This time, a Tesla Model S Plaid faces an unusual opponent in a drag racing competition — a classic Rail Dragster. To face this light and powerful ICE monster at the dragstrip, the Model S Plaid had to be gutted (removed unnecessary weight from the interior like seats, etc.).
Rail Dragsters are a breed of purpose-built cars for drag racing that are light, with a long wheelbase, and savage when launching off the line.
This is perhaps the first time a Tesla Model S Plaid has confronted such a competitor, normal ones have been facing a hard time keeping up with the luxury electric sedan since its launch.
The Plaid is weight-reduced and running on the stock Pirelli P Zeros on 19” wheels. (Backseats and most rear material removed. Both front seats are still IN PLACE, along with all door panels, airbags, speakers and subwoofer.)
Tesla Plaid Channel / YouTube (video below).
Related: Here’s how fast the Model S Plaid is after 40 quarter-mile runs and at a 20% state of charge
Tesla Model S Plaid was at 89% state-of-charge (SoC) when the driver puts it in the Drag Strip Mode (a custom Tesla software package for Model S/X Plaid to launch the vehicle at a dragstrip). This was the amount of battery left in the Model S Plaid after previously drag racing a BMW M8 Competition — enough for a good launch.
Tesla Model S is actually a large family sedan and the Plaid variant gives some thrilling performance figures like the 0-60 mph in just 1.99 seconds. Therefore, it’s not so wrong to put this car against a purpose-built dragster machine — just to see an exciting race and entertaining results.
With such an opponent in the other lane, the Tesla Plaid driver has to be agile to have a great reaction time at the start — otherwise catching up would be a dream only. Tesla Model S Plaid had a reaction time of 0.006-second in this race while the Rail Dragster had 0.026.
The Tesla Model S Plaid lost the drag race. Plaid completed the 1/4-mile run in 9.216 seconds, while the Rail Dragster did it in 9.006 seconds.
Let us know what you think about this drag race in the comments section below.
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- Watch how Tesla Model X Plaid electric SUV defeats a highly modified Porsche 992 Turbo S Coupe on a dragstrip
- Tesla engineer explains how Drag Strip Mode works on a Model S/X Plaid (video)
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