2021 Performance Model 3 - Several questions from a driver.

[phantasms]

Hi guys,

I sold my 2018 boosted AWD 3 yesterday and am looking forward to picking up a new P3 in a few weeks. To that end I have several questions. I'm posting this in "driving dynamics" as it seems like it'll get the eyes of the people I'm looking for, my people.

1. Has the temperature power issues been resolved? I recall hearing the new models lost a ton of power if they weren't up to proper temps. I have a Vbox and Dragy and will do loads of testing. Did they software update that issue away? Was it never an issue? I'd be somewhat disappointed if the P3 didn't punch as hard as my boosted AWD on the highway.

2. What's actually different about the suspension? Just different springs? Sway bars?

3. Track mode on the street? I'm looking forward to finally having more control on the power of the vehicle. [clutch pearls here] To the people that DO drive it like this, what settings do you usually use and how does it make the car feel and respond? I'm certainly not looking to decrease my times of running errands but I would like to increase my "fun" in how it feels on the awesome twisty roads near me. Do you set any rear bias and if so are you losing overall power by doing so? Clearly if you set it to full FWD or RWD it would have less overall power. Has anyone scanned the vehicle at various settings to see at what point you lose power? Is stock bias the best?

4. Let's talk tires. Nearly every car I've had I've immediately thrown out the stock tires installed some iteration of Pilot Sports. I've even thrown out Cup2 tires for Pilot Sports. To me, Pilot Sports are the Tesla of tires. There's tires, then there's pilot sports. Anyway...how are these Pirellis? My quick search showed that people didn't like them as much and that some people switch to Pilot Sports and still weren't impressed. I'm not sure what to make of this. Are the Pirellis good in the rain? To me, the pilot sports are totally fine in the rain...the cups way less so. I intend to trade this car in for a Roadster when the time comes so I'm not sure how many sets of tires I'll go through. Do I simply take these off right away and sell them for PS4, or is it fine? To the people who say go for PS4, what sizes? I saw the thread with the wider PS4s, and they look great, but in my experience you get much better feedback and driving feel in a car that has that stretched tire look to it. I've thrown wider tires on cars in the past and, while it looked cool, it completely messed up the actual driving dynamics.

5. Winter tires/wheels! I live in NY and have a steep driveway. I see there's 19" Gemini's with the awesome Scottozero's on the Tesla website. I'm not sure I want to spend $3500 for wheels I don't love the looks of for possibly one season. Any other good options out there? Not sure if wrapping the stock wheels in Scottozero's is the best idea where I live. And on this subject what's different about the wheel hubs that some wheels work and others do not? Different offset?

6. Are the massive gains to be made by just canning the stock wheels/tires and going aftermarket? Not looking to break the bank. I LOVE how the new wheels look but I heard they're a little portly. Is driving feel radically improved dropping that much weight on the corners? Are the new wheels as soft and bendy as the previous performance wheels?

7. Is the battery pack confirmed to be larger like the AWD? I presume it is but heard rumblings that it isn't. It didn't gain that many miles in the refresh.

8. Any other low hanging fruit to make this car better on the cheap and easy side that doesn't mess with the warranty? SS brake lines for example...[warranty killer]?

9. Anything else I should know. Even though I'm coming from mostly the same car I'm suuuuper excited. If I was a zillionaire and could have any car on the planet to drive daily this would still be my choice.

Thank you for your time!

Best,
Gene

p.s. Here are my previous rides:

Eugene_Leeds's garage | Hagerty | My Garage

Check out this garage

www.hagerty.com

 

[gearchruncher]

Track mode on the street? I'm looking forward to finally having more control on the power of the vehicle. [clutch pearls here] To the people that DO drive it like this, what settings do you usually use and how does it make the car feel and respond? I'm certainly not looking to decrease my times of running errands but I would like to increase my "fun" in how it feels on the awesome twisty roads near me. Do you set any rear bias and if so are you losing overall power by doing so? Clearly if you set it to full FWD or RWD it would have less overall power. Has anyone scanned the vehicle at various settings to see at what point you lose power? Is stock bias the best?

