Plaid Drag Racing - Not such a great night

[brettjp2]

I had a bad night at the track myself, 23 S Plaid on 21" with Michelin PS4 tires. First time this has been a bad night, I typically run between 6.1 and 6.4 at the 1/8th mile track. Felt like traction control kept kicking on but I am unsure, I didn't go faster than 6.8 tonight and 7.3 the slowest. Ambient temp was 55* so track was probably cold but it was actually quite sticky tonight (surprisingly). The usual guys I race with who run radials were hooking well, others on street tires like me and other plaids, not so much but weren't having as bad of issues as I was. Quite the embarrassing night lol, going from consistent 6.2s last time to 7.0s this time.. ugh

Anyone have similar experiences with the PS4 tires when its in the 50s after sunset? What does the car feel like when the traction control keeps kicking on? What I felt was constant hesitation and jumping, loss of power, sounded like tire spin on launch but no chirping and the car was a bit squirrely. I hit some back roads on the way back and launched a few times, same feeling but after driving home, tried a couple more times and it only felt normal again after I used drift mode and slip start to clean the back tires off. My experience racing has always been on slicks or drag radials, is there such a thing as too sticky for street tires? ie: picking up all the crap from the return road and staging lanes, cant do a burnout to clean them off, and then get garbage traction?

 

[Unclepaul]

It was not long ago that running in the 9's would require a full roll cage and fire suit.
Tesla Plaids make amazing runs, that seem like a walk in the park.
Many have expectations that they can simply show up and run faster than anyone else has posted.
Putting down a solid 9 second run is something to be proud of.

 

[NeuroRad]

I had a bad night at the track myself, 23 S Plaid on 21" with Michelin PS4 tires. First time this has been a bad night, I typically run between 6.1 and 6.4 at the 1/8th mile track. Felt like traction control kept kicking on but I am unsure, I didn't go faster than 6.8 tonight and 7.3 the slowest. Ambient temp was 55* so track was probably cold but it was actually quite sticky tonight (surprisingly). The usual guys I race with who run radials were hooking well, others on street tires like me and other plaids, not so much but weren't having as bad of issues as I was. Quite the embarrassing night lol, going from consistent 6.2s last time to 7.0s this time.. ugh

Anyone have similar experiences with the PS4 tires when its in the 50s after sunset? What does the car feel like when the traction control keeps kicking on? What I felt was constant hesitation and jumping, loss of power, sounded like tire spin on launch but no chirping and the car was a bit squirrely. I hit some back roads on the way back and launched a few times, same feeling but after driving home, tried a couple more times and it only felt normal again after I used drift mode and slip start to clean the back tires off. My experience racing has always been on slicks or drag radials, is there such a thing as too sticky for street tires? ie: picking up all the crap from the return road and staging lanes, cant do a burnout to clean them off, and then get garbage traction?

What were your tire pressures? Plaids tc system is extremely insidious. The only few times I’ve experienced the degree of intervention youre describing is with flagrant loss of traction. I’d start by decreasing tire pressure 5psi and do as much of a burnout as possible to get heat in the tires. At the end of the day you’re still on street tires, not DRs or slicks.

I’ve also read some chatter on here that tesla has neutered the plaid a bit thru software updates. Wouldn’t surprise me as they definitely changed something from 21 to 22 that resulted in a new vibration.

 

[MrSlowEv]

I had a bad night at the track myself, 23 S Plaid on 21" with Michelin PS4 tires. First time this has been a bad night, I typically run between 6.1 and 6.4 at the 1/8th mile track. Felt like traction control kept kicking on but I am unsure, I didn't go faster than 6.8 tonight and 7.3 the slowest. Ambient temp was 55* so track was probably cold but it was actually quite sticky tonight (surprisingly). The usual guys I race with who run radials were hooking well, others on street tires like me and other plaids, not so much but weren't having as bad of issues as I was. Quite the embarrassing night lol, going from consistent 6.2s last time to 7.0s this time.. ugh

Anyone have similar experiences with the PS4 tires when its in the 50s after sunset? What does the car feel like when the traction control keeps kicking on? What I felt was constant hesitation and jumping, loss of power, sounded like tire spin on launch but no chirping and the car was a bit squirrely. I hit some back roads on the way back and launched a few times, same feeling but after driving home, tried a couple more times and it only felt normal again after I used drift mode and slip start to clean the back tires off. My experience racing has always been on slicks or drag radials, is there such a thing as too sticky for street tires? ie: picking up all the crap from the return road and staging lanes, cant do a burnout to clean them off, and then get garbage traction?

