SSC Tuatara To Rerun Top Speed Attempt Following Footage Doubts, CEO Confirms

When people started to analyse footage of the SSC Tuatara’s claimed 331mph run, including some prominent YouTubers, it started to seem as though something was amiss. Sure enough, Dewetron then distanced itself from the record, contradicting SSC’s claims that the data measurement company had “validated” the run.

SSC admitted later the same day there were issues with the videos it had released, and now it’s gone one step further. In a video statement, CEO Jerod Shelby confirmed that the Tuatara will go for the top speed record again, “and do it in a way that’s undeniable and irrefutable”.

“The more we tried to analyse, the more we were concerned there were doubts in the relationship between the video and the GPS,” Shelby said, adding, “The perfect view I had of this record is now gone, and no matter what we do in the coming days to try and salvage this particular record, it’s going to have a stain on it”.

This will happen “in the very near future,” and Shelby has pledged to use multiple GPS systems, and have staff present from each supplier. He’s also extended an invitation to Tim Burton (Shmee150), Misha Charoudin and Robert Mitchell.

Misha posted his reaction on YouTube in the early hours of Saturday morning, praising Shelby’s candour. There’s no official reaction from Shmee or Mitchell just yet, but we’ll update this post once there is. The trio was behind a series of videos that used fixed points on Nevada’s Highway 160 to calculate the true speed of the Tuatara in SSC’s claimed 331mph footage, estimating it to be no more than 280mph.

Update: Shmee150 and Robert Mitchell have each since posted their videos addressing Shelby’s statement, welcoming the move but also noting that there are questions still to be answered.