A Very Promising Start!

[mgboyes]

Hi Smac

My test drive was in a red P85 with the 21" grey turbines. I loved the look so that was an easy choice. There was also a multicolour white car there which I did not like as much plus I thought it really would show the dirt!

I was advised that the P85D should really have the 21" wheels because of the power involved. Certainly the test drive car had a huge amount of grip and it just looked right. Also, I am not brave enough to go for non-Tesla parts on a new car yet because of the possible warranty issues.

I have gone for the black next gen seats with a the light alcantara ceiling and carbon fibre dashboard. I am told that my car will come with alcantara on the top of the dash and that the car now comes with a carbon yacht floor if you choose the carbon dash.

The P85D is recommended to be specified with 21" wheels because on that car (just like on the P85+ before it) the wheels are not only larger but also fatter - the rears are 265/35/21 which will improve traction. But the 19s will work just fine, increase your range and comfort, and I suspect will have very little impact on real-world performance. If you are really going to take the car to its limits in the corners though the larger wheels will be preferable because of the correspondingly smaller tyre sidewall.

The yacht floor is now part of the interior luxury pack which comprises extended nappa leather, ambient lighting and yacht floor. It will match whatever your chosen trim is (carbon fibre, piano black, obeche etc).

 

[smac]

The P85D is recommended to be specified with 21" wheels because on that car (just like on the P85+ before it) the wheels are not only larger but also fatter - the rears are 265/35/21 which will improve traction. But the 19s will work just fine, increase your range and comfort, and I suspect will have very little impact on real-world performance. If you are really going to take the car to its limits in the corners though the larger wheels will be preferable because of the correspondingly smaller tyre sidewall.l

The single biggest advantage of the 21s from a performance point of view is more likely the available tyre compounds. They ship with VERY soft compound tyres, not available in the 19" size.

(Lot's of people are getting shocked at getting < 10k miles from the rears. Being different sizes front to rear, they also can't be rotated, but it will be interesting to see if this matters on the D because you'd expect more even tyre wear anyway.)

It's a common tactic in trackday cars to go DOWN a size in rims to get better performance. Side wall flex gives you more progressive on limit handling, which is a good thing! (Though the main reason is to have less unsprung rotational weight.)