No. Just no.
Tesla smartly disables autopilot, cruise control, and navigation with track mode on, and requires you to be in park to enable it and go into a menu and click through a disclaimer every single time you get in the car. Because nobody should be using this on the street.

And I say this as someone that runs -10 stability control in track mode when on the track.

I've set every fastest time of the day at my local track with 50/50 power bias. It highly depends on your tires and suspension setup. Non-track tires don't have enough grip, and in my opinion the bias is basically a gimmick, and you're best off in 50/50 and letting the traction control find the best way to put down power. In my experience, track mode's benefit is mostly about allowing you to slide the car a lot more before power cut. It also happily lets you spin the car. Please tell me you are not doing this on the road.

I've tried track mode off a few times on the track- the car is not dramatically slower, and it's not at all slower unless you are driving 9ths+. Power is limited by the battery, not the motors. You won't change the power output much until you are very close to full RWD or FWD. You'll just slow down your low speed straight line acceleration due to being more traction limited.

 

[phantasms]

You have sufficiently changed my mind on that matter. Thank you for an informative response from a real driver.

 

[Sam1]

Hi guys,

I sold my 2018 boosted AWD 3 yesterday and am looking forward to picking up a new P3 in a few weeks. To that end I have several questions. I'm posting this in "driving dynamics" as it seems like it'll get the eyes of the people I'm looking for, my people.

1. Has the temperature power issues been resolved? I recall hearing the new models lost a ton of power if they weren't up to proper temps. I have a Vbox and Dragy and will do loads of testing. Did they software update that issue away? Was it never an issue? I'd be somewhat disappointed if the P3 didn't punch as hard as my boosted AWD on the highway.

2. What's actually different about the suspension? Just different springs? Sway bars?

3. Track mode on the street? I'm looking forward to finally having more control on the power of the vehicle. [clutch pearls here] To the people that DO drive it like this, what settings do you usually use and how does it make the car feel and respond? I'm certainly not looking to decrease my times of running errands but I would like to increase my "fun" in how it feels on the awesome twisty roads near me. Do you set any rear bias and if so are you losing overall power by doing so? Clearly if you set it to full FWD or RWD it would have less overall power. Has anyone scanned the vehicle at various settings to see at what point you lose power? Is stock bias the best?

4. Let's talk tires. Nearly every car I've had I've immediately thrown out the stock tires installed some iteration of Pilot Sports. I've even thrown out Cup2 tires for Pilot Sports. To me, Pilot Sports are the Tesla of tires. There's tires, then there's pilot sports. Anyway...how are these Pirellis? My quick search showed that people didn't like them as much and that some people switch to Pilot Sports and still weren't impressed. I'm not sure what to make of this. Are the Pirellis good in the rain? To me, the pilot sports are totally fine in the rain...the cups way less so. I intend to trade this car in for a Roadster when the time comes so I'm not sure how many sets of tires I'll go through. Do I simply take these off right away and sell them for PS4, or is it fine? To the people who say go for PS4, what sizes? I saw the thread with the wider PS4s, and they look great, but in my experience you get much better feedback and driving feel in a car that has that stretched tire look to it. I've thrown wider tires on cars in the past and, while it looked cool, it completely messed up the actual driving dynamics.

5. Winter tires/wheels! I live in NY and have a steep driveway. I see there's 19" Gemini's with the awesome Scottozero's on the Tesla website. I'm not sure I want to spend $3500 for wheels I don't love the looks of for possibly one season. Any other good options out there? Not sure if wrapping the stock wheels in Scottozero's is the best idea where I live. And on this subject what's different about the wheel hubs that some wheels work and others do not? Different offset?

6. Are the massive gains to be made by just canning the stock wheels/tires and going aftermarket? Not looking to break the bank. I LOVE how the new wheels look but I heard they're a little portly. Is driving feel radically improved dropping that much weight on the corners? Are the new wheels as soft and bendy as the previous performance wheels?

