The new American car manufacturer SSC impressed both the public and its competitors with the introduction of the new Aero SC/8T 2004.
The SSC team plans to beat the McLaren speed record as soon as possible. Meanwhile in Phoenix, during the first Aero track trials, those who saw the car before the start of the day were surprised to see the size of the passenger compartment.
SSC owner Jerod Shelby, who is not related to the legendary Carroll, kept this project out of public knowledge for almost two years. The Aero SC/8T was released in the United States on August 12, 2004 in Monterey, California.
Made of carbon fiber, the body with soft lines, although with a few formal discontinuities, has Venturi tunnels on the back to generate, with very low drag, a careful combination of forces to keep the car glued to the ground at high speeds.
These aspects of aerodynamics combined with the work of the firm Blood Enterprises, which collaborated in the manufacture and assembly of the engine and excellent construction work that achieved a very low weight of 1234 kg, allows the Aero to have a remarkable fuel consumption efficiency: 7.65 km/l in the city and 11.47 km/l in the road.
The 90° V8 fully manufactured in aluminum that equips the Aero has 6,200 cm3, 2 valves per cylinder (OHV), electronic injection of sequential fuel port and supercharger. It achieves a power of 908 hp at 6,600 rpm, a torque of 1,045 Nm at 5800 rpm, a ratio of 147 hp / liter and 0.74 hp / liter, excellent for this type of vehicle. It is rear-wheel drive and has a manual 6-speed gearbox.
In its first race on a circuit, in March at the Firebird International Raceway in Phoenix, the Aero impressed those present by downloading all previous records obtained by serial production cars.
Months later, with improvements to the engine and rear suspension, it improved its own times. It accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.94 seconds and traveled the quarter mile in 10.44 seconds. Another striking fact is that it is able to accelerate from zero to 160 km/h and brake back to 0 in just 11.6 seconds.
The Aero has a price of US $239,000 in the US, which makes it the least expensive of the small group of cars that exceed 386 km/h, equivalent to 240 mph (the price difference is a few hundred thousand dollars).
The SSC company announced that it will produce a limited and numbered series of 25 cars. The idea of numbering each chassis is to protect the value that collectors give to each of these 25 Aeros.
It will really be a challenge for any car manufacturer to present a model that surpasses the Aero, although it will surely come...
© Adrián Blanco 2004 — Prohibited the total or partial reproduction of text and/or images without explicit written consent of the author. —
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