SSC Tuatara to repeat top speed run over cheating claims

Less than two weeks after the SSC Tuatara clocked a new 508.73km/h production car record, the US car-maker's reputation lies in tatters after boss Jerod Shelby was forced to admit video evidence didn't back up the data.

Releasing an apologetic video over the weekend, Shelby announced that the SSC Tuatara would run again in the "very near future" after the hypercar-maker admitted to editing issues when the on-board video couldn't back up the top speed claims that was set on the US State Route 160 Highway in Nevada.

Repeating what numerous online commentators had discovered, the US hypercar-maker's boss said: "We were seeing different speeds for the very same run.

"The more we looked, and the more we tried to analyse, the more we were concerned there were doubts in the relationship between the video and the GPS."

The inconsistencies with the record run arose just days after SSC announced it had broken the production car top speed record when prominent YouTubers compared the video footage of the Tuatara's high-speed run with footage of the record-setting Koenigsegg Agera RS that recorded its 447.19km/h two-way average on the same stretch of closed highway.

Timing both the cars across the same road using identical landmarks, in the video the Swedish Agera RS remained the faster car, despite data from SSC suggesting otherwise.

Worse still, SSC initially said its data had been independently verified by the maker of its GPS equipment – a claim that was quickly refuted as Dewetron said the attempt had taken place without its co-operation or even knowledge, and that the equipment had not been analysed or calibrated ahead of the test.

Addressing the concerns of fakery, for the next run Shelby claims that, as well as using multiple GPS units, it will have companies from the test equipment there to help verify the data.

The SSC boss has also invited some of the YouTube critics to come along to the record attempt to witness the top speed run.

It's not known if SSC will also invite Guinness World Records to officially validate the top speed.