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Thread: SSC Tuatara

  1. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by pimento View Post
    I think one difference is the fact that the first Zonda and Koenigsegg didn't seem like a kit car built purely for bragging rights. "OURS IS FASTEREST" "Ours is nicely built and has a unique interior with many bespoke parts." "BAH OURS IS FASTERER SO IT ARE BETTERER." Etc. This is a perception mind, not what I believe is fact. I've not read much about how the SSCs are to drive, are they as joyously easy as a Zonda or as brutally satisfying as a CCX? [Or so the press would have us believe].

    The Noble is rather more cheaper than the alternatives, so their kittishness is somewhat more excusable given the performance on offer. Probably. Personally I'd still go for something with a nicer interior and sacrifice some outright pace.

    Is there any interior shots of the Tuatara yet?
    It's true that SSC started out with speed runs- but then again, in a more subtle and way more expensive way, that was the way the Veyron was billed too- we can go to 252 mph, it's just that that was one of the many things it could also do.

    I also didn't like the SSC for its kit car looks and scream at you speed runs. But SSC also doesn't try and set 'ring times every other week. Perhaps it isn't much of a handler, but there hasn't been a serious review of it either.

    And Euro snobbery I feel takes a big role in this- remember the whole Mexican super car thing with Top Gear? They smash Euro cars too, but that was uncalled for in my opinion. If Honda had come up with a mid engined super car like that, they would have thought of it as the next best thing. I don't even think Top Gear ever tested the SSC seriously around its track.

    But now is different, the Tuatara definitely brings the image that SSC has grown up and smartened up.

    Yes, Pagani and Koenisegg both came out with seemingly much more finished products- visually. But with most of us not having driven any of them, what right do we have to judge any of them off the bat?

    I mean, isn't that what Bentley started out doing? Putting the largest engine he could find in the lightest body?

    This is just the modern version of it, and I applaud SSC for it. They could be like Fisker or Saleen and come out with vaporware.

    Not to snub Pagani, but they're not even road legal in the US. Not to say that it's a determining factor, and I know Pagani made a big effort to be road legal in the US, but at least the company has some forethought and isn't just a kit car. At the very least they're semi-serious about this.

    And SSC isn't even like Henessey, where they decided to stick an engine in a stretched Lotus Elise. Designing a car from the ground up has to be an enormous undertaking.
    Last edited by NSXType-R; 09-19-2011 at 07:17 PM.

  2. #17
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    Saleen is no vaporware....S7 was real.....and it was a race winner...Something that Pagani and Koenigsegg are very much really vaporware of....

    Fisker is just not on sale yet....test mule are driving around MI all the time...
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  3. #18
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    Yea NSX, I wasn't trying to say that SSC were wrong in what they're doing, just answering the question of how are they different to Pagani and Koenigsegg and why people might look at them differently.

    RM, what's trying to build the world's fastest car if not image building? Also I'm not sure Pagani or Koenigsegg have had a serious, factory run go at racing.. the Saleen S7 was built from the beginning as a racer with a road going compatriot, the others not so much. The Cd for the Zonda is not great from memory, and the best the Huayra does is .32 I think. Not so great for top speed or as a starting point for adding serious downforce.

    Really what we're all on about is a bunch of cars envisioned by people with a singular thought.. 'I want to build the best car ever.' They clearly have different opinions on what constitutes 'best', to the point that it's probably better expressed as 'I want to build my favourite car ever.' Someone's favourite thing can never be wrong.. just different to ours.
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  4. #19
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    Pagani Zonda GR

    You may be able to argue S7R had more budget, though I doubt they are that different...Of course its a lot easier just to sell toy to rich people than actually build a race car.

    I actually really like Pagani, but most of its quality is more superficial. But they do it really well. And again, if performance is all people are after then I guess the older Mosler(pre MT900) should be the business, but they all look atrocious.....

    Interesting fact, Zonda and S7 uses the same gearbox....
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  5. #20
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    Apart from Jay Leno's short video, this is the only review I've ever seen of the Ultimate Aero: SSC Ultimate Aero TT
    Other than that, SSC has had barely any media coverage, European, American or otherwise.

