Last week I found out that there was a chance to see a Shelby Super Cars (SSC) Ultimate Aero.  Not one to pass these things up, we rearranged our schedule a bit and went down to a building in the south end of Seattle owned by North West Auto Salon where the car was supposed to be.  As we turned onto the street, I spotted a group of people standing around a non-descript looking building, but I knew we were in the right place.  Parked outside were a Lambo Gallardo Spyder, a Rolls Phantom, a Maserati Coupe, and a couple Porsche & BMWs.  When we walked in, the Aero was an overwhelming presence in the room.  And given that it was parked between a Lambo Murcielago LP670-4 SV and a Lambo Gallardo LP550, that’s saying something (ok, it helped that it was a gorgeous metallic orange). 

It has a few impressive stats:  It’s the fastest production car in the world, recording a top speed of 257mph – yes, faster than the Bugatti Veyron.  At 2750 lbs, and with an 8 cylinder twin turbo with 1287hp, it can do 0-60mph in 2.78 seconds.  You can go checkout the rest of the stats here.  For reference, it’s somewhere around $650,000, which makes it less than half the price of a Veyron too.  It was in Seattle on its way to the port where it was being shipped out to the Dubai Motor Show.  It was very cool SSC to put it on display for a few hours so we could check it out.  Fascinatingly, one of the people we talked to about the car turns out to be the same person interviewed by Jay Leno here:  Jarrod Shelby, the founder of the company.  What a cool experience.  And what an outstanding car…