What were SSC thinking?

josip

First some context.

The Tuatara obliterated the production car speed record a short while ago.
https://newatlas.com/automotive/worlds-fastest-production-car-ssc-tuatara

Except it didn't.
https://newatlas.com/automotive/ssc-tuatara-speed-record-controversy/

Unlike the article, I don't think this was simply a miscalibration and in such a small company, a decision of this magnitude must have come from the top.

Tzardine

I think its a storm in a tea cup and an honest mistake.

The immediately came out and said they would go back and do it again with more scrutiny and GPS monitoring, and they invited the people that disputed them (Shmee150 and some others).

They seem very confident to me.

josip

Tzardine wrote: »

I think its a storm in a tea cup and an honest mistake.

The immediately came out and said they would go back and do it again with more scrutiny and GPS monitoring, and they invited the people that disputed them (Shmee150 and some others).

They seem very confident to me.

I think they're saying that now, because to say anything else/less would be a total disaster.
But it doesn't seem like something was simply out of sync or not calibrated properly.

Very hard to see how these 3 things can be put down as something that will be corrected by doing another run.

Since the Tuatara run was done on the same bit of road as the Agera record, it's possible to put those videos side by side and clearly see, thanks to landmarks passed, that the Agera is going faster. Analysis of the SSC engine and gearbox ratios appeared to suggest it was literally incapable of doing the claimed top speed in sixth gear, by a long shot. Measuring the distance between known landmarks and measuring the Tuatara's time between them produced an average speed lower than the GPS data was reading at any point over that distance.

easygoing39

I've cancelled my order because of this mess-up.

Car99

On mitchelin pilot cup 2 road tyres . 300+ mph if it is proven true on the second test is impressive.

kirving

The gear ratios would be the biggest thing here that I'd question, but likely something fundamentally stupid went wrong in how the car speedo and GPS were calibrated - probably using one another instead of something independant.

Had an engineer working on autonomous vehicle technology tell me about how a team spent weeks trying to solve a discrepancy between radar, wheel speed and GPS readings over a long distance. Turns out they were trying to graph everything on a flat plane, and didn't account for the curvature of the earth. Sounds ridiculous but stuff like that can happen easily with new technology.

While the owners name is Shelby neither he nor this company have anything to do with the Shelby we traditionally think of(carl shelbys ford tuning company / ac cobra). In fact Shelby sued this company and they had to change their name to ssc

Normal One

Balls to that. I'm cancelling my order.

josip

Mayo_fan wrote: »

While the owners name is Shelby neither he nor this company have anything to do with the Shelby we traditionally think of(carl shelbys ford tuning company / ac cobra). In fact Shelby sued this company and they had to change their name to ssc

Tx, thread title updated

fonecrusher1

I'm confused on what the exact error is.

Is it that the 331 mph section of the YouTube video is matched with the wrong test run or is it that the 331mph figure is completely off? As in this is not the actual speed just the GPS equipment showing an inaccurate mph value.

Which is it?

josip

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

I'm confused on what the exact error is.

Is it that the 331 mph section of the YouTube video is matched with the wrong test run or is it that the 331mph figure is completely off? As in this is not the actual speed just the GPS equipment showing an inaccurate mph value.

Which is it?

Some people think that maybe they tried to show the record-breaking run stats with one of the non-record breaking run vids.
The supposedly record breaking run was hairy with a lot of wind shear.

But that doesn't match the driver celebration at the end of the vid if it wasn't the record breaking run.
There's a lot more discussion of it here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/jil0cd/did_the_ssc_tuatara_really_set_a_331mph_world/

The more you read, the harder it is to believe in an accidental explanation.

fonecrusher1

josip wrote: »

Some people think that maybe they tried to show the record-breaking run stats with one of the non-record breaking run vids.
The supposedly record breaking run was hairy with a lot of wind shear.

But that doesn't match the driver celebration at the end of the vid if it wasn't the record breaking run.
There's a lot more discussion of it here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/jil0cd/did_the_ssc_tuatara_really_set_a_331mph_world/

The more you read, the harder it is to believe in an accidental explanation.

All is forgiven it seems by the Youtube community because SSC's Shelby Jnr himself posted a video remorsefully accepting they messed up. Question is are they sorry they messed up or because they were caught out? We'll never know.

If they get close to the same record in a new attempt and its authenticated fair enough. Amazing stuff.

Pkiernan

They should consider the Skoda Superb.

fonecrusher1

Pkiernan wrote: »

They should consider the Skoda Superb.

To do the speed runs in the boot?

Tiz maaaaaaassive.

corkgsxr

To cut it short.

It was questioned. The people questioning were slated

They sed it's been backed by Guinness and devatron. Both sed nothing to do with us we weren't involved. And if the setup isn't right it won't read right.

In the face of basic physics and unable to provide a answer. SSC sed look we'll redo it so.

I'd say they will hold off long as possible.

Mistake might have been going for 40ish mph over the previous. In a slow moving game

Interslice

Something obviously wrong in that video is that he gets from 230 to 330 in 22 seconds, while 130 to 230 takes 26 seconds There gear changes and engine revs sound fake from 230 on. The whole thing looks fake when the camera starts to zoom out.