I had a similar experience with my plaid about a month ago at the local drag strip. It was about 60 degrees when we started in the evening, and as the temperature dropped as it got later, I watched my 60ft times gradually get worse which ultimately lead to worse ETs. During this track outing, I didn’t not feel traction control cutting any power but my tires were squealing up to, just shy of the 330ft.

Without being able to heat the tires with a burnout, drag radials/slicks may not help us at the track. I think we may be stuck running high 9’s in the 1/4 mile on a cold night .

 

[NeuroRad]

Tesla could give us a pseudo line lock feature to do a traditional rear wheel burnout

 

[windings]

I had a bad night at the track myself, 23 S Plaid on 21" with Michelin PS4 tires. First time this has been a bad night, I typically run between 6.1 and 6.4 at the 1/8th mile track. Felt like traction control kept kicking on but I am unsure, I didn't go faster than 6.8 tonight and 7.3 the slowest. Ambient temp was 55* so track was probably cold but it was actually quite sticky tonight (surprisingly). The usual guys I race with who run radials were hooking well, others on street tires like me and other plaids, not so much but weren't having as bad of issues as I was. Quite the embarrassing night lol, going from consistent 6.2s last time to 7.0s this time.. ugh

Anyone have similar experiences with the PS4 tires when its in the 50s after sunset? What does the car feel like when the traction control keeps kicking on? What I felt was constant hesitation and jumping, loss of power, sounded like tire spin on launch but no chirping and the car was a bit squirrely. I hit some back roads on the way back and launched a few times, same feeling but after driving home, tried a couple more times and it only felt normal again after I used drift mode and slip start to clean the back tires off. My experience racing has always been on slicks or drag radials, is there such a thing as too sticky for street tires? ie: picking up all the crap from the return road and staging lanes, cant do a burnout to clean them off, and then get garbage traction?

The end of my night, it was 45, but started in the mid to high 50's. Yes, losing traction in a Plaid is exactly like that, hesitation, squirly, especially on the front, sometimes, you hear clunking sounds (brakes slowing the wheels down) and general roughness. Very different than what I was used to with 5.0 Mustangs, Corvettes, etc that I had previously raced. It kills the time on the strip. The Model 3 P was punch it and go. But it had less than half the power. Let's not forget that it is trying to manage 1050 ft lbs of torque on relatively small tires. And The P4S is not good at all in cooler weather. To be honest, I am disappointed with them in the summer too. I had both the PZero and the P4S on my Model 3 P and the zeros where quieter and better all around, including rain and lasted twice as long. And certainly better in the cold. But both are summer tires. They are not expected to stick in the cold. The issue is that there are no "great" all season tires for the 23 Plaid that is designed for Tesla / EVs. The only option is Goodyear. I drove a demo Plaid with 30,000 miles that had these and I did not like them. They were loud and slightly rough and did not have near the grip of the P4S.

So yeah, sounds like your night was like mine. Totally normal for a Plaid in the "cold". My next time out, I will wait for 70's and I will get it drag race mode, but when I get to the burn out box, I will shut off drag race mode, just leave it in Plaid mode and stage and go, like I used to do with my Model 3 P and enjoy the night. Should still run 9's and I'm out to have fun and not to try to break world records. (the waiting the 7-10 seconds for cheetah mode is impossible to do on the track, there is not enough time.... watch my video of my runs, if you're curious (only in the last run you can hear the traction control and you see me wait for 10 seconds at the green for the car to be ready and then it blows up the tires anyway):

 

[Sam1]

