0EPII1
All American
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^^ "this time around"?
You mean the SSC Ultimate Aero the first time around? Well, they have built and sold around 20 of those... yes, a small number, but a company like that can't really be expected to make any more than that. The final assembly is done by 16 people in a shed behind the founder's house! 
Must-click links:
Significance of the name:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3oF7tBHKbk
Pics of the new car and really cool info on the company, the founder, the new car, and the previous record:
http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/ssc-new-fastest-car-world
(TG did that world exclusive photoshoot last summer, and I have the print issue as I happened to be in the UK at that time... http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/ssc-exclusive-2010-09-06 )
Pretty impressive guy!
http://www.shelbysupercars.com/jerod-shelby.php
1,350 hp is nuts... in a car that weighs 2,650 pounds, it is suicidal 
1,000 hp per ton!
Not to mention, the designer is the famed Jason Castriota, designer of the Bertone Mantide (2010), Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina (2006), and Maserati GranTurismo (2007).
If they find a good long solid road using Google Earth*, they can probably do 300 mph.
*from the first TG link:
| Quote : | "The record top-speed run was done on a public road that Shelby found on Google Earth, a narrowish single-carriageway, just four miles long with a dog-leg a third of the way along that you hardly see on a map but had to be negotiated at a stately 210 mph before the hardest phase of acceleration could start. It's not terribly smooth - I've driven it at a fraction of the record speed. The police wouldn't close it off for more than 15 minutes at a time. 
Contrast all that with the resources that went into the Veyron. Consider VW's Ehra Lessien test track, and its 5.5-mile, four-lane-wide, dead-flat main straight, with gentle banked curves at either end." |
Amazing, just amazing:
| Quote : | | "Actually though, Shelby absolutely has had the wheel reinvented. An Australian company called Carbon Revolution has developed for SSC the world's first one-piece carbon-fibre wheel - the 19-incher at the front weighs an almost comically light 5.8kg. The new car's entire structure will be made of F1-derived carbon. And by that, the dry weight will fall to 1,200kg-odd. Putting the power-to-weight ratio, even with fluids and the quivering driver strapped aboard, north of 1,000bhp per tonne." |
[Edited on July 18, 2011 at 8:36 PM. Reason : ] 7/18/2011 8:19:46 PM
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