Unless you are Bugatti with its mountains of cash from the Volkswagen Group, attempting a top speed world record is pretty tricky. The 2020 Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ hit its record-breaking speed of 304.77 mph of VW's Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany, which contains one of the longest straightaways in the world. Though the time was not confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records (which requires automakers to hit the top speed in two directions), most people agree that the Chiron is the fastest car in the world.

Or should we say, it "was" the fastest car in the world? According to the Pahrump Valley Times, a local newspaper in Nevada, another automaker just attempted to break the world land speed record for a production car. It looks like the SSC Tuatara is gunning after Bugatti.

As a brief reminder, SSC is well-known for building the Ultimate Aero, the first car to ever surpass the Bugatti Veyron's top speed. The company's new car, the Tuatara, uses a twin-turbocharged 5.9-liter V8 producing a whopping 1,750 horsepower running on E85.

Last weekend, SSC asked the Nevada Department of Transportation to shut down a stretch of Highway 160 between Las Vegas and Pahrump. This is the same stretch of road used by Koenigsegg in 2018 to set a then-record of 277.9 mph in the Agera RS. "Southbound travel will be diverted into the northbound lanes with the Nevada Highway Patrol coordinating traffic during a special two-day filming event," NDOT stated in a press release. "Motorists should be prepared for minor travel delays."

The Koenigsegg run did involve the Guinness Book, meaning its 277.9 mph top speed was the average of two runs in different directions. If SSC hopes to officially claim the title of world's fastest production car, it will have to surpass 304.77 in an average of two top speed runs. The Guinness Book also requires that an automaker produce at least 30 cars, which is fine because SSC will build 100 Tuataras. We eagerly await to hear if the Tuatara breaks the record, bringing it home to the United States.