I had a bad night at the track myself, 23 S Plaid on 21" with Michelin PS4 tires. First time this has been a bad night, I typically run between 6.1 and 6.4 at the 1/8th mile track. Felt like traction control kept kicking on but I am unsure, I didn't go faster than 6.8 tonight and 7.3 the slowest. Ambient temp was 55* so track was probably cold but it was actually quite sticky tonight (surprisingly). The usual guys I race with who run radials were hooking well, others on street tires like me and other plaids, not so much but weren't having as bad of issues as I was. Quite the embarrassing night lol, going from consistent 6.2s last time to 7.0s this time.. ugh

Anyone have similar experiences with the PS4 tires when its in the 50s after sunset? What does the car feel like when the traction control keeps kicking on? What I felt was constant hesitation and jumping, loss of power, sounded like tire spin on launch but no chirping and the car was a bit squirrely. I hit some back roads on the way back and launched a few times, same feeling but after driving home, tried a couple more times and it only felt normal again after I used drift mode and slip start to clean the back tires off. My experience racing has always been on slicks or drag radials, is there such a thing as too sticky for street tires? ie: picking up all the crap from the return road and staging lanes, cant do a burnout to clean them off, and then get garbage traction?

What were your 60' times? If those were bad on the first run or two, put the car in track mode and then +10 on traction control. You should still get roughly a 1.2G launch that way.

There are multiple levels of traction control on the plaid. The tires will spin enough to lose traction but the light will not come on and it will not feel like a full-on nerfing of the power. Then you have the actual nerfing of power. Then you have more nerfing + warning light come on. Then you have nerfing + warning light + using the brakes on the wheels spinning excessively all at the same time...this one is a bad situation lol. And occasionally the car will go into complete limp mode and require a reboot for that last one.

 

[Drew-MS]

I’ve also read some chatter on here that tesla has neutered the plaid a bit thru software updates. Wouldn’t surprise me as they definitely changed something from 21 to 22 that resulted in a new vibration.

Interesting that on the Tesla website, it still says for over 2 years now that a plaid does the 1/4 mile in 9.23 at 155mph. This always confused me since no plaid (without significant weight removed) has ever achieved 155mph in the 1/4 mile. I'm not questioning the 9.23 but the best trap speed I've ever seen of a stock plaid is 152. I just find it weird that Tesla hasn't changed it to maybe 150+mph trap speed instead of an unrealistic number.

**
0-60 mph: 1.99s
1/4 mile: 9.23@155 mph trap speed

 

[Sam1]

Interesting that on the Tesla website, it still says for over 2 years now that a plaid does the 1/4 mile in 9.23 at 155mph. This always confused me since no plaid (without significant weight removed) has ever achieved 155mph in the 1/4 mile. I'm not questioning the 9.23 but the best trap speed I've ever seen of a stock plaid is 152. I just find it weird that Tesla hasn't changed it to maybe 150+mph trap speed instead of an unrealistic number.

**
0-60 mph: 1.99s
1/4 mile: 9.23@155 mph trap speed

I've had a 9.7 @150 before on no prep with the 19 OEM tires. 155 is definitely possible, but it has to be with the 19" and on a well prepped surface with glue.

I rarely do prepped surface events because they're pretty strict on needing a chute on nhra tracks consistently above 150, and the only track nearby is the Vegas speedway. Doing no prep events the fastest I've been once was 151, it's almost always 148-149 so perfect for me not getting booted.

 

[Drew-MS]

I've had a 9.7 @150 before on no prep with the 19 OEM tires. 155 is definitely possible, but it has to be with the 19" and on a well prepped surface with glue.

I rarely do prepped surface events because they're pretty strict on needing a chute on nhra tracks consistently above 150, and the only track nearby is the Vegas speedway. Doing no prep events the fastest I've been once was 151, it's almost always 148-149 so perfect for me not getting booted.

I actually don't think 155mph is possible on any plaid without weight reduction. If so, we would have seen it by now. It's really not a big issue to me but just weird that Tesla hasn't changed the website to represent reality which is not 155. I've been paying attention to the performance numbers by plaid owners (online, YT, here, etc.) since deliveries started in June 2021 and 155mph is and has always been a fantasy.

