Last weekend, I traveled across the country to cover the Fueling Bright Futures Supercar Rally, which drives from Washington DC to Philadelphia to join up with the CF Charities Supercar Show. A calendar mainstay in Philly for almost a decade, the CF Charities Supercar Show is put on by Dr Larry Caplin, who may have been famous locally for years but made bigger waves in the automotive industry as a whole this past January when he drove his SSC Tuatara to a two-way world record of 282.9 miles per hour at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Rallying up from DC to Philadelphia proved quite the adventure, as I rode in a nimble Golf GTI serving as camera car, and the CF Charities event itself featured many of the most incredible cars on the planet all gathered in one place for a good cause. But I also got a chance to catch up with Dr Caplin and check in on the status of his Tuatara, which suffered damage during a trailer rollover that also meant eager fans would miss out on seeing it headline the CF Charities Supercar Show this year.

Leaked Video Shows A Damaged Tuatara

I originally interviewed Dr Caplin two days after he completed the world record-setting run in January. Following the controversial first attempt in Pahrump, Nevada, where he did not drive, Dr Caplin wanted to make sure the Tuatara's next attempt lived up to the car community's enthusiasm for the project, though the eventual two-way record as it stands today actually happened during testing as the SSC team dialed the car in for an attempt at 300 miles per hour—which had been planned for a future date.

Then, last month, a video shared endlessly on YouTube after being posted on Vimeo originally by The Drive purported to show the Tuatara being pulled out from the wreckage of a trailer after it rolled over during high winds in Utah—and the car itself looked pretty ragged. There's only one Tuatara out in the world at the moment, so I deduced the damaged car must belong to Dr Caplin and just had to ask what happened when we met up to discuss his charity event in Philadelphia.

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Everything Started With The SSC Ultimate Aero

Dr Caplin SSC Ultimate Aero
via Michael Van Runkle / HotCars

Dr Caplin's original supercar purchase back in 2012 brought SSC North America's first world record-setting car, the Ultimate Aero, into his possession. He told me that since the other two Ultimate Aeros sit parked, CF Charities evolved after people contacted him wanting to check the car out. As the planned buyer of Tuatara Chassis No. 1, Dr Caplin originally believed that a test driver would go for the world record—until the controversial attempt in Nevada, which led to the decision that he should drive it himself.

“In Pahrump, that was not me driving. Actually, at that time, I did not fully own the car," he revealed. "I had not taken final ownership and possession of the car until after that run."

Following the announcement of the world record in January, Dr Caplin and the SSC team planned to continue testing the Tuatara in preparation to crack the mythical 300-mph mark—not to mention that Dr Caplin also thought it would serve as the main attraction for this year's CF Charities Supercar Show. But then, as he told it, an ominous phone call in the wee hours changed everything.

“I received a telephone call from Jarrod Shelby at 2:30 in the morning the day that it happened," Dr Caplin remembered. "Of course, phone calls at 2:30 in the morning are rarely positive. And he told me that the transport was run through Utah and got hit with wind that overturned it, put it onto its side."

"My first issue was about the people who were in the car, in the hauler. I wanted to know whether the driver was okay, whether the second driver was okay. And thank god that the second driver had moved to the berth five minutes before that happened because it flipped onto the passenger side and that part of the cab was destroyed. He was injured because he was thrown, but nothing that is irrepairable, hopefully, nothing that has any permanent damage. The majority of our conversation revolved around the two of them and making sure they were okay."

"The car’s a car. Okay, yes, it’s a world record car, but it’s still just a car."

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Getting A Little Lucky

SSC Tuatara Speed Run
via Tosh Monday Photography

The second driver of the hauler definitely sounds lucky, narrowly avoiding a potentially life-threatening situation. But the Tuatara, SSC, and Dr Caplin also got lucky, as well—all things considered.

"We got fortunate in a couple of places," he admitted. "The tow company that was involved had a lot of rigging experience, so they had the equipment and the knowledge to be able to get the car out without creating any further damage to the car."

