Model 3 Highland Performance

[FastLaneJB]

Seems on a track the LG battery overheats pretty quickly. Obviously most won't track it but just annoying we get a hobbled car in the rest of the world vs the US car. The US one is quite a bit quicker on the quarter mile also.

I do feel sooner or later they'll have a new battery that solves this from China. I think the packs already exist, just needs Tesla to switch to one of them.

 

[phil4]

Seems on a track the LG battery overheats pretty quickly.

That overheating after so few laps wasn't very good at all

 

[Durzel]

Seems on a track the LG battery overheats pretty quickly. Obviously most won't track it but just annoying we get a hobbled car in the rest of the world vs the US car. The US one is quite a bit quicker on the quarter mile also.

I do feel sooner or later they'll have a new battery that solves this from China. I think the packs already exist, just needs Tesla to switch to one of them.

Yeah I watched that video and was surprised. RSymons is unbiased, or at least isn't reviewing cars with one eye on being able to get continued early access to them. The M3P he's got is one he bought himself.

I don't track my car so wouldn't be affected, but I'd be pretty embarassed if I did and had my foot to the floor and was being overtaken by much slower stuff. Doesn't assauge doubts of it being a one trick pony either, when ICE people highlight its poor track performance.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Yeah I watched that video and was surprised. RSymons is unbiased, or at least isn't reviewing cars with one eye on being able to get continued early access to them. The M3P he's got is one he bought himself.

I don't track my car so wouldn't be affected, but I'd be pretty embarassed if I did and had my foot to the floor and was being overtaken by much slower stuff. Doesn't assauge doubts of it being a one trick pony either, when ICE people highlight its poor track performance.

We need more data and thast's something I'm working on, but it is a bit disappointing based on what we know so far. Based on this it's not going to be a good look when the first '24 M3P does a lap of the Nordschleife.
I can't see how anything they do in software is going to make it better either. Other than running the battery cooling for many minutes before going on track, the heat will have to go somewhere and apart from fitting bigger radiators and maybe a higher capacity cooling loop, it is what it is.

There aren't very many of us in the UK who use their M3Ps on track regularly though and so far the vast majority of those I speak to aren't thinking of switching to a Highland, so this issue is going to be irrelevant to 99% of M3P customers, which means Tesla have no incentive to do anything about it if they're not bothered about the bad optics.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

Turn the cabin temp up to max and open windows. The heat pump is at the heart of this and the more test it can dump out, including into the cabin, maybe the better it will be?

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Turn the cabin temp up to max and open windows. The heat pump is at the heart of this and the more test it can dump out, including into the cabin, maybe the better it will be?

First off, there is no way this approach is going to work on a trackday. After a couple of laps you'd be sitting in a pool of your own sweat for a start but more importantly one trackday rule in the UK is to have your windows up!

There are aftermarket solutions already out there to beef up the main radiators and shed more heat, but that's going to mean modifications to the frunk area and from what I've seen it doesn't make a huge difference on the existing model so I doubt it's going to have much of an impact with this one.

 

[phil4]

There aren't very many of us in the UK who use their M3Ps on track regularly though and so far the vast majority of those I speak to aren't thinking of switching to a Highland, so this issue is going to be irrelevant to 99% of M3P customers,

The problem is the perception more than the reality. Not something you want to hear when you're in the pub and mention what you drive. Performance? Isn't that the one that has a track mode, but overheats after a single hard lap? One trick pony that one.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

The problem is the perception more than the reality. Not something you want to hear when you're in the pub and mention what you drive. Performance? Isn't that the one that has a track mode, but overheats after a single hard lap? One trick pony that one.

IMO, the only conversations I'm likely to have like that are with the other M3P owners I know who take their cars on track!
Most Tesla owners don't know what track mode is or does and wouldn't bother to watch a YT video about track driving. The same goes for the ICE/anti-EV lot.

 

[Durzel]

True, but perceptions are a real thing.

With the outgoing M3P - the one I've got - I did see the odd luddite comment about how it would only beat XYZ ICE car if it was fully charged, and to be honest there was a bit of truth to the diminishing power at lower SoC.

A car with a "Track Mode" that can't manage more than a couple of laps before going into a kind of limp home mode is pretty hard to argue the "Performance" case for.

Perhaps Tesla will tweak this somehow, but I do note from that video in the comments that RSymons spoke to Tesla and they said his car was operating as expected with no faults, etc.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

True, but perceptions are a real thing.

With the outgoing M3P - the one I've got - I did see the odd luddite comment about how it would only beat XYZ ICE car if it was fully charged, and to be honest there was a bit of truth to the diminishing power at lower SoC.

A car with a "Track Mode" that can't manage more than a couple of laps before going into a kind of limp home mode is pretty hard to argue the "Performance" case for.

Perhaps Tesla will tweak this somehow, but I do note from that video in the comments that RSymons spoke to Tesla and they said his car was operating as expected with no faults, etc.

Sure, but what I'm saying is there is very little interest out there in how a Tesla Model 3 does on track, so it's hardly going to influence a potential buyer. The luddites you and I have conversations with about this were never going to buy one anyway.

This is the only MIC car we've got any track-based info on so far. Unfortunately there's no actual TM data to look at so we only have the video of what happened on the day. It's not enough yet to draw a definitive conclusion I'd suggest.

More data needed and as I said earlier I should have that fairly soon I can share here.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Having looked at a few laps on YT from the US, it seems they are having similar issues with the US-spec car too.
More power, same cooling. I suppose it's inevitable.
As this guy says, a BBK would help as then you can turn regen down, but it's not going to be that much of an improvement.

 

[MrT3]

M3P (as with the other grades) are now at 0% PCP.