7. Is the battery pack confirmed to be larger like the AWD? I presume it is but heard rumblings that it isn't. It didn't gain that many miles in the refresh.

8. Any other low hanging fruit to make this car better on the cheap and easy side that doesn't mess with the warranty? SS brake lines for example...[warranty killer]?

9. Anything else I should know. Even though I'm coming from mostly the same car I'm suuuuper excited. If I was a zillionaire and could have any car on the planet to drive daily this would still be my choice.

Thank you for your time!

Best,
Gene

p.s. Here are my previous rides:

Eugene_Leeds's garage | Hagerty | My Garage

Check out this garage

www.hagerty.com

1. what temperature problems? batteries are batteries and cold temperature will slow down a performance just like it will a long range.
2. someone else can answer that
3. I drive on track mode regularly, track mode is for customizing the way you need the car to handle, not for you to set up your configuration the way that I want the car to handle. You do not lose any power because it is only an initial bias; no matter what, both motors will end up putting out max power if you stay in the throttle and traction control is the limiting factor (because that can also never be completely disabled). In track mode the car will launch softer on the street, I believe that's for two reasons - traction control is nerfed a bit, and, it feels like the pedal mapping is a bit different. Track mode on the street is almost always slower than in sport mode, but if you want to power slide, you're not doing that in sport mode unless it's the generic awd understeer slide.
4. no clue on the new pirellis, i put a set of non tesla spec pirellis pz4 sports on 18" wheels and it felt like driving around on playdough. Had to uninstall them and replace with ps4s again because I was powersliding on ramps just driving normally. They were completely unpredictable, and IMO, pieces of trash for these heavy cars because of the sidewall being too soft.
5.no clue on winter tires, but I would personally remove the 20's and just put 18's on there as soon as you get the car.
6. lightening up the unsprung/rotational mass on these cars does almost nothing for acceleration. I dropped nearly 50 pounds from the wheels and rotors going to 18's and aftermarket rotors and didn't even gain 1/100th of a second on my 0-60. Handling however, was lightyears better and I would do it all over again just from the handling perspective. Maybe not the rotors though, just the wheels.
7. it's the same, or such a miniscule difference that you can effectively call it the same capacity.
8. the only thing you can really do to an electric car is reduce weight, suspension, brakes, wheels. or put a bunch of Type R stickers on it and pretend that makes it faster.
9. you won't notice any major differences other than on a launch the performance takes off harder. Or on the track (in stock form) the performance is set up just a little better.

 

[Tslrsx]

1. Limited power is fixed, they keep the battery at higher temperature now when it's cold.

 

[Brenden3010]

1. @Sam1 The issues I've been experiencing in cold weather with my 2021 P3D is that there's no easy way to heat the battery. In older models, the resistive heater (from what I understand) helped a lot in getting the cars up to operating temperature. In my M3P, even if I navigate to a supercharger (to force the car to precondition the battery) and drive around, I have a tough time putting the car under enough load long enough to heat the battery. When the battery is at around 50% or lower, while driving on the highway I'll even see the left hand dots start to appear during the drive. I've never owned a pre 21' Model 3, so I don't know if this is just an inherent problem with electric cars in the North East.

I've done Dragy tests during 60 degree weather and 40 degree weather, both regen and power have solid lines, at between 80 and 90% SOC, and I would consistently see a .3 second difference to 60, on the same stretch of road. I'm pretty sure the software update to "fix" the performance issues was mostly a visual thing, I didn't really feel like there was much difference in performance. Since there is no easy way to determine the battery pack temperature, all I have to really go off of are those dots/lines, and if I see that cold battery pack icon.

Potentially irrelevant to the cold weather, but my car gets very sluggish when the battery runs down. I wouldnt be surprised if it ran a 7+ second 0-60 when under 30% battery. I say potentially irrelevant, because part of the problem might be that with so little power left in the battery, it gets harder for the car to keep the battery pack up to temperature.

