Agreed. The sways, springs, dampers all need to work together. I am surprised that the Model 3 performance model did not get adaptive dampers at this price point. My C7 Corvette and a Camaro both had them and it is nice to flip a switch and firm up or soften the ride a bit.
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New owner - noticing excessive body roll
- Thread starter AcesUp
- Start date
Agreed. The sways, springs, dampers all need to work together. I am surprised that the Model 3 performance model did not get adaptive dampers at this price point. My C7 Corvette and a Camaro both had them and it is nice to flip a switch and firm up or soften the ride a bit.
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
That's the one thing (magnetic suspension) that would've moved me from an AWD into a P3D-
Agreed. I know this is a first generation of the Model 3 but the Performance version should have:
- Sport Seats - They don't have to be full Recaro racing seats but something with a little extra bolstering and Alcantara so you don't slide all over the place during spirited driving.
- Magnetic ride Suspension - in a Performance model you want the option to firm up the ride even more for spirited driving.
- Wider Tires - 235s width tires are kind of weak. The upgrade to Michelin PS4s is fine but there is plenty of room in the wheel wells to support at least a 265 wide tire and the stance would look much more aggressive.
- Less Weight - usually you try to reduce weight in the performance variant of the car. Obviously no attempt was made. I think a 2nd gen Model 3 could weigh at least 300-400lbs less than the current car. 4072lbs is a fatty for a Performance car, but the electric motors have so much torque it makes it feel lighter than it is.
Tesla took the time to develop Track Mode, which is great but I think they could do much better when it comes to the supporting hardware and chassis design. It will be interesting to see how EV sports cars/sedans evolve over time.
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
I think this was a MFG/complexity issue... (see also they never did make a cloth interior and took a while just to get a second color offered)
I agree it would've been nice though- something like the CTS-V had optional would've been awesome.
Yup. As I said I'd have sprung for the P with that one change...and since they were already offering a different shock/spring part for the P+ it's not like making it magnetic would've changed MFG complexity much.
This one is efficiency... they didn't want to reduce the rated mileage/range, which they'd have had to do if the base tire had been less efficient (which is why the P originally only offered PS4s as an "option" and the base tire was the same MXM4s as the RWD/AWD models)
That said- the + option should've been an 18" forged wheel with 265/40s on there- wider, lighter, better in basically every functional way compared to the boat anchor 235 20s they ended up with.
Honestly apart from the wheel idea I mention, which isn't THAT much, I'm not sure where the weight would have come from... (other than replacing existing metal with lighter exotics which would've jacked up the cost and MFG complexity quite a bit). Curious to hear your ideas though.
I think the Porsche Taycan would be the thing to look at here... but at probably 2x the price for what's primarily going to be fairly thin improvements anywhere but a dedicated track
Bill Foster
I'm going home!
Thanks for the feedback. Does the performance model actually have different spring rates, stiffer sways, dampers, etc. vs the Awd and SRs? That is the one thing about Tesla, I can’t seem to find all the technical detail. It all seems so secretive or just poorly communicated.
As for the excess weight, from some of the research I have seen the chassis is where they went overboard. Some of the tear down analysis of the Model 3 indicated the chassis was way more overbuilt than it needed to be, which added a bunch of unnecessary weight and impacted efficiency. They should have grabbed a couple of the chassis designers from GM since they are the best in the business right now when it comes to chassis design and they put down huge skidpad numbers all the time. The alpha chassis in the Camaro/CTS is a good example. They shaved a couple hundred pounds from the Gen5 to the Gen 6, while making the chassis even stiffer. Hopefully Tesla will get there with chassis design.
One more thing. I realize that Tesla is not a fan of spinning the tires but cmon. There has to be a way to relax or disable the traction control in a performance oriented EV. Track Mode is a good start but I would like to see an option to Disable the traction control and relax the stability control. Also, an option to shift the torque to the rear wheels on the awd models would be nice.
Exactly, it is missing that planted to the pavement feeling for a car with this type of performance. I keep trying to lower my seating position thinking I will feel more planted.
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
The P as it exists now (or as originally sold IF you paid for the Performance Upgrade Package) does have different springs/dampers (0.39 inch drop) and sways (1 mm difference I think?)
The parts catalog detailed this at one point (though they've since removed some of the deeper descriptions).
I agree they could do a lot better job with detailed tech specs on this stuff... it's still unclear how much actual "difference" the 2 different suspensions makes or if it was just to work/look better with the 20" wheels.
Yeah I think they are, from a MFG perspective anyway- there was one bit Monroes analysis said was like 70 pieces put together, and Tesla is about to get that down to just 1 to do the same job... not sure quite how much weight it's saving but it's certainly going to be a large cost/complexity savings at least.
Agreed... but I think Tesla is probably a bit paranoid on the side of safety for such systems given how much one bad press story of a tesla accident seems to pound the stock price... and with the amount of torque available on an EV at launch it'd be easy to get into trouble with all the nannies turned entirely off..... I think MPP is making a defeat box though (still in development/testing).
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
In general I agree with the overall sentiment here (control over the nannies, more torque to rear on the AWD). Right now you have to pay (for the Performance) to play.
Just recognize that you can't spin the tires; the car doesn't have enough torque at the wheels to break them free on a quality dry road surface - unless you're running Ecopias on a P3D (maybe)... I guess you could probably modify power distribution on acceleration to put more power to the fronts (which would be lightly weighted) and maybe you could spin those, but not much point in doing that. Point is that you're not going to be spinning the rears. It's not clear whether the motor maximum torque can even be programmed high enough - certainly not high enough with current programming. (That programming for more torque is a separate discussion from traction control loosening.)
Makes sense on the nannies. The instant torque of an EV is what makes it so fun. They don't have to completely disable all the nannies but just do what many other manufactures do and offer a sport mode, etc. where the yaw sensor will relax a bit and enable a bit more slip angle for spirited driving.
