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Model S 85D Drag Tested 28 Times

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Recently I made a video for anyone that might be on the fence when deciding which model to order. To P, or not to P, is the question I hope it'll answer for you. I also used the opportunity to put together a lot of performance data on the 85D, and frankly, unless you live at the track or would have no qualms with getting a fully loaded Model S anyway, I say save 20 or 30 $k and put that money towards more options/stock/a Model 3 reservation.

 
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This is awesome, and makes me even happier about my 85D decision. The P90D was within reach, but I had a hard time justifying the significant extra cost. Meaning I was able to get a pretty much fully loaded 85D for effectively the base price of the P90D. When I test drove the 85D I was blown away by the acceleration and now even more impressed seeing the times/performance on your video. Thanks for sharing!

And this is no knock against the P90D - I would love to own one, but for my particular situation the 85D seemed to be the best option. I get mine on Wednesday next week :)
 
great Video. I skipped through some, how many hours from start to finish to do the 28? Love my 85D. I tested 70D,85D, P85D. I loved 85D and didn't need ludicrous of P85D. So I spent the money on options (all but the third row seats ;-) carbon fiber black black and added on xpel-opticoat wheel bands brake calipers, TPMS monitors and dual video cameras after market.

so happy I got all those extras instead of the ludicrous speed.

Thanks for sharing great video.
 
Really awesome and well produced video!

The 85D isn't pulling maximum amps on a fully charged battery so as the voltage drops it's able to increase current and keep power constant as the SOC drops. This is why you got nearly the same results even after 20+ runs. The P85D starts declining in power below 90% because it's current is maxed out to give it that edge at higher SOCs.
 
The announcer kept saying "Electric Golf Cart." No respect, even with 0-60 times under 4s and tons of wins against fast ICE cars... sheesh.

I kept waiting to see you go up against a P85D or P90D. I'd love to see that race.

Is there any skill to drag racing a Tesla? Or is it just "floor the pedal and see who wins"?
 
great Video. I skipped through some, how many hours from start to finish to do the 28?

If you check the time on the time slips you'll get a good approximation. I can't check right now but I think it was something like 5 hours.

The announcer kept saying "Electric Golf Cart." No respect, even with 0-60 times under 4s and tons of wins against fast ICE cars... sheesh.

I kept waiting to see you go up against a P85D or P90D. I'd love to see that race.

Is there any skill to drag racing a Tesla? Or is it just "floor the pedal and see who wins"?

I'm sure he was just being cheeky, there are plenty of other races where he was very clearly impressed. He started calling me The Electric Leopard and the Terrifying Tesla.

Incidentally, the hardest part is timing the launch. I was told that a rule of thumb in typical cars is to floor it on the last light and by the time you lurch forward, the light's green. Given the instant takeoff in a Tesla, I'd red light if I tried that, so it's more like between the last yellow and green.
 
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

I chose a 90D over a P90D, due to price and slightly longer range.
It arrives in about 4 weeks now.

This video completely vindicated that decision, and I won't feel like explaining that choice as much in the future.
 
The long overdue next installment:


I also compare the performance results to the past video to check for any performance improvements Tesla may have quietly made with the past few updates (Spoilers: Looks like they haven't). I would've preferred a 1/4 mile strip myself but this was the only strip I was aware of at the time. This morning however, someone clued me in on a 1/4 mile track not too far away that I'll be recording at from now on.
 
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The announcer kept saying "Electric Golf Cart." No respect, even with 0-60 times under 4s and tons of wins against fast ICE cars... sheesh.

I kept waiting to see you go up against a P85D or P90D. I'd love to see that race.

Is there any skill to drag racing a Tesla? Or is it just "floor the pedal and see who wins"?

so... i will totally take Casey_S on with my future p90d. and as far as skill, the only skill required is reaction time.
 
If you are close to Irwindale, you need to check the calendar for California Speedway in Fontana. Most the SoCal 1/4mi tracks shut down, but CalSpeedway is back online.

The next Street Legal 1/4 mile drags are Feb 21. These are better than the SuperGas test-n-tunes unless you like a lot of noise.

Street Legal Drags - Auto Club Dragway

For those who don't know:

Your Elapsed Time starts when you break the beams, and ends when you break the beams. Your reaction time is not important for collecting data, and has no effect.

If you are AWD, you normally try to drive around the water pit. Most AWD cars will not go quicker by heating the tires, but you should probably drop to 32psi at the highest for traction.

There are two small light bulbs way up top on the "Tree". These are indicators for the 2 staging beams on the start line. As you roll your car forward slowly, you will hit the first beam. The top yellow light will light. Stop. If there is car in the second lane, wait for them to trip the top light on their side. This is manners. Not important except for competition, but get into this habit. Now creep REAL slow forward until the second light comes on. Don't go further than necessary. The further you roll into the lights, the worse your ET will be.

Now you have 2 lights lit, and your opponent will have get his 2 lights lit. Within 7 seconds or less normally, they will start the "Tree". There are 3 big amber lights, a green light, then a red light on the bottom. For Test And Tune, you use a Sportsman 500 tree. This means the lights will come on 0.500 seconds apart. You do not care at ALL about the first 2 ambers. Focus intently on the 3rd amber. Try to turn it on with your mind. Nothing exists except that light. The instant it lights, LAUNCH. Different cars launch differently, and I have not launched a Tesla yet, so I won't say what's best there.

Unless you "anticipate" the light (you looked at the other 2 ambers), your human reaction time plus the rollout distance before you leave the beams, will be just over 0.500 for most cars slower than 10.000 second in the quarter. So you will normally "Green Light". The R/T on your time slip is the error in your launch. Anything with a 0.5xx is very good for fun racing. Should you go under .500, the red light comes on, and in competition, you lose. HOWEVER, the R/T and Redlights do NOT affect your ET or MPH on the timeslip.

There is a second kind of light called Pro Tree. You write PRO with window marker on your windshield if you want to practice Pro Lights. Nothing changes for how you stage or focus on the tree. But all three amber lights come on at once, and the delay to Green is 0.400 seconds to stop redlights. I prefer this, but Test n Tune, it doesn't matter. Sportsman or Pro, either is good. Street Legal at Cal are Sportsman .500 tree.

Should the car start to oversteer, DO NOT chop the throttle violently or even think of hitting the brakes. Just gently countersteer like you'd steer a boat, and gently lift a bit until the tires hook. At that point, you've pooched the pass, just motor on down to the end at moderate throttle. This should not happen if you have Traction Control and Stability Control active. On most fast cars, you can get better ETs by disabling the Traction Control but don't disable the Stability Control. At least on the production cars I've tested, I've yet to see stability control increase your ET. It does not slow you down, that's an urban myth. Leave SC on, but turn TC off.

Not that it's important: I have about 5000? passes on bikes, cars, trucks all over the USA and have an NHRA Super Gas license, and have taught beginning drag racing classes. I also road race, desert race, autoX, and sled pull.
 
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If you are close to Irwindale, you need to check the calendar for California Speedway in Fontana. Most the SoCal 1/4mi tracks shut down, but CalSpeedway is back online.

The next Street Legal 1/4 mile drags are Feb 21. These are better than the SuperGas test-n-tunes unless you like a lot of noise.

Street Legal Drags - Auto Club Dragway

Yup, that's where I'm going from now on. I tried looking for 1/4 mile strips a while ago and it didn't show up, by "back online" do you mean it had shut down for a while?