Being the fastest production car ever made yet, the Tesla Model S Plaid was destined for getting tested for this claim again and again. Brook Weisblat, the host of a popular YouTube channel DragTimes decided to give his recently bought Plaid Model S a try for a 0-60 mph time — and that on a street (video below).
MotorTrend was the first to attempt a 0-60 mph time on a Model S Plaid, and they got an astonishing 1.98s time. But MotorTrend performed this test on a dragstrip (Auto Club Famoso Raceway, California).
Brook performed this Model S Plaid acceleration test on a street but still must have turned on the Drag Strip Mode to pre-condition the batteries for a full-throttle launch. Due to the addition of the heat pump in the new 2021 Model S design refresh, warming the batteries only takes a minute or two as it took several minutes in the older Model S cars.
You can turn on the Drag Strip Mode in a Plaid Model S by going to Controls > Pedals & Steering > Select the “Plaid” tab > Tap on Drag Strip Mode to start battery pre-conditioning.
DragTimes used a GPS-based performance meter (Dragy) to track the 0-60 mph acceleration of the Plaid Model S on the street. The time came exactly 1.99s after the first foot of rollout was subtracted.
Besides these superfast runs on the street, the license plate of Brook’s Plaid Model S is as much interesting, it says “SPCBALZ”, a reference to the movie Spaceballs that inspired the name of Tesla’s Plaid acceleration mode.
DragTimes took another Tesla Model S Plaid to the dragstrip earlier this month for some solo runs to test the 0-60 and 1/4 mile performance numbers. They got the best quarter-mile time of 9.248 seconds which is just 0.001 sec behind Jay Leno’s 9.247 seconds time he claimed on CNBC.
Jay Leno might have tested the car in ideal conditions. But in the following DragTimes video, Brook tells that they experienced headwinds during the dragstrip runs which might have hurt a little bit of time. However, with a 0.208 Cd, the new Model S is one of the most aerodynamic production cars ever made as well, therefore it still performed well enough.
WallStreet Zen created the following graph that compares the acceleration of Tesla Model S Plaid against other supercars from the ICE world. For proof, you can watch a Tesla Model S Plaid defeat a Bugatti Chiron in a drag racing battle.
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