Acceleration stats / performance at 60mph+

[leewillis77]

Hi;

I'm a UK-based Model 3 reservation holder which would be my first Tesla, so no EV experience at all really.

I've read plenty about the M3s performance, but most things tend to focus on 0-60 time. While that would be fun every now & then, I don't often floor-it from a standing start. Realistically, I'm less concerned with a car's 0-60 time than it's acceleration for overtaking / at changes of speed-limit.

Being in the UK there's no chance of me test-driving an M3 any time soon, so are there any useful stats / comparisons that anyone knows of that indicate the M3s performance when overtaking (changing from 40-70?) and/or acceleration at a 50/60 mph starting point.

[for context, I'm currently driving an Audi A3 2.0TFSI, and would be considering non-performance M3 - probably RWD / possible AWD]

Thanks for any advice / pointers!

 

[NewTMSMan]

Standard RWD Model 3:

Audi A3 Quatro for comparison:

So comparing 50MPH --> 70 MPH, the Model 3 is a lot faster.

 

[leewillis77]

Awesome - thanks. Do you have a source for those stats?

 

[NewTMSMan]

Model 3 RWD Stats - 2018 Tesla Model 3 Test | Review | Car and Driver

Audi A3 Stats - 2017 Audi A3 | Performance and Driving Impressions Review | Car and Driver

 

[leewillis77]

Thanks!

Interesting reading (I didn't find those articles in my original search as they're EU-blocked - {sigh}).

My current car is FWD (not quattro), so the most comparable in that list is probably the Golf GTI which is the same engine. No way my car takes almost 8 seconds to get from 50-70 though. I'm guessing that's a top-gear time (e.g. in 6th - whereas if I wanted / needed to accelerate I'd do that change in 3rd, or 4th at least). Great to have the Tesla stats as a comparison since I guess I can get my own for the Audi.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Wooloomooloo]

Standard RWD Model 3:

View attachment 344886

Audi A3 Quatro for comparison:
View attachment 344887

So comparing 50MPH --> 70 MPH, the Model 3 is a lot faster.

The GTI 50-70mph is completely wrong. It has the same 220hp engine as the Audi, so why is it so much slower? I owned a GTI Autobahn before my Model 3 Performance+ and it was quicker than that - does it assume no downshift because its a manual? No car has a slower 50 - 70 than 0-60.

That one stat makes me suspicious, sorry!

 

[leewillis77]

The Quattro is an automatic gearbox, so presumably they just let it auto-shift, whereas the Golf (& my non-quattro Audi) is manual gearbox, so yeah I'm pretty sure it's 6th gear which no-one would use in that situation. You can do that all in 3rd and my guess is you're looking at 4.5-5s on mine (slightly older model - 206hbp I think).

Still slower than the M3 so I guess my question's answered anyway

 

[Wooloomooloo]

The Quattro is an automatic gearbox, so presumably they just let it auto-shift, whereas the Golf (& my non-quattro Audi) is manual gearbox, so yeah I'm pretty sure it's 6th gear which no-one would use in that situation. You can do that all in 3rd and my guess is you're looking at 4.5-5s on mine (slightly older model - 206hbp I think).

Still slower than the M3 so I guess my question's answered anyway

My GTI had a Stage 1,5 Tune (Eurodyne) so the torque was around 350 lbs - if you pulled in 6th gear at 50mph you'd stress the clutch pretty badly. I really loved my GTI (I've always loved them) but the M3 is a whole different level.

If you can stretch to the AWD dual motor, go for it!

 

[Knightshade]

Automatics generally get into the highest gear possible as quickly as possible- that's why they do all passing tests from top gear.... in real life that's how it would work- you'd be in 6th (or whatever top gear is) then when you floor it, the car takes time to downshift to a passing gear.

The GT-R for example takes longer to go 30-70 than it takes to go 0-60 because of this... so much so there's after market tuners who specifically offer services to reprogram the car to be less aggressive about moving into higher gears at low speeds.


Teslas, having no gears to shift between, totally eliminate this delay, and thus all the car mags will show you passing times that beat supercars costing 3-5 times as much money.