2. I'm not sure, but I'm sure it's easy to find all the differences with a quick google search.

3. I find the normal settings to probably be the way to go for the most reliable performance on the streets. If all your doing is looking to add instability to your trips on the road, then I guess track mode would do it for you. I just found that corners I would normally be able to power out of early and let the car sort it out become a mess really quickly. The car has a lot of low end torque, too much for the tires that come on the performance model, at least laterally.

TLDR I just don't believe the performance increase, even if you could realize it on public roads, is worth the hassle.

4 and 6. Many users will disagree with this on these forums, but I'm pretty sure the car is software locked to a specific performance profile, no matter what tires you use. Yes, if you get better tires, it will handle better, but in terms of launching the car, even if you decrease the weight of the wheels/tires significantly, the car seems to adjust for them to keep your acceleration performance more or less the same. I mentioned that users disagree with this because some Tesla performance shops have told forum members that the motors are basically at their safe limits, and thats why the performance is what its at. My issue with that train of thought, is that wider and lighter wheels/tires does not really effect how fast the car accelerates. My other issue is that if the motors are truly tapped out when accelerating, why is it that people with the Teslascan app have reported that the car draws more power when accelerating up a hill than it would draw on a flat straight road? You would think if the motors are near their limit, that we would see similar power draw uphill/downhill/flat roads, and the difference would be in how fast you accelerate, not the other way around.

5. I dont have a lot of experience with aftermarket wheels and tires yet.

7. The new 2021 LR and Performance battery packs are 82KWH, the 2020 and older were 75KWH if I'm not mistaken, so yes, it has the new battery.

8. Not really. There isn't really anything you can do to increase straight line performance, except new tires, but even that will just widen the conditions in which you can accelerate and corner hard. Getting SS brake lines wont fix the brake fade issues lots of people who track their cars experience.

9. No, if you have a LR with the performance boost, this is a lot of the same, just a little faster off the line, and the handling is better. Yes you get track mode, but your mileage may vary with that.

 

[Sam1]

1. @Sam1 The issues I've been experiencing in cold weather with my 2021 P3D is that there's no easy way to heat the battery. In older models, the resistive heater (from what I understand) helped a lot in getting the cars up to operating temperature. In my M3P, even if I navigate to a supercharger (to force the car to precondition the battery) and drive around, I have a tough time putting the car under enough load long enough to heat the battery. When the battery is at around 50% or lower, while driving on the highway I'll even see the left hand dots start to appear during the drive. I've never owned a pre 21' Model 3, so I don't know if this is just an inherent problem with electric cars in the North East.

I've done Dragy tests during 60 degree weather and 40 degree weather, both regen and power have solid lines, at between 80 and 90% SOC, and I would consistently see a .3 second difference to 60, on the same stretch of road. I'm pretty sure the software update to "fix" the performance issues was mostly a visual thing, I didn't really feel like there was much difference in performance. Since there is no easy way to determine the battery pack temperature, all I have to really go off of are those dots/lines, and if I see that cold battery pack icon.

Potentially irrelevant to the cold weather, but my car gets very sluggish when the battery runs down. I wouldnt be surprised if it ran a 7+ second 0-60 when under 30% battery. I say potentially irrelevant, because part of the problem might be that with so little power left in the battery, it gets harder for the car to keep the battery pack up to temperature.

2. I'm not sure, but I'm sure it's easy to find all the differences with a quick google search.

3. I find the normal settings to probably be the way to go for the most reliable performance on the streets. If all your doing is looking to add instability to your trips on the road, then I guess track mode would do it for you. I just found that corners I would normally be able to power out of early and let the car sort it out become a mess really quickly. The car has a lot of low end torque, too much for the tires that come on the performance model, at least laterally.

TLDR I just don't believe the performance increase, even if you could realize it on public roads, is worth the hassle.

