SSC (Shelby SuperCars) Ultimate Aero History
SSC's debut hypercar — the twin-turbo V8 Ultimate Aero TT held the Guinness production-car top-speed record at 256 mph from 2007 to 2010.
Photo: “SSC Ultimate Aero TT - 1.jpg” by Nate Hawbaker / Wikimedia Commons — CC0 1.0
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The first Ultimate Aero prototype was completed in 2004 at SSC's headquarters in West Richland, Washington — a mid-engine, rear-drive coupe built around a tubular chassis and a pushrod GM-derived small-block V8, deliberately engineered with no traction control or ABS to keep weight and complexity down.
On September 13, 2007, the twin-turbocharged Ultimate Aero TT averaged 256.18 mph (412.28 km/h) over two opposing runs on a closed stretch of public highway near West Richland, taking the Guinness World Records title of fastest production car from the Bugatti Veyron. SSC held the record until Bugatti reclaimed it with the Veyron Super Sport in 2010.
Output rose over the car's life — roughly 1,183 hp on the 2007 TT and about 1,287 hp after a 2009 revision — but production was tiny, with only around two dozen TTs built. The line was wound down to make way for its successor, the Tuatara.
Generations
Ultimate Aero (early) · Supercharged V8
Early Ultimate Aero with a supercharged GM-derived V8; the development cars that established the chassis before the twin-turbo TT.
Ultimate Aero TT · Twin-turbo record car
Photo: “SSC Ultimate Aero TT - 1.jpg” by Nate Hawbaker / Wikimedia Commons — CC0 1.0
Twin-turbocharged version (~1,183 hp in 2007, ~1,287 hp after a 2009 revision) that set the 256-mph Guinness production-car record in 2007; just 24 TTs were built (the core 2006–2007 batch), with the nameplate carried through the line's 2013 wind-down.
Body styles
- Coupe
Notable special editions & performance variants
Ultimate Aero XT
A high-output 1,300-hp send-off edition with a 6.9-liter twin-turbo V8, announced in 2012 as a five-car run to close out the Ultimate Aero; in the event only one example was built (delivered around 2013–2015, which is why some sources give the model's end year as 2015).
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