 

[Yelobird]

I actually don't think 155mph is possible on any plaid without weight reduction. If so, we would have seen it by now. It's really not a big issue to me but just weird that Tesla hasn't changed the website to represent reality which is not 155. I've been paying attention to the performance numbers by plaid owners (online, YT, here, etc.) since deliveries started in June 2021 and 155mph is and has always been a fantasy.

Asking as I have No clue. I thought there was a limiter unless you had the track package?

 

[Sam1]

Asking as I have No clue. I thought there was a limiter unless you had the track package?

That limiter is just to raise track mode top speed from 175 to 200 mph.

In normal or plaid mode I think it's 163 or 165mph, can't remember.

 

[brettjp2]

What were your tire pressures? Plaids tc system is extremely insidious. The only few times I’ve experienced the degree of intervention youre describing is with flagrant loss of traction. I’d start by decreasing tire pressure 5psi and do as much of a burnout as possible to get heat in the tires. At the end of the day you’re still on street tires, not DRs or slicks.

I’ve also read some chatter on here that tesla has neutered the plaid a bit thru software updates. Wouldn’t surprise me as they definitely changed something from 21 to 22 that resulted in a new vibration.

I leave the tire pressure at 40, lowering street tire pressure doesnt really help, especially with the small sidewall. I've run my best times at recommended tire pressure (40psi), 9.4 in the quarter on the arachnids and 6.09 in the eigth. I tried to burnout yesterday in drift mode and it was hilarious lol, the car did not let me use the brakes, a line lock would be perfect or a burnout mode if they had one. I hope they arent doing that in software updates, I did update my software yesterday, nothing more than "minor fixes" as the description but going into service mode and looking, looks like they added more capability for the techs to troubleshoot.

I had a similar experience with my plaid about a month ago at the local drag strip. It was about 60 degrees when we started in the evening, and as the temperature dropped as it got later, I watched my 60ft times gradually get worse which ultimately lead to worse ETs. During this track outing, I didn’t not feel traction control cutting any power but my tires were squealing up to, just shy of the 330ft.

Without being able to heat the tires with a burnout, drag radials/slicks may not help us at the track. I think we may be stuck running high 9’s in the 1/4 mile on a cold night .

i wish mine would have squealed so it was apparent the car had no traction as justification for the slow times, haha.

yeah, stickier tires would be good but if we cant heat them up and clean the rocks off, probably won't help much

The end of my night, it was 45, but started in the mid to high 50's. Yes, losing traction in a Plaid is exactly like that, hesitation, squirly, especially on the front, sometimes, you hear clunking sounds (brakes slowing the wheels down) and general roughness. Very different than what I was used to with 5.0 Mustangs, Corvettes, etc that I had previously raced. It kills the time on the strip. The Model 3 P was punch it and go. But it had less than half the power. Let's not forget that it is trying to manage 1050 ft lbs of torque on relatively small tires. And The P4S is not good at all in cooler weather. To be honest, I am disappointed with them in the summer too. I had both the PZero and the P4S on my Model 3 P and the zeros where quieter and better all around, including rain and lasted twice as long. And certainly better in the cold. But both are summer tires. They are not expected to stick in the cold. The issue is that there are no "great" all season tires for the 23 Plaid that is designed for Tesla / EVs. The only option is Goodyear. I drove a demo Plaid with 30,000 miles that had these and I did not like them. They were loud and slightly rough and did not have near the grip of the P4S.

So yeah, sounds like your night was like mine. Totally normal for a Plaid in the "cold". My next time out, I will wait for 70's and I will get it drag race mode, but when I get to the burn out box, I will shut off drag race mode, just leave it in Plaid mode and stage and go, like I used to do with my Model 3 P and enjoy the night. Should still run 9's and I'm out to have fun and not to try to break world records. (the waiting the 7-10 seconds for cheetah mode is impossible to do on the track, there is not enough time.... watch my video of my runs, if you're curious (only in the last run you can hear the traction control and you see me wait for 10 seconds at the green for the car to be ready and then it blows up the tires anyway):

Interesting, I did hear a lot of clunking.. my experience was telling me it was traction control activating but im new to the tesla world (since jun'23) so i was looking for others to confirm, thanks for sharing your experience. I know the goodyears they put on the track pack wheels say dont use in the 40s but i was assuming the michelins would have at least been fine in the mid 50s, guess not lol.. funny thing is after i cleaned off the tires in drift mode by punching it to get it to spin and slide, i put it back in drag mode and did a couple launches, the 4th one stuck but probably due to the tires heating up from the other 3? lol.. so embarassing to get a 7.0 in the 1/8th with a plaid. hopefully the weather is nicer this weekend in bradenton so i dont embarrass myself at the event..

