2012 SSC Tuatara

The American supercar. We’re so proud of the SSC Tuatara that there was no way we could possibly leave it off of this list. Scheduled to take on Bugatti once again in the war for the title of “World’s Fastest Production car,” SSC went to work to produce this powerful and beautifully designed work of art.

Speaking of design, the Tuatara was penned by none other than Italian American designer Jason Castriota, who has designed cars for the very best in the industry: Ferrari, Pininfarina, Rolls Royce, and Bertone to name but a few. What he ended up with was a car with a classic but pivotal shape and a stunning contrast of power and beauty with a very low drag co-efficient.

The proposed record breaker is powered by a quad-cam, twin-turbo V8 displacing 6.8 liters. The engine, like all the other mechanical parts, are all developed in-house by SSC themselves and is joined by a four-valves-per-cylinder overhead cam (OHC) setup as opposed to push rods and new SSC spec turbochargers. The new setup is good for a colossal 1350HP and will rev to 9000RPM! Zero to 62mph will arrive in around 2.8 seconds and SSC claims a top speed of, wait for it, 275mph!.

Because it’s RWD rather than 4WD like our friend the Veyron, it’s lighter...much lighter. The Aero II weighs 1200kgs, a full 638kgs lighter than the comparatively pudgy Bugatti – and it produces more power. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the power to weight ratio is over 1000HP per tonne, putting it in the league of the Caparo T1.