SSC Tuatara To Have A “Newly Developed” V8 With Over 1,350HP

SSC North America continues the tease the 2019 Tuatara as the company has released a video of the car’s engine.

While the engine was originally teased back in 2013, SSC says this powertrain is “newly developed” and “differs significantly” from the one created that was created five year. Full details will be announced on August 24th, but the company said the “production-ready power plant will provide the hypercar with performance specifications that far exceed what the engineering team originally set out to achieve.”

That’s not very specific but, five years ago, the company said the Tuatara would have a twin-turbo 6.9-liter V8 with 1350 hp (1007 kW / 1368 PS) and 1280 lb-ft (1733 Nm) of torque. The automaker went on to say the engine was capable of producing more than 1700 hp (1268 kW / 1723 PS).

While there’s no word on the displacement or output of the new engine, SSC says the Tuatara “will not only surpass the expectations set by earlier announcements, but also outperform other hypercars competing for top speed and all-around performance.” This builds on previous claims that the Tuatara has a “top speed that is projected to easily surpass the current world record.”

While SSC didn’t mention the record holder by name, the company is presumably talking about the Koenigsegg Agera RS. The model hit a top speed of 284.55 mph (457.94 km/h) last year and had an average two-way top speed of 277.87 mph (447.18 km/h).

Those are some pretty ambitious targets, but SSC isn’t exactly a stranger to top speed records as their Ultimate Aero become the world’s fastest production car when it hit averaged a top speed of 256.18 mph (412.28 km/h) back in 2007.

Meticulous engineering generating unadulterated power and an automotive work of art. #Tuatara pic.twitter.com/QpSfO5TBw2

— SSC North America (@SSCNorthAmerica) August 15, 2018