Rather today some video was posted showing Tesla a new S Plaid model at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and the presumption was that the California EV brand was aiming for a new record. The record production of electric cars in the ring was recently claimed by Porsche with the Taycan Turbo in 2019 just before the official launch of the car, with the German entry of 7: 42.3. Today, as confirmed by company president and public relations man Elon Musk on Twitter, Plaid ran a 7: 30.9. Not bad.
As impressive as this moment may be, there are some warnings to keep in mind before hiding the plaid. First, while this is a new record for a production electric car, there are a handful of gasoline-powered sedans with less power that have already turned faster, such as the Jaguar XE SV Project 8 ( 7: 23.1) or the Porsche Panamera Turbo (7: 29,81). It was also worth noting that Porsche set its electric record with the Taycan Turbo, not the full Turbo S, which could still surpass the Plaid lap. The most interesting thing about all of this, in my eyes, though, is that Supposedly, Tesla set a timed lap at 7:24 with the 2019 Plaid prototype as well.
Who teaches who, here?
None of this is meant to be a descent into Tesla, and really the Nürburgring lap times are totally useless and bring no meaning or value to a car, because lap time is something the company has been working on since a few years ago and finally managed to make it a reality. Set your goals and manifest them to the world, me.
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For a good measure, let’s look at a brief list of impressively fast cars that the Model S Plaid made a faster lap than: 2007 Porsche 911 GT2, 2005 Koenigsegg CCR, 2021 Audi RS3, Renault Megane RS Trophy-R 2019, Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. Any of these could be considered an awesome car and the plaid won them all. It is not yet known who could have been driving the Plaid, but they are certainly an impressive talent behind the wheel to achieve this kind of time. Of course, the car still has a long way to go at the speed of a 2009 Nissan GT-R (7: 29.0).