Oh, it’s on. Shelby Supercars is back, and this 2019 Tuatara – a car we first saw many years ago – has come to play the part of a very large fly in Koenigsegg and Bugatti’s respective ointments.
Why? Because SSC has confirmed that the 2019 Tuatara will produce 1,750bhp. More than the Regera and Agera RS. More than the Chiron. About on par with the Hennessey Venom F5, too (more on that next week).
Well, that’s 1,750bhp on E85 flex fuel, at least. On regular 91 Octane, there’s only 1,350bhp. Still, it’s a 5.9-litre V8, nestled in the middle of the car, redlining at 8,800rpm and packing a pair of turbochargers and dual injectors per cylinder.
That’s matched up to a seven-speed ‘computerised manual’ gearbox that sends all SSC’s horses to the rear wheels. Now, get this: dry and free of fluids, SSC reckons it weighs 1247kg. Talk about lightweighting.
Indeed, the body and chassis are built from carbon fibre, and SSC has shaped the thing – a fine design – so that it boasts the lowest drag coefficient than its rivals. At 0.279, it’s lower than the Chiron, Agera and Venom.
There aren’t any performance stats yet, but we suspect they shall be revealed in due course. We also suspect said performance figures will be lightly terrifying, because the hypercar game is hotting up very nicely indeed. Like we say, it’s on.