SBDPlaid
Member
New testing results are in, comparing Ludicrous Plus with and without Preheating as well Ludicrous (without launch mode). Spoiler Alert: Preheating the battery may not necessarily provide a performance advantage.
The first run is in Ludicrous Plus mode but without preheating the battery to the 50-degree setpoint.
For run 2, we waited for the battery to reach the 50-degree setpoint in Ludicrous Plus mode.
As I've mentioned before, 0-60 MPH times are not very indicative of power due to traction limitations, but trap speed is. Check out the 1/8th mile trap speed in the first video vs. the 2nd. That;s roughly a 6 MPH drop with the battery SOC only a couple of percent lower! That's a colossal difference in the 660' and will be even more pronounced in the 1/4 mile. Clearly, the software was limiting power with this setup probably because the cooling system is incapable of maintaining the battery at 50C on a warm day without overheating the motors. The question then was whether the car would recover if taken out of Ludicruous Plus mode. That's the run below:
Indeed, the trap speed had increased by 5 MPH over the previous run; the remaining 1 MPH deficit between runs 1 and 3 could be attributed to the battery charge difference or perhaps, due to the stress imposed by the preheating routine itself. Either way, I believe this addresses the questions that plagued me after my last drag-strip runs where the car was 5-7 MPH slower than its historical baseline. Based on these findings, these would be my recommendations for consistent drag strip performance on the P100D:
Hope that helps.
- SOC matters, so arrive at the track with as much charge as possible.
- Do NOT preheat the battery (not even when you're charging the car). Only exception to this would be if the ambient temperatures were very low, in the sixties, for instance, where risk of overheating the motors and running into software torque management is smaller.
- Use Ludicrous Plus right before you stage so you minimize time spent with the car trying to preheat the battery. LP mode is only needed to enable Launch Mode which is necessary for the best 60-ft times.
- Disengage Ludicrous Plus immediately after the pass. In fact, I'd recommend Chill Mode and Range Mode just to absolutely minimize charge loss between runs.
FANTASTIC info! Thanks for testing!