4 and 6. Many users will disagree with this on these forums, but I'm pretty sure the car is software locked to a specific performance profile, no matter what tires you use. Yes, if you get better tires, it will handle better, but in terms of launching the car, even if you decrease the weight of the wheels/tires significantly, the car seems to adjust for them to keep your acceleration performance more or less the same. I mentioned that users disagree with this because some Tesla performance shops have told forum members that the motors are basically at their safe limits, and thats why the performance is what its at. My issue with that train of thought, is that wider and lighter wheels/tires does not really effect how fast the car accelerates. My other issue is that if the motors are truly tapped out when accelerating, why is it that people with the Teslascan app have reported that the car draws more power when accelerating up a hill than it would draw on a flat straight road? You would think if the motors are near their limit, that we would see similar power draw uphill/downhill/flat roads, and the difference would be in how fast you accelerate, not the other way around.

5. I dont have a lot of experience with aftermarket wheels and tires yet.

7. The new 2021 LR and Performance battery packs are 82KWH, the 2020 and older were 75KWH if I'm not mistaken, so yes, it has the new battery.

8. Not really. There isn't really anything you can do to increase straight line performance, except new tires, but even that will just widen the conditions in which you can accelerate and corner hard. Getting SS brake lines wont fix the brake fade issues lots of people who track their cars experience.

9. No, if you have a LR with the performance boost, this is a lot of the same, just a little faster off the line, and the handling is better. Yes you get track mode, but your mileage may vary with that.

You can monitor the battery temps and everything else on the car if you just get scan my Tesla, and OBD scanner, and that cable. That's what most of us use.

 

[Brenden3010]

You can monitor the battery temps and everything else on the car if you just get scan my Tesla, and OBD scanner, and that cable. That's what most of us use.

Most Tesla owners are not going to pop off the back of the center console in front of the center rear seat and leave an OBD scanner hanging out of it, in order to tell if the battery is able to get up to temperature. Some floor mats, like the 3D MAXspider, compound the situation since feeding the scanner out the bottom pushes the cable directly into the stiff lip of the rear floor mat.

 

[Sam1]

Most Tesla owners are not going to pop off the back of the center console in front of the center rear seat and leave an OBD scanner hanging out of it, in order to tell if the battery is able to get up to temperature. Some floor mats, like the 3D MAXspider, compound the situation since feeding the scanner out the bottom pushes the cable directly into the stiff lip of the rear floor mat.

What are you talking about? Everything is Bluetooth and fits behind the panel lol

 

[Brenden3010]

What are you talking about? Everything is Bluetooth and fits behind the panel lol

I was just going by what Bjorn showed on his Youtube channel on how to install one of these.

 

[Sam1]

I was just going by what Bjorn showed on his Youtube channel on how to install one of these.

Popularity isn't correlated with intelligence. Unfortunately, this is a statement that actually needs to be made.

 

[RacerChris]

Re: #2, I believe the suspension changes are slightly larger sway bars and slightly lower suspension. The car is responsive but I feel the stock shocks are a bit under damped for spirited driving. I race autocross and feel they are a little "squishy". If you are interested in some lightly used and improved damper options, PM me - I have something that I'll be putting up on the classified section here that helps.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Is the battery pack confirmed to be larger like the AWD?

82.1kWh Full Pack When New compared to 77.8kWh previously, according to the monitoring software. Realized increase seems to be typically about 81kWh vs. 78kWh when new. Your pack will show capacity loss (loss of rated miles) at 80.6kWh vs. at 77.8 kWh previously. All this subject to change in future based on software changes (but not the fundamental pack constituent cells which are 2170L).