And as a reminder to anyone thinking they can just park their car in an enclosed trailer and everything will be fine with the emergency brake on, always strap it down (and always double up the redundancies).

"The car stayed completely attached to the lift assembly in the trailer," Dr Caplin told me. "Of course, everything got racked and out of whack and the car had lots of cosmetic damage. But it does not appear that the car has any suspension damage, drivetrain damage, computers or ECU, even the ride heights when we tested them were correct—fortunate."

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Already Working On The Necessary Repairs

I asked what exactly might need replacing, since any car gunning for 300 miles per hour needs to be absolutely perfect. But Dr Caplin sounded very confident that the initial reports of minimal significant damage should hold true.

"They’re in the process of reskinning the car in the damaged areas," he said. "Things that need to be replaced are being replaced and things that need to be repaired are being repaired. There’s another advantage: that car, because of what we’re doing with it, every nut and bolt in that car, every angle of the suspension was meticulously recorded because we were making such fine adjustments to the car. So SSC was able to take that information and check it against the car. The ride height is dead on, to the millimeter, the suspension parts were straight-edged to make sure there were no bends or damage to anything."

“So they’re in the process of doing the rebuild. It will not be here tomorrow. It was supposed to be but it will not be. I expect that the car will be finished sometime in the month of July."

RELATED: World's Fastest Production Car SSC Tuatara Gets Two Extreme Variants

Announcing Tuatara Variants

SSC Tuatara Striker, Blue
SSC North America

In the world of PR, anytime anything goes wrong for a company in the public spotlight, nothing helps to assuage any negative press like a big, exciting, juicy announcement. For SSC's part, they recently followed up the news of the Tuatara's unfortunate mishap with the reveal of two new, even more powerful variants: the Striker and the Aggressor. Both offer more power and enhanced aerodynamics for aggressive driving dynamics—as opposed to the all-out top speed of Dr Caplin's car. Knowing that he'd taken part in Ferrari's Corsa Clienti track program with his FXXK Evo, I was curious whether Dr Caplin had his eye on either of the newly announced models.

“I’ll stay with the one I have," he laughed. "I’m interested in taking that car and seeing what it’s actually capable of."

And could he make a guesstimate, as the guy who has actually set a world record behind the wheel?

“I think the car’s perfectly capable of hitting 500 kilometers per hour, which is 312 miles per hour," he replied. "It’s aerodynamically stable, which is critical. And it puts the power down, which is critical. Because if it didn’t do those things, I wouldn’t have the confidence in the car to take it there and it does."

"What’s the top end? I’m not 100% sure, it’s really just a lot of math. If you sit down and calculate the drag calculation, especially in comparison to the amount of power and torque that is being put down, the actual wall of air is a bigger factor. You can make a car with far less horsepower that will go much, much faster—but they’re shaped like a bullet."

RELATED: SSC Tuatara: 8 Coolest Features Found In The Fastest Car In The World

Returning To Kennedy Space Center

SSC Tuatara Space Shuttle
via Car and Driver

After the controversial first attempt, Dr Caplin wanted to set the new world record the right way and did just that. Now, he's got 300 miles per hour in his sights—but I wanted to know how much would have to go into the restoration process in order to give him the renewed confidence necessary to get behind the wheel once more.

"I’ll probably do a lot of the testing myself," he theorized, once again bringing up how intricately the whole team had already data-logged every little detail about the Tuatara's exterior aerodynamics, suspension, and engine.

And if the repairs do end up completed by the end of July as he hopes, how soon afterward might the next top-speed attempt take place?

“This is actually a really bad time of year to do it in Florida," Dr Caplin explained, "Because it’s hot, the air is humid, it’s not a really good time to do it. But we’re going to play that by ear. We have to see how the car performs, make sure that there aren’t unfound complications that have to be corrected and have to adjusted. So I’m not sure."

There's one thing of which he is certain, however:

"I’m prepared to go when the car’s prepared to go."

Sources: cfcharities.org, thedrive.com, sscnorthamerica.com, youtube.com, and instagram.com.

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