio, even with fluids and the quivering driver strapped aboard, north of 1,000bhp per tonne.

Even in this four-year-old car, you can feel the potential for brilliance. It's not just the engine that's epic, but the thermonuclear drama of that V8 couldn't fail to dominate. At 6.3 litres and with a 9.0 to one compression, it hardly needs the turbo, and anyway, they're small low-inertia devices. So it's not over-boosted, there's no lag to speak of, and little in the way of a sudden mid-range bang. Instead the surge just builds and builds and - woooooaah - builds into a violent careen from well before the torque peak at 6,150rpm to the zap of the shift and the 7,200rpm limit, and then your head, which you've been bracing against the force, suddenly nods forward during the pause while you engage the next gear. If you're good, you can, SSC claims, do 0-60 in 2.8secs. But you really can't deploy all the beans in anything less than fourth - and then you're going towards aircraft take-off speeds. Thanks be for downforce.

As if all that g-loading wasn’t enough, the engine adds to the drama with its unending variety of wastegate hisses, chuckles, and fluttering screams. At a volume of 11. All over the snarling V8 growl. My head bursts with the imagining of how the new engine – with its four-valve heads and its 6.8 litres and its 9,000rpm limit – will sound.

We’ll skate over the unassisted non-ABS brakes of this particular car. If you were hoping for wonderful feel in recompense for the lack of artificial help, it isn’t there. I trust Brembo carbons to do a far better job on the new car. Instead let’s talk about the suspension. You sense no roll whatever, even cornering pretty hard, and the steering is accurate on-lock, at which point the car hunkers hungrily into a turn. It rides rather serenely and the damping seems beautifully judged. But the steering is sweatily heavy and it follows cambers (and the record-run road has a lot of camber), especially under brakes. But again, I won’t make a fuss because it’s replaced now by a powered system.

I will make a fuss, in a good way, about the damping and ride refinement. There's remarkably little tyre slap, even on potholes and concrete freeways. The carbon wheels help here I suspect. Neither is there much engine harshness. Going at regular speeds is a pleasure, the aircon works well and the structure feels (and has proved in someone else's crash) very solid. There are three SSCs that have covered 10k miles each.

In other words, there's a lot that's great about the 2006 SSC. And everything that isn't is being fixed.

Before you ask, it's nothing like a Veyron. It's more visceral and more basic and, yes, more brutally fast. By some way. Shelby himself took a car to the Middle East where some local potentates arrived with two Veyrons and commanded the road be closed. It duly was, they duly did a TG-style drag race, and the SSC duly won. Two men ordered SSCs on the spot. The next day they paid. Using cash, pulled out of a Louis Vuitton holdall.

So it's a must-have in parts of the Middle East. Yet Shelby notes a reticence among American buyers. Which strikes me as odd given the usual American patriotism - and their liking for big numbers. Numbers come no bigger than these.

[NSXType-R]

Just curious, did Top Gear ever test the original SSC Aero?

[P4g4nite]

Where does SSC get the money to build this new car?
It's expensive enough to put together the first one which was pretty simple compared to most supercars of the last 20 years, being basically a collection of performance parts bolted onto a tube frame chassis with a generic body over the top and they couldn't have sold many, probably not even enough to cover development.

[Kitdy]

Where does SSC get the money to build this new car?
It's expensive enough to put together the first one which was pretty simple compared to most supercars of the last 20 years, being basically a collection of performance parts bolted onto a tube frame chassis with a generic body over the top and they couldn't have sold many, probably not even enough to cover development.

I think the article mentioned that Shelby is a billionaire.

Beyond that, I dunno.

[Magnum9987]

I really DON'T like Shelby Super Cars Lmtd. They've sold only 24 SSC Ultimate Aeros. Before making that, they made Lamborghini kit cars. They have absolutely no pedigree whatsoever. All they've done is bolt parts together. Sure, they've designed a great engine, and kudos to them, but they only pulled it out of a GM Performance PArts catalogue.... SSC must be a huge money pit for Jerod Shelby....

[Magnum9987]

Just curious, did Top Gear ever test the original SSC Aero?

No, because all of them were sold in the US, and they couldn't find anyone willing to donate one (I assume).

[clutch-monkey]

I really DON'T like Shelby Super Cars Lmtd. They've sold only 24 SSC Ultimate Aeros. Before making that, they made Lamborghini kit cars. They have absolutely no pedigree whatsoever. All they've done is bolt parts together. Sure, they've designed a great engine, and kudos to them, but they only pulled it out of a GM Performance PArts catalogue.... SSC must be a huge money pit for Jerod Shelby....

this!
but i suppose being able to rock up to partys and say "i made the fastest car int he world" is worth something

[pimento]

They have to start somewhere...

[DesmoRob]

They have to start somewhere...

this is true.

Veedub has quite the backing in comparison.

[Magnum9987]

They have to start somewhere...

McLaren and Ferrari started in racing. lamborghini started by building WAY more than a measly 24 cars.

They are entitled to start their companies, but that isn't really a proper way.

Koenigsegg got something right though. At least the shape of the car was original when they started out.

[pimento]

Not sure how original the Koenigsegg design really is.. How about Pagani? Lambo started with tractors.. some pedigree there. :p

[Magnum9987]

Not sure how original the Koenigsegg design really is.. How about Pagani? Lambo started with tractors.. some pedigree there. :p

well both were designed almost exclusively in the wind tunnel at right about the same time, so its tough telling which was first/more original. but the SSC Ultimate Aero 1 came out about 6 years after both the first koenigsegg and Pagani, so, what does that tell you? SSC just took a generic, albeit extremely aerodynamic shape and then put it on his car.

[pimento]

Given it served its purpose rather well, it tells me that doing that was probably a good idea.

[2ndclasscitizen]

Given it served its purpose rather well, it tells me that doing that was probably a good idea.

But don't you understand?! Heritage! Pedigree! How dare they build a car!!!!????!!!!!

[Ferrer]

I have to say I may like it or not, but let's be brutally honest we would all love to have oru own car company.

So kudos to the man, even if I don't like his cars or his approach.

[DesmoRob]

I have to say I may like it or not, but let's be brutally honest we would all love to have oru own car company.

When I was a little kid I carried that dream for a while. I'd draw my own designs on windows paint program lol:p. Ah the good ol' days.