In fact, the Performance 2021 was the first Model 3 to get the larger pack, and the AWDs have a more complicated picture, where it depends when you bought them…

 

[ysaliens]

6. Yes - gains CAN be made for both range and acceleration. The Performance 3 with it's 20-inch ankle weights can gain ~0.1s 0-60 when you switch to a fully forged wheels. However, usually this comes with a penalty on range as MOST lightweight forged wheels are not aerodynamic (stock wheels ARE). If you look hard you CAN have best of both worlds in a forged set of 19s or 20s that are very light AND retain the aero. You may gain range if they are better than the stock wheels. Tires...it seems like you're well versed...the pirellis it comes with aren't bad at all, they are close to the ps4s. There's a EV-specific pilot sport tire coming that will wear better and have low rolling resistance for up to 30-40 miles more range without compromising the ride. It keeps getting delayed though...

 

[edconline]

Glad I came across this thread, I’ve been searching and searching for an answer to a question about traction control on the street in the model 3 performance, but thus far have been unable to find an answer.

I’m waiting on delivery of a 2021 Perf Model 3, it’s replacing my RS3 as a daily driver. Before the RS, I had a Golf R. I live decently far North in Canada, and have snow here like 6-7 months of the year. One of my absolute favourite things is driving in snow, especially after a fresh snowfall/snowstorm on an early weekend morning when the roads are empty and unplowed.

With that in mind, I’d always set my traction control in my current/previous daily drivers to “sport” (vs fully on, which just cuts power and applies brakes very aggressively, or fully off, which basically spins the tires, or the car at any sort of power.) TC Sport allows me to get decent wheel spin/slip angle, in order to be “playful” with the car, but keeps it from spinning too far, still helps the wheels get grip, etc.
Sliding around corners or roundabouts at 6:30am on a snowy Saturday morning when you’re the only one on the road is magnificent.
Is this possible in the model 3 performance *without* using track mode?

 

[edconline]

Glad I came across this thread, I’ve been searching and searching for an answer to a question about traction control on the street in the model 3 performance, but thus far have been unable to find an answer.

I’m waiting on delivery of a 2021 Perf Model 3, it’s replacing my RS3 as a daily driver. Before the RS, I had a Golf R. I live decently far North in Canada, and have snow here like 6-7 months of the year. One of my absolute favourite things is driving in snow, especially after a fresh snowfall/snowstorm on an early weekend morning when the roads are empty and unplowed.

With that in mind, I’d always set my traction control in my current/previous daily drivers to “sport” (vs fully on, which just cuts power and applies brakes very aggressively, or fully off, which basically spins the tires, or the car at any sort of power.) TC Sport allows me to get decent wheel spin/slip angle, in order to be “playful” with the car, but keeps it from spinning too far, still helps the wheels get grip, etc.
Sliding around corners or roundabouts at 6:30am on a snowy Saturday morning when you’re the only one on the road is magnificent.
Is this possible in the model 3 performance *without* using track mode?

For some insane reason I can't edit my own post, so I'll reply to add the rest:

I know what I'm after could surely be done in track mode - but the last thing I'm looking to do is turn on track mode every day when I get in the car for 6 months. Inconvenience aside, I'd worry about the unnecessary extra wear on the cooling system, which as I understand it is running overtime in track mode (and it certainly isn't needed in -30C!) I watched a YT clip of a guy testing Tesla's in AK at their testing track, and he seemed to say that the Model 3 Performance, without track mode on, allowed a bit more "playfulness" than the other models in their lineup. If so, this could be all I'm really looking for day to day. Was that/is that the case? As most of the other videos I have seen of people with Model 3's in the snow, suggest that the car does not allow ANY wheel spin, or slip angle when hitting throttle into the corners, etc, without using track mode.

Appreciate any real world, first hand info from people who have tried this in their performance! Don't want to hear anything about not power sliding corners on the street, etc, etc. We are talking empty roads (It's northern Canada - like no one lives here lmao), and not talking anything insane - just having fun in what should be a fun car. (But perhaps most importantly, it would be impossible for me to care less about anyone else's opinion about what I do in my car - sad that needs to be mentioned, but too often it does, at least online.)
I'd be VERY disappointed indeed if the only way to have the same amount of fun in the snow with a brand new EV as my ICE cars was entering a mode designed for on track - after all, as I understood it, the Model 3 Performance was/is designed as a direct competitor to the M3, RS3, etc. It should allow for as much excitement as those cars day to day if not more!

