Yahoo Autos The SSC Tuatara's 331-MPH Top-Speed Run Reduced Driver Oliver Webb to Tears
There was a point in time in Oliver Webb’s formative years when 190 mph felt like warp speed. As a young open-wheel racer chasing a dream of competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, the Brit had his first flirtation with big speed numbers in the Indy Lights championship. At the series’ flagship event, the Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Webb got his first taste of unbridled velocity with that near-200 run.
Less than 10 years later, he’d tack another 141 mph onto that figure. Last week, Webb piloted a 1750-horsepower SSC Tuatara hypercar to 331 mph, shattering Bugatti's world record for fastest production car. Webb is a sports car champion with more than a half-dozen starts at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in its fastest class—but the SSC top-speed experience brought forth questions and fears that he's never experienced in professional racing.
Webb's two-way average of 316 mph is the official record, and his peak of 331 mph is what has astonished the automotive world. But those numbers say nothing about the person who delivered the staggering performance. As he drove, thoughts of mortality, death and fatherhood fired through the 29-year-old's mind, and the emotional impact Webb felt in the cockpit was just as formidable as the achievement he pursued on that desolate Nevada highway.
"The initial feeling was this hyper-focus ... I think the closest I've felt it was like a Monaco qualifying lap, when you're just really almost subconsciously driving," Webb told Road & Track in his fine Mancunian accent. "[I] don't really remember the run. I remember all the slowdown procedures on all the runs on that day. I just don't remember the top speed runs that well.
"I don't think I blinked on a single run the whole day," he continued. "There's just no time to think about anything else. And you do feel like the only person on the planet, your focus is so specific on one job that nothing else matters."
That solitude was haunting for what it left out. Webb and his wife are expecting a child in January; his family didn't want him doing the top-speed run. And there's no getting around the danger of land-speed racing. Less than a week before Webb's record-setting drive, multiple record-holder Zef Eisenberg died while attempting to break a speed record in England.
