Top Ten Supercars of Last Decade – SSC Ultimate Aero
Author: Chris Barker
Published: 26 August 2008
Supercar manufacturers’ do a lot to gain peoples attention. Perhaps not quite as much as a postman from Scotland who told all and sundry that he was a human pelican, validation of which included him involuntarily storing previously consumed liquids and foodstuffs in his ample gullet. Something he said he couldn’t control.Apparently an extremely rare medical complaint called Laryngocele which rears its ugly head without prior consent by returning the contents of peoples stomachs back up into their throats, settling somewhere in the region of the neck sac.Something which establishes those plagued by it as walking time bombs who could essentially drown in their own fluids at any time.Of course, a far more illustrative way of making people sit up and pay due attention to your wares is to design, build and demonstrate what you claim is the world’s fastest car, something which Shelby Super Cars did recently. Which probably made Bugatti and a host of other would-be supercar kings more than a little sick.
Shelby Super Cars Ultimate Aero TT
Cost: $650,000+Speed: 257.11mph/273mphClaim to fame: It's currently the world's fastest production supercar, with an average top speed of 255.83mphWhy it gets our thumbs up: NASA deemed it of such national importance/security that it stopped launching rockets momentarily and put the SSC in its own hi-tech wind tunnel to prove it could actually go faster than it did. 273mph.The Shelby Super Cars Ultimate Aero TT hardly trips off the tongue in an arena already noted for its stupefying names. So what’s the goss on this then?Well, its 6.3-litre twin turbo-charged General Motors V8 lump rustles up some 1183bhp - 89bhp more than a Bugatti Veyron - and cooks 1,094lb-ft of torque on full heat. It has a six-speed transmission that helps lay all that power down onto the asphalt beneath, which is aided and abetted by its weight-distribution optimizing mid-engined set up.The Ultimate Aero notches 62mph in 2.78 seconds, and covers the quarter mile sprint in 9.9 seconds, by which time it's nudging 144mph. However, the real fun starts shortly after.On a closed two-lane public highway in Washington State in 2007, the SSC Ultimate Aero posted a top speed of 257.11mph on its first pass, and 254.55mph on its return journey, achieving a new top speed record: a staggering 255.83mph.What makes the Ultimate Aero different than over ultra light supercars looking for the weight advantage is it doesn’t strip every remaining vestige in its devil-may-care pursuit of size zero. Air-con, 'leccy windows and mirrors, sat nav and a ten-speaker sound system all figure inside the cockpit and keep the driver occupied. Just in case they're not otherwise engaged with the task of steering this road-going missile.What’s more, butterfly doors - or gullwing as they’re called in Europe – means the driver even makes an entrance every time they hop in and out of the SCC. Not that there’s many to go round, as at last count there was only 24 manufactured that we know about.• View the full Top 10 Supercars of Last Decade articles: • Bugatti Veyron • Morgan Roadster • Lamborghini Reventon • TVR Sagaris • Nissan GT-R • Ferrari 360 Modena • Porsche 996 GT3
• SSC Ultimate Aero • Spyker Laviolette C8 • Caterham R500
See Also:
Click here for more Supercar stories
Looks, handling, power and quality. Audi has done it first time with the R8 supercar.
Details of Aston Martin's new supercar - the £1m Project One-77 supercar.
We have all seen the Bugatti Veyron by now. Do you want one? Then you have to sign a contract with the company which - quite frankly - is rather absurd.
Aston Martin has unveiled the new DBS which will be driven by James Bond, the legendary British secret agent, in the next 007 film, “CASINO ROYALE”.
A ´twat´, a Lamborghini, a Bluetoothed video and a £20,000 repair bill.
advertisement
Jaguar has introduced the new performance-orientated diesel XF S – which also returns an impressive 42mpg. | 05/01/2009
The Audi R8 V10 will offer all-LED headlamps as standard in 2009, paving the way for the introduction of LED headlamps on more Audi models. | 05/01/2009
Rolls-Royce has unveiled a special-edition Phantom as part of its Bespoke Collection in the shape of the Phantom Sapphire. | 05/01/2009
Audi has added more Coupe and Roadster TT variants, with the addition of the new S line specification and more quattro models, available from 1 January. | 05/01/2009
Audi will launch Black editions of its A3 in three-door, five-door and cabriolet guises. | 05/01/2009
|05/01/2009
Rolls-Royce has unveiled a special-edition Phantom as part of its Bespoke Collection in the shape of the Phantom Sapphire.
|05/01/2009
The Audi R8 V10 will offer all-LED headlamps as standard in 2009, paving the way for the introduction of LED headlamps on more Audi models.
|05/01/2009
Audi will launch Black editions of its A3 in three-door, five-door and cabriolet guises.
|05/01/2009
Audi has added more Coupe and Roadster TT variants, with the addition of the new S line specification and more quattro models, available from 1 January.
|05/01/2009
The Association of British Insurers have revealed that an increasing amount of people are jeopardising their insurance cover by lying or failing to disclose information.
|01/10/2008
Euro Car Parts has acquired Pinco 1555 Ltd, including all 53 of LSUK's 53 branches, together with subsidiaries M I Diesel Products, Protech Automotive (UK) and Yeovil Rewind.
|20/11/2007
Around 400 people a day risk damaging their car by misfuelling, and filling up with gas is a mistake that could cost thousands. So what do you do if you´ve filled up your diesel car with unleaded petrol?
|06/12/2007
Fuel protests similar to those that brought the UK to a halt in 2000 are being planned by a breakaway group of disaffected hauliers, according to press reports.
|07/10/2008
Euro Car Parts has put out a statement on the closure of LSUK, stating that a closure of the business was unavoidable due to a 'lack of support'.
|06/10/2008
LSUK, thought to have been rescused by Euro Car Parts, has been unexpectedly closed by the new owners with the loss of over 600 jobs.
Search Motortorque:
No readers comments
Be the first to write a comment on this article