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

Well Tesla's don't have that horrible traction control system that kills the engine at the slightest hint of wheelspin so there's not really a need for any "sport" mode. Tesla just gives you everything the tires can handle.

And nothing more.

If you want to slide then track mode is your only option. It's waaaaay better than BMW/Audi/etc. "Sport mode", but it's also a real hassle to use. You can only engage it in park after a long dig thru the menus, the fan goes crazy full blast, the screen is full of errors that can't be cleared, and you can't use cruise control or even navigation. Oh, and it still doesn't let you turn off traction control - you can only reduce stability control by some indeterminate amount on some undefined scale. You'll be drifting thru your neighborhood snow drifts like a pro, but just not on a whim.

And yeah, something is stoopid with this forum. They don't let you edit your posts. The story I heard was that the admins run this board from a nursing home and have never actually seen the internet themselves.

 

[edconline]

Well Tesla's don't have that horrible traction control system that kills the engine at the slightest hint of wheelspin so there's not really a need for any "sport" mode. Tesla just gives you everything the tires can handle.

And nothing more.

If you want to slide then track mode is your only option. It's waaaaay better than BMW/Audi/etc. "Sport mode", but it's also a real hassle to use. You can only engage it in park after a long dig thru the menus, the fan goes crazy full blast, the screen is full of errors that can't be cleared, and you can't use cruise control or even navigation. Oh, and it still doesn't let you turn off traction control - you can only reduce stability control by some indeterminate amount on some undefined scale. You'll be drifting thru your neighborhood snow drifts like a pro, but just not on a whim.

And yeah, something is stoopid with this forum. They don't let you edit your posts. The story I heard was that the admins run this board from a nursing home and have never actually seen the internet themselves.

Super annoying about the post editing thing.

Audi seemed to have the sport TC thing pretty incredibly dialled in. It’s like it was made for drifting in the snow, but still keeping you on the road. Should have been called “hooning mode”. Disappointed to hear Tesla doesn’t have something similar without full on track mode, which sounds like it has some unnecessary annoyances for what I’m after.

Interestingly, this guy seemed to be able to (so he says) get 15-20% slip angle before TC kicked in, with all the nanny’s on in the model 3. Watch from 6:15 to 7:00. Now this clip is 2 years old, so maybe Tesla changed the TC behaviour since then? Or he’s just lying, or they gave him a tester with different software?

 

[N54TT]

Most Tesla owners are not going to pop off the back of the center console in front of the center rear seat and leave an OBD scanner hanging out of it, in order to tell if the battery is able to get up to temperature. Some floor mats, like the 3D MAXspider, compound the situation since feeding the scanner out the bottom pushes the cable directly into the stiff lip of the rear floor mat.

Most Tesla owners aren’t concerned what their battery temps are nor want to monitor them. Those that are shouldn’t have an issue popping off the panel . FWIW I have maxpider mats and have no issue running the cable to the side and having the BT dongle hidden between the console and pass seat. You can keep it all inside the console but I chose to have it accessible if I ever have a connection issue and need to hit the pairing button or unplug/plug the BT.

 

[THXULTRA]

5. Winter tires/wheels! I live in NY and have a steep driveway. I see there's 19" Gemini's with the awesome Scottozero's on the Tesla website. I'm not sure I want to spend $3500 for wheels I don't love the looks of for possibly one season. Any other good options out there? Not sure if wrapping the stock wheels in Scottozero's is the best idea where I live. And on this subject what's different about the wheel hubs that some wheels work and others do not? Different offset?

On this topic look at Tsportline they have different wheel and tire packages. I am thinking about getting one of their 18inch setups for winter here. I really like the 20s that come with the car but the tires are summer rated so I will swap them out in the winter for the tsportline 18s with all season or winter tires. Will be better for winter pot holes also.