Model 3 Highland Performance/Plaid Speculation [Car announced 04.23.2024]

[mpgxsvcd]

Why would the official number not be the speed upon crossing the finish line?

How would you measure that? Radar gun? Are you going to calibrate it every day?

It is hard to measure instantaneous speed at the track reliably. Instead it is much easier to measure time it takes to travel a known distance to get average speed over that distance. However, that known distance better be truly static or your speeds will be off.

 

[P-Lo801]

How would you measure that? Radar gun? Are you going to calibrate it every day?

It is hard to measure instantaneous speed at the track reliably. Instead it is much easier to measure time it takes to travel a known distance to get average speed over that distance. However, that known distance better be truly static or your speeds will be off.

Yeah I was thinking a radar gun. And i'm phrasing this as a question because i'm genuinely curious, but why couldn't there be a tech person at the track that's paid to calibrate it every day? I cant help wonder, how can the drag strips use today's tech to catch up to or exceed the accuracy of dragy?

 

[mpgxsvcd]

Yeah I was thinking a radar gun. And i'm phrasing this as a question because i'm genuinely curious, but why couldn't there be a tech person at the track that's paid to calibrate it every day? I cant help wonder, how can the drag strips use today's tech to catch up to or exceed the accuracy of dragy?

Most Dragstrip have a shoestring budget. They can barely get someone to man the concessions much less calibrate and then operate a radar gun for each lane.

They need a reliable and automated way to measure speed so they just time how long it takes for the car to travel between two beams that are a known distance apart. The issue is that the distance isn’t always truly “known”. It can change.

 

[mpgxsvcd]

Yeah I was thinking a radar gun. And i'm phrasing this as a question because i'm genuinely curious, but why couldn't there be a tech person at the track that's paid to calibrate it every day? I cant help wonder, how can the drag strips use today's tech to catch up to or exceed the accuracy of dragy?

How do you measure instantaneous speed? Speed is distance divided by time. If time is zero then speed is undefined.

 

[P-Lo801]

Most Dragstrip have a shoestring budget. They can barely get someone to man the concessions much less calibrate and then operate a radar gun for each lane.

They need a reliable and automated way to measure speed so they just time how long it takes for the car to travel between two beams that are a known distance apart. The issue is that the distance isn’t always truly “known”. It can change.

I appreciate your insight. It makes sense now why our local drag strip near me ended up closing.

 

[HeyMrLee]

What Soc, battery warmed? Flat terrain? And US version yes?

80. Any other way to warm it other than supercharging? If I have to supercharge it right before I blast off to get that kinda power, I don’t think that counts. Flat terrain I’d assume but hard to say. I just got the draggy and have been playing around. US version, yes.

 

[phantasms]

80. Any other way to warm it other than supercharging? If I have to supercharge it right before I blast off to get that kinda power, I don’t think that counts. Flat terrain I’d assume but hard to say. I just got the draggy and have been playing around. US version, yes.

If there's a supercharger relatively close by navigate to it so it preconditions the battery.

 

[HeyMrLee]

If there's a supercharger relatively close by navigate to it so it preconditions the battery.

That sounds awful, and if that’s the only way to get a true 2.9 out of this car, I don’t consider that a real time. I’m going to play more tomorrow and find a place that’s indeed flat.

 

[arkhos]

That sounds awful, and if that’s the only way to get a true 2.9 out of this car, I don’t consider that a real time. I’m going to play more tomorrow and find a place that’s indeed flat.

What about people who use Superchargers regularly? You would consider any times they post as 'fake' or 'not real'?

I'm not a track/race guy, but I think this is the first time I've seen someone make such a statement. Just curious!

 

[P-Lo801]

That sounds awful, and if that’s the only way to get a true 2.9 out of this car, I don’t consider that a real time. I’m going to play more tomorrow and find a place that’s indeed flat.

Except, it's not. There are already documented dragy runs capturing 2.9s 0-60 with no preconditioning if i'm reading them correctly.

Plus, if that's your take on this, then any 0-60 times from ICE cars are also invalid because they're really only achievable under ideal conditions and generally by a professional or highly skilled drivers. EVs on the other hand can actually achieve manufacturers' claimed 0-60 easily by any driver in mostly normal conditions.

