Was the electric car’s launch faulty?
One Tesla Model S P100D owner modded the electric family sedan for racing and he’s giving the conventional racers a hard time.
YouTuber Tesla Racing Channel bought a Tesla Model S P100D and started working on it; first, he stripped out the car’s interior. To bring the weight down a bit more, he swapped the stock wheels with some lightweight 19-by-10-inch BBS rims.
For added traction, this P100D uses a set of four Mickey Thompson drag-focused tires. The powertrain part also gets a small upgrade courtesy of Jason Hughes (dubbed “Tesla hacker” for obvious reasons). Although no power and/or performance figures are given, we can all guess it’s faster than the 2.5 seconds needed to clear the 0 to 60 mph sprint.
The clip below documents the evolution of this electric family sedan turned into dragster in a no-prep racing night meet. It was the only electric car in the competition, with rivals such as a G-Body Monte Carlo, a Chevrolet S-10, a Camaro, and two Fox Body Mustangs.
Although the electric car is a wonderful invention and we hope to see the world full of them — environmentally-wise — bringing it to a conventional, gasoline-centered meeting is just show off.
Despite its incredible advance over this century, the combustion engine is still fastidious. We cherish it as it is but put it against an electric motor and all its handicaps are even more obvious.
Of course, it’s not this Tesla owner’s fault for trying. But, despite numerous videos of P100Ds kicking pretentious asses in drag races, people want even more ass-kicking. Some never learn, eh?