    Quote Originally Posted by NSXType-R View Post

    This is just the modern version of it, and I applaud SSC for it.
    Don't get me wrong, I'm all for SSC and their cars (even if their aim is a little childish) but ultimately it's neither us nor the company that's responsible for the overall success of the product, and that's where I'm afraid the Tuatara may fall short.
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  6. #21
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    I really hope this car becomes successful. It is one of the best looking cars in the world (cos it was designed by a SAAB designer!!), and if it can live up to Jerod Shelby's expectations, it really will put SSC in the supercar race.

    If the Europeans can do it, I don't see why the Americans can't!
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  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by RacingManiac View Post
    Pagani Zonda GR

    You may be able to argue S7R had more budget, though I doubt they are that different...Of course its a lot easier just to sell toy to rich people than actually build a race car.

    I actually really like Pagani, but most of its quality is more superficial. But they do it really well. And again, if performance is all people are after then I guess the older Mosler(pre MT900) should be the business, but they all look atrocious.....

    Interesting fact, Zonda and S7 uses the same gearbox....
    I said a factory backed go at racing.

    The difference is in the design and intent of the car - the Zonda wasn't designed with racing in mind, hence the effort was third party with factory blessing rather than Saleen's straight out of the factory doors racecars. Also as noted in your link, the chassis of the Zonda wasn't even allowed in the FIA GT series at first.
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  8. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by W.R. View Post
    I'll eat my hat if they sell more than 5.
    They have made 15 Utlimate Aeros and there are already several orders for Tuatara, so...

  9. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by pimento View Post
    I said a factory backed go at racing.
    S7 was a privateer car. Konrad ran the car most of the time in Europe and elsewhere. And they were racing against factory and Privateers competitively....
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  10. #25
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    What a discussion, all of a sudden... I basically agree with post #12.

    Oh and by the way, yes Europe is better than America at anything car-related.

    There you go.
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  11. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ferrer View Post
    What a discussion, all of a sudden... I basically agree with post #12.

    Oh and by the way, yes Europe is better than America at anything car-related.

    There you go.
    Thankfully bs isnt fatal or you would have none left to counter that statement. I think that as a design exercise, this is fantastic. I can't see any signature designs or curves across the hole car which is something to be proud of. I hope coverage and analysis of this car is more thorough than the last Ultimate Aero. Something that should not prove hard.
    Last edited by Sledgehammer; 09-20-2011 at 03:21 PM.
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  12. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by RacingManiac View Post
    S7 was a privateer car. Konrad ran the car most of the time in Europe and elsewhere. And they were racing against factory and Privateers competitively....
    Was it a factory built privately run car or a privately built based privately run car?
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  13. #28
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    Are not all factory cars privately built, regardless if built in a factory, or in a garage?
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  14. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by pimento View Post
    Was it a factory built privately run car or a privately built based privately run car?
    The more successful Prodrive 550 was not a "factory car". And that didn't even have the blessing from Ferrari. Carsport wasn't exactly a 2-bit team(granted they weren't Prodrive neither). RML who did a good deal of engineering work for Saleen's racing program wasn't exactly Prodrive neither....
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  15. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sledgehammer View Post
    Are not all factory cars privately built, regardless if built in a factory, or in a garage?
    Not if it's a turn-key racer. By 'privately' I mean that someone bought a road car and converted it to racing specs rather than the factory selling a racing version of their road car.

    The point I'm getting at without actually knowing all the facts is that some cars are built with the intent that they'll be raceable or with racing homologation in mind and some are purely built for the road. Clearly the 550 was more successfully converted to a racer than the Zonda but we're getting vastly off track here. Not that it's not a fun thread for it.

    Basically I'm playing devil's advocate here - the topic of racing results was brought up so the point I'm making is that Pagani never cared about racing whereas Saleen did, so when engineering the cars this was brought into consideration. Again it comes back to the people and ideals behind the cars' inception. Sometimes a great road car can become a successful racer (hello 550) sometimes not (hello Zonda), but that doesn't diminish the achievements of the road car at all. Seems that in the Zonda's case a big achillies heel was in the engine bay - they couldn't base it on the production engine so they got a different one from AMG and it seemingly wasn't up to the task. Maybe with some more time and money they could have turned it around, but it seems they didn't feel it was worth it. Or something.
    Last edited by pimento; 09-20-2011 at 09:09 PM.
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