 

[DatWhiteM3P]

To all with a 2024 Model 3P thinking of going to the drag stip:
Like another one said further up here, make sure to top it up at a close to the track supercharger and when leaving the supercharger re-navigate back to the charger while driving to the track, this will keep the battery temp high making the battery performance higher than a cooler battery.
Stay away from trackmode as this does the exact opposite, trying to keep the battery cool.
Any SOC over 90 with a hot battery should give max performance.

 

[viperau]

The issue is that track timing systems can move even after they were calibrated. They might be correct one day and then someone hits the wall at 200+ mph and moves it a fraction of a mm.

If someone moved a satellite you better believe we would know about it.

I'm in Aviation, and GPS Satellites are so good now that many approaches are approved to use GPS as guidance as well as general navigation. Given how slow aviation is to changes, the fact we rely on them for navigation shows they can be trusted.

I suspect the track times people are just holding over from the olden days when it was the best way to time cars. It's still the safest way and generally the ET times are accurate to a tenth, its just the MPH that's often out.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

I'm in Aviation, and GPS Satellites are so good now that many approaches are approved to use GPS as guidance as well as general navigation. Given how slow aviation is to changes, the fact we rely on them for navigation shows they can be trusted.

I suspect the track times people are just holding over from the olden days when it was the best way to time cars. It's still the safest way and generally the ET times are accurate to a tenth, its just the MPH that's often out.

GPS positional accuracy is dependant on a number of factors inc. receiver module type, no. of satellites in view. There are always going to be errors with the satellite signals and that affects positional accuracy and will change over time ("drift" etc..)
A way around this is by using a reference receiver close by the one you're using for measurements and apply real time corrections. It's called differential GPS but outside of pro automotive testing it's too expensive/cumbersome to be used by someone just wanting to time their own car's performance, so you have to trust the various performance meters (Dragy. VBox etc.) which tend to use a combination of GPS with accelerometers to get a better result than GPS alone.

Quite honestly, the most reliable way to time on a track is still by breaking a light beam. GPS and RF both have their place and if you combine one or more technologies you should end up with a more reliable result, but you have to spend more than a a few hundred bucks if you want to time anything accuratley and with consistent, repeatable results to with 1/100 sec.

 

[Stanim]

80. Any other way to warm it other than supercharging? If I have to supercharge it right before I blast off to get that kinda power, I don’t think that counts. Flat terrain I’d assume but hard to say. I just got the draggy and have been playing around. US version, yes.

Try S3XY button (or other similar products) to manually heat up the battery. I use it a lot during winter times to heat up the battery quickly.

 

[Gasaraki]

If there's a supercharger relatively close by navigate to it so it preconditions the battery.

It warms the battery automatically when you put it in insane mode.

 

[phantasms]

It warms the battery automatically when you put it in insane mode.

Ahhh interesting. I had no idea. Where was this mentioned? Thank you! Alternatively I guess one would get less range in insane mode, no?

 

[Gasaraki]

Ahhh interesting. I had no idea. Where was this mentioned? Thank you! Alternatively I guess one would get less range in insane mode, no?

Edited my post to include the 2024 Model 3 Performance manual and yes, I think you'll get a little less range in Insane mode because it's always heating up the battery when it might not need to especially when it's cool/cold outside.

 

[terranx]

I think the Model S has a similar blurb about insane / plaid modes, but I haven’t really observed battery heating to a significant degree compared to Sport mode

 

[Destiny1701]

Ahhh interesting. I had no idea. Where was this mentioned? Thank you! Alternatively I guess one would get less range in insane mode, no?

Not really. Insane mode allows max throttle response and thus a more sensitive pedal.
Depends on how how heavy your foot it lol
One can drive in insane mode with a light touch and you won’t see any diff to range compared to normal mode.

Now for some battery warming, it will use some juice yes.

 

[mpgxsvcd]

Not really. Insane mode allows max throttle response and thus a more sensitive pedal.
Depends on how how heavy your foot it lol
One can drive in insane mode with a light touch and you won’t see any diff to range compared to normal mode.

Now for some battery warming, it will use some juice yes.

That battery warming uses WAY more energy than you realize. Technically, quick acceleration and then coasting in an EV is more efficient than accelerating slowly to a higher speed if both tests have the same average speed.