Watch out Koenigsegg: SSC Tuatara is back for world record

Shelby SuperCars has confirmed that it will attend this year’s Monterey car week in California with a very special guest: the 2019 SSC Tuatara.

Yes, Tuatara. The highly anticipated hypercar we first saw way back in 2011. We’re promised this 2019 car will feature an ‘unmatched drag coefficient’ and ‘track-level handling characteristics’, along with a final promise that’s the most interesting and important.

It will “easily surpass” the current world record top speed. Which means it's gunning straight for the Koenigsegg Agera RS’s 278mph.

No more details have yet been revealed – other than the aforementioned gauntlet and a set of shady teasers above – but we can tell you that when we first saw the original Tuatara, that promised a 276mph top speed from a 6.9-litre biturbo V8 churning out 1,350bhp.

Expect something similar then for this new car. Can’t tell you much about the styling, other than Jason Castriota’s original design looks to have been mildly updated for the new car. No bad thing: the original Tuatara still looks stunning.

“Years of methodical engineering applied to the Tuatara will be revealed in the unparalleled performance, driver experience and striking presence of the car,” SSC tell us.

It’ll go on show on 24 August, at which point we’ll learn a whole lot more about the shape of speed in 2019. Watch this space...