Tuatara – the world’s fastest super car?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3oF7tBHKbk&hl=nb_EN&feature=player_embedded&version=3

Shelby Supercars, also known as SSC, have revealed the name of its newest beast. Say hello to the ‘Tuatara’.

In 1999 a very rich man named Jerod Shelby decided he’d set out to make the worlds fastest production car. On September 13 2007, Shelby (no relation to Carroll who designed the Ford Mustang and Shelby Cobra), did just that when the SSC Ultimate Aero raced down the road at a staggering 257 mph.

Since that memorable day, almost four years ago, the French car maker Bugatti sent its Veyron Super Sport down the tarmac and reclaimed the title of fastest production car in the world. That all might change with the unveiling of SSC's new Tuatara.

The Tuatara has been dangled in front of motoring journalists for almost a year with little to no information being leaked only in drops. Even now as we find out the name of SSC’s new supercar we are still unaware of some crucial statistics such as top speed and… well, top speed.

Designed by Jason Castriota, head honcho in design at Saab, the Tuatara name comes from a lizard native to New Zealand and literally means ‘peaks on the back’. Now, it might seem a bit strange that a new supercar, tipped to be the world’s fastest, is named after a lizard.

However, after a quick flick through the JOE office dictionary, we found that the name has a little deeper meaning than just picking a moderately cool animal name, as has been done before with the likes of the Dodge Viper, Shelby Cobra and VW Fox.

The Tuatara is a native lizard of New Zealand an utterly unique reptile, as it possesses the fastest evolving DNA on the planet. This, according to SSC founder Jerod Shelby, is just like the car.

Although we are still in the late early stages of unveiling the Tuatara we can reveal some stats that have been sent to us here at JOE. The Tuatara has a carbon fibre body which features extremely cool one piece carbon fibre rims, a 7 L twin turbo which produces 1350 bhp and a 7 speed flappy panel gearbox.