SSC Tuatara shown screaming down an empty highway in new video

Nearly three months after SSC North America finally unveiled the production version of the Tuatara, and after more than a decade in development, the company has released video showing the supercar in action.

The 49-second clip shows company founder Jerod Shelby piloting the Tuatara at speed down an empty highway along a windswept, treeless landscape. The rear-mounted camera gives us a good view of the cockpit and its sense of openness, thanks to the expansive glass roof panels on the butterfly doors.

We also get a view of the CIMA seven-speed automated manual gearbox, developed by Automac Engineering of Italy and sending power to the rear wheels as Shelby uses the paddle shifters on the wheel. There’s no indication of how fast he was driving, but we hear the sound of its engine, which has an 8,800-rpm redline, and the video is tagged with #lifebeginsat300 and #yearofthetuatara, reminders of the company’s boast that the Tuatara can go “well over” the vaunted 300-mph mark.

The car boasts a 0.279 drag coefficient and active aerodynamics. Its 5.9-liter twin-turbo flat-plane crank V8 was developed with Nelson Racing Engines. It puts out 1,350 horsepower using 91-octane fuel, and 1,750 hp on E85. Torque is 1,280 pound-feet at 6,800 rpm.

Others have already broken the 300-mph barrier, of course, including a street-legal 2006 Ford GT and a Bugatti Chiron longtail prototype last September, with Koenigsegg claiming that simulations suggest the Jesko Absolut is capable of doing 330 mph. Still, we look forward to SSC’s inevitable assault.