The SSC Tuatara's 331-MPH Top-Speed Run Reduced Driver Oliver Webb to Tears
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There was a point in time in Oliver Webb’s formative years when 190 mph felt like warp speed. As a young open-wheel racer chasing a dream of competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, the Brit had his first flirtation with big speed numbers in the Indy Lights championship. At the series’ flagship event, the Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Webb got his first taste of unbridled velocity with that near-200 run.
Less than 10 years later, he’d tack another 141 mph onto that figure. Last week, Webb piloted a 1750-horsepower SSC Tuatara hypercar to 331 mph, shattering Bugatti's world record for fastest production car. Webb is a sports car champion with more than a half-dozen starts at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in its fastest class—but the SSC top-speed experience brought forth questions and fears that he's never experienced in professional racing.
Webb's two-way average of 316 mph is the official record, and his peak of 331 mph is what has astonished the automotive world. But those numbers say nothing about the person who delivered the staggering performance. As he drove, thoughts of mortality, death and fatherhood fired through the 29-year-old's mind, and the emotional impact Webb felt in the cockpit was just as formidable as the achievement he pursued on that desolate Nevada highway.
"The initial feeling was this hyper-focus ... I think the closest I've felt it was like a Monaco qualifying lap, when you're just really almost subconsciously driving," Webb told Road & Track in his fine Mancunian accent. "[I] don't really remember the run. I remember all the slowdown procedures on all the runs on that day. I just don't remember the top speed runs that well.
"I don't think I blinked on a single run the whole day," he continued. "There's just no time to think about anything else. And you do feel like the only person on the planet, your focus is so specific on one job that nothing else matters."
That solitude was haunting for what it left out. Webb and his wife are expecting a child in January; his family didn't want him doing the top-speed run. And there's no getting around the danger of land-speed racing. Less than a week before Webb's record-setting drive, multiple record-holder Zef Eisenberg died while attempting to break a speed record in England.
"My friend came up to me right before my first run with tears in his eyes," Webb said. "[H]e recommended me for the job because he thought I was the right person.... Then it hit him that morning, at 4:00 A.M. while the road was being closed down: If this goes wrong, like it had five days earlier for Zef... he's put his friend in that position."
Webb remained laser-focused, surpassing 300 mph while contending with a stiff crosswind that, at one point, threw the Tuatara right to the edge of the closed-off highway. "That feeling of solitude, of being the only person on the planet while getting up to that speed, turns into the complete opposite the second you're back down to a safe enough speed to realize everything is fine. Then the whole world hits you, and the whole world is still here. I'm still here. I'm going to see my baby. All that crazy stuff that you weren't even thinking about before.
"We wouldn't be able to think about that while we did it, otherwise we wouldn't do our job."
Achieving the record took incredible physical, psychological and emotional control. Webb felt the aftermath almost immediately. "On that very last run, I spent the last two miles in complete tears, for no apparent reason. I had no idea why," he revealed. "I got out of the car and I sat on the tarmac. I just sat there for five minutes and didn't speak to anyone. And that's when I decided that was the last run."
At the crucial moment, Webb wasn't even aware of what he had achieved. "The speedo in that car tops out at 300 mph," he told Road & Track. "I had no idea that we'd done 331. All this engineering and work that's gone into the car and the speedo doesn't even go over 300 mph! Maybe because no one even thought we needed to go over 300, just thinking if you can get anywhere near 300, that's good enough."
Listen to the full conversation on Webb’s long history with speed, automotive development, and the SSC Tuatara adventure in the episode below.
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