I had an opportunity to test drive a P85+ car today and thought I would post my impressions. First I'll give a bit of background - I'm not a track guy, but I have had some 'fun' cars to drive over the years and will occasionally push them when the conditions are appropriate, so I believe I have a sense of how 'Sporty' cars should drive on the street, as opposed to the track.
I've also had a Signature Model S since early November and have put on over 11K miles on it. Driven it on a couple of longer road trips and drive it around town as our primary go to car. I thought the P85 Signature (VIN #532) my wife and I had was the most awesome car I've ever driven, but after my test drive in a factory built P85+, I'm in awe of what Tesla has accomplished in the span of a few short months. When the website says '...our vehicle dynamics team was able to achieve the rare outcome of simultaneously improving performance, comfort and efficiency.' I couldn't believe it at first, but after driving the P85+ I believe it 100%.
The Executive Summary: Familiar yet different: Stepping into a P85+ is very familiar and comfortable if you already have a Model S, but once you start driving it, you start to notice the difference. I would quantify the P85+ car (VIN 11k+) I drove to be about 20% better than my Sig Model S. For me that improvement is about the whole package. The car feels more solid and put together than my Sig. The fit and finish is better and handling is noticeably better to me. The car feels faster and inspires more confidence when I push it and it feels more comfortable to me when I drive it normally vs. my P85 Sig. I would recommend a P85+ heartily to anyone who is looking for a car that can be a chameleon: One second it can be a big luxury Grand touring car, then instantly it can morph into a confidence inspiring street handling machine (note I don't say track-all-star as I don't think the P85+ is striving to be a small track sports car). If you have the available cash when you are buying the Model S, don't hesitate to spend the cash on the Performance Plus upgrade, you will be able to enjoy it every single moment you drive the car, even if you never push your car to its limits.
Now for a more lengthy review:
The first thing I noticed when I started driving the car was that it felt more planted and solid than my Sig. It's a subtle thing, but in my opinion, when I would go over bumps or road imperfections, it felt like the P85+ car absorbed them in a very compliant manner without any additional jounce in the car after going over the imperfection or bump. I'd describe it like there was very little after-vibration in the car. If I were to make a music analogy, the P85+ going over a bump it like hitting a kettle drum and as soon as you hit it, strongly placing your hand on the head of the drum to stop the vibration. The P85 I have is like hitting a kettle drum and placing your hand on the head of the drum with about 80% of the effort vs. the P85+. The vibration stops, but there is just a bit more residual vibration that is there. My Sig Model S handles bumps and imperfections very, very well, but I'd describe the P85+ as handling them masterfully.
When I put the car under heavy straight line acceleration, it felt rock solid. No waggle or torque steer, just pure power. My Sig is pretty solid on straight line acceleration, but it can occasionally have that wobble to it. It 'felt' faster than my P85. I didn't take a clock to it, but it may have been a psychological effect, because the car has very little squat in the rear part of the car under hard acceleration. The perception I had was that when I floored it, the car translated all its energy directly to the wheels and didn't have any flex in the suspension, so I was pushed straight back, rather than pushed slightly down and back like I am in my Sig. Whatever Tesla did to the rear suspension really worked!
On hard sweeping corners, my Sig feels like it has just a bit of body lean and some under-steer, none of that was my perception in taking the same corners with the P85+. The car felt like it was perfectly level all the time under all conditions. I didn't try to do any hard slaloming in it as I don't take my car to the track. I just drove it very hard in the real world conditions I normally would drive in and where I'd take a quick liberty and enjoy the ability of the car on a sweeping freeway on-ramp or a stretch of road that was empty. Under those situations, it was amazing. I believe there have been people who have said the Model S felt like riding in a mag lev train or a magic carpet; I think the P85+ really does come close to living up to those descriptions.
The suspension doesn’t give you massive amounts of road feel, but for my tastes, I felt the balance was just right. There is feedback, but I believe the Model S at its core is like a Grand Touring car and it leans on that side of the spectrum. But even with the P85+ suspension being more surefooted and confidence inspiring (I might say tighter feeling when needed); it doesn’t appear to give up any of the compliance and comfort that the P85 has. If anything, the ride is more comfortable than the P85.
I drove the car over a particular stretch of I-405 through Bellevue that can really be a rattler. Lots of little bumps and road imperfections to test the ability of a suspension to handle less than perfect conditions. The P85+ handled that stretch masterfully, better by about 10% or so vs. my P85.
Tire noise is about on par with the 21 inch Continentals I have on my car.
I didn’t ever notice the Traction Control light come on during my test drive. I didn’t try to throw the car around a lot and road conditions were dry, but in my P85, I do notice I get occasional TC engagement on the roads I drove the P85+ on with no TC engagement.
From an interior perspective, this probably applies to all the later VIN cars, but there were no rattles, no creaks, no wind noise (at least not until about 90+mph and even at 100+ it was pretty quiet). This car did not have the redesigned defrost vents. I also noticed that the headliner on the sides of the car seems to be different than my car. They seem to have flattened it out more than the Sigs, possibly gaining a bit more headroom on the side of the car. (UPDATE: I compared it to my Sig and it may be slightly different, but it's not as dramatic as I initially thought, if at all)
The P85+ is an amazing car. I think anyone who has a chance to drive it will totally lust after it, no matter what cars they have driven in the past. I give it a huge thumbs up and now I’m very sad that I drove one because I will start obsessing over how I can get one…
