Jerod Shelby, founder and CEO of SSC North America, posted a video on the brand's YouTube channel about the controversy surrounding SSC Tuatara's record for the world's fastest car.
Recalling last week's events, YouTubers Shmee150, Misha Charoudin and Robert Mitchell, after an in-depth analysis of the record video, found that there were huge discrepancies between the speed indicated by the GPS and the actual speed of the Tuatara. The counts just didn't add up for the announced figures of 508.73 km/h average speed and a peak of 532.93 km/h — few doubt the Tuatara's abilities to hit the 300 mph barrier (483 km/h). ), but that's not what we saw in the published video.
After this "discovery", SSC issued two press releases confirming the record, based on telemetry data that were somehow contradicted by a press release from Dewetron, the company to which the measuring instruments belonged and which never certified these same data, even because he never had them. All that remained was for Jerod Shelby to announce, last weekend, a solution to eliminate all doubts:
In the short video, Jerod Shelby begins by referring to the controversy and, according to him, the SSC itself did not have the original films of the races carried out in its possession. After having requested them from Driven Studios (which recorded and edited the videos), the same doubts initially raised by Shmee arose at SSC: in the race, the speeds of the GPS and the car did not match.
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As Jerod Shelby said — and rightly — whatever they try to do to save this record, it will forever be accompanied by a shadow of doubt, so there is only one solution to eliminate them for good:
Jerod Shelby, Founder and CEO of SSC North America"We have to set the record, we have to do it again and do it in a way that is undeniable and irrefutable."
The SSC Tuatara will return to the road to beat the Koenigsegg Agera RS record for the fastest car in the world. We don't know when it will be, but according to the head of SSC North America it should be soon and they won't take any risks. Not only will they equip the Tuatara with various GPS measurement systems, they will also have staff present to calibrate and certify the data. There can be no doubt about the feat they intend to do.
The answers from Shmee, Misha and Robert
In the video, Jarod Shelby also advances with an invitation to Shmee, Misha and Robert, the three who raised the questions about the video, to be present in this new attempt to beat the world's fastest car record.
They all responded to Jerod and SSC's statements and invitation, which we leave below.
All of them thanked SSC for the invitation to go to the US (the three youtubers live on the European continent), but that doesn't mean that their presence is guaranteed. Only Robert Mitchell, being an American, seems to have the easy task of traveling to the other side of the Atlantic in these times of pandemic.
However, despite Jerod Shelby's statements, the truth is that all of them (Shmee, Misha and Robert) still have questions that they would like to see answered, but which, for the time being, remain unanswered.
The shock waves surrounding this controversy also hit the media for the way some (and particularly one) handled the topic, a subject that is referenced by Shmee, Misha and Robert in their videos. There will certainly be consequences for the relationships between brands, media and YouTubers like these.
Let the new attempt come.