Today’s the 4th day of the Unplugged Performance’s Tesla Model S Plaid on the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC). For the last three days, the modified Model S Plaid has been performing test runs for the final lap record attempt coming on Sunday 27th June.
The Unplugged Model S Plaid has qualified 1st in the Exhibition Class for the Pikes Peak hill climb yesterday with a lap time of 4:10.342. Randy’s Unplugged Plaid reached a top speed of 140 mph (225 km/h) on this tricky and mountainous race track elevating up to 14,000 ft above sea level.
Related: Tesla Model S Plaid conquers the 2021 Pikes Peak Hill Climb
Tesla retail investor and our friend Sofiaan Fraval has been covering the entire event with all the camera equipment he has with him, when his phone or camera battery dies, he can even capture it with the webcam on his laptop.
He recorded the following clip when the Unplugged Plaid Model S was leaving for a practice session towards the lower circuit of the PPIHC. This gives us a glimpse of the insane acceleration that this car is able to achieve on such a terrain.
I don’t know about slow. Ludicrous is fast, but just not as fast (as plaid).
Randy Pobst
The 2021 Tesla Model S and Model X now come with an improved heating and cooling system out of the box. Tesla has transitioned its integration of the heat pump to the Model S and X. The heat pump technology was originally designed for the Model 3 and later on brought in the Model Y as well.
In addition to the heat pump, the new Model S has an improved thermal management system using the radiator. The thermal system seen in the above diagram was revealed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk during the Plaid delivery event presentation. This gives the Model S Plaid the ability to crank out the same level of repeat performance without the battery pack catching becoming too hot — very necessary for a 1.99 second 0-60 mph car.
You must have noticed the sounds of sirens while Randy is driving the Unplugged Plaid on Pikes Peak. This siren is intentionally installed on the car because of its silent electric drivetrain, it helps avoid an unexpected appearance of the insanely fast car out of nowhere, thus improving safety on the hilly race track.
Today Randy Pobst ran the lower section of Pikes Peak International Hill Climb establishing our qualifying time on the second day here at The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb by Gran Turismo – With a sector time of 4:10.342 and a top speed of 140mph, Randy & our Unplugged Performance Model S Plaid qualified at the top of the exhibition class, leading the pack by over 5 seconds!
Unplugged Performance / YouTube
On the lighter side of things, the Unplugged team has pasted the Model S Plaid’s rear spoiler with none other than the DOGE memes all around it. Since Dogecoin is Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency and he loves to tweet about it, this Unplugged Model S Plaid might get some extra attention from him and the Dogecoin community.
Pobst is not the only one with a modified Tesla electric car participating in this event. Daijiro Yoshihara has a 2018 Tesla Model 3 who did a 4:15.653 lap time on Wednesday’s session. Joshua Allan is driving another Model 3 at Pikes Peak who achieved a time of 4:33.940 with his car.
Unplugged Performance and Randy Pobst brought a Tesla Model 3 Performance to Pikes Peak last year, but unfortunately, it crashed during a practice session. The whole team with help from Tesla restored the car as much as they could and made a comeback to the track (the entire amazing story here).
Hope all ends well this time, let’s watch Randy Pobst run a practice session in wet road conditions at Pikes Peak.
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