What were your 60' times? If those were bad on the first run or two, put the car in track mode and then +10 on traction control. You should still get roughly a 1.2G launch that way.

There are multiple levels of traction control on the plaid. The tires will spin enough to lose traction but the light will not come on and it will not feel like a full-on nerfing of the power. Then you have the actual nerfing of power. Then you have more nerfing + warning light come on. Then you have nerfing + warning light + using the brakes on the wheels spinning excessively all at the same time...this one is a bad situation lol. And occasionally the car will go into complete limp mode and require a reboot for that last one.

they were terrible, 1.7s+. I ran in drag mode, track mode, regular plaid mode, all the same results. my launches were about 1.2g, mostly 1.1, but it was shortly after i launched id get the odd behavior described. This felt like a full on power-nerf and my buddy racing next to me in a M3P thought I was messing with him because it looked like i kept pushing the accelerator and letting off, jumping forward and then slowing down.


I guess I will chalk this up to a cold night with cold track temps, even though the sticky tire guys were loving it, doesnt seem like the plaid was liking it very much at all.. maybe winter in florida isnt a good time to race the plaid at night, lol..

Thanks all for your feedback and suggestions, I'll see how she does this weekend.

 

[brettjp2]

funny thing is after i cleaned off the tires in drift mode by punching it to get it to spin and slide, i put it back in drag mode and did a couple launches, the 4th one stuck but probably due to the tires heating up from the other 3?

This was on back roads btw, not the track, i tried when i got home as i was thinking it was the car

 

[sorka]

So I went to my local drag strip and ran the 23 plaid for the first time. I have to say I was quite disappointed.

It ran:
9.4 @ 151
9.6 @ 151 (Left too soon)
9.5 @ 149

I’m running the Michigan Pilot Sport 4s on the 21’s

You will never get the best ETs on 21 inch wheels. There's a lot more rotating mass at a longer radius. I'm shocked you managed a 9.4 in cold weather.

 

[sorka]

I actually don't think 155mph is possible on any plaid without weight reduction. If so, we would have seen it by now. It's really not a big issue to me but just weird that Tesla hasn't changed the website to represent reality which is not 155. I've been paying attention to the performance numbers by plaid owners (online, YT, here, etc.) since deliveries started in June 2021 and 155mph is and has always been a fantasy.

If it can do 153 at sea level then it can do 155 in Denver on a hot summer day where there is a lot less air mass to push through.

 

[Sam1]

they were terrible, 1.7s+. I ran in drag mode, track mode, regular plaid mode, all the same results. my launches were about 1.2g, mostly 1.1, but it was shortly after i launched id get the odd behavior described. This felt like a full on power-nerf and my buddy racing next to me in a M3P thought I was messing with him because it looked like i kept pushing the accelerator and letting off, jumping forward and then slowing down.

Yeah, that was the limit of what you were going to be able to do with that setup.

I normally don't go too often during the winter when it's below 60 degrees here. Not because of track conditions, it's just because I hate cold weather.

Only way I see you doing better in that scenario is switching to a new tire and wheel setup, or switching from PS4S to the 21" pirelli pz4 which are roughly 30% softer (will hurt your daily driving range though)

 

[brettjp2]

Yeah, that was the limit of what you were going to be able to do with that setup.

I normally don't go too often during the winter when it's below 60 degrees here. Not because of track conditions, it's just because I hate cold weather.

Only way I see you doing better in that scenario is switching to a new tire and wheel setup, or switching from PS4S to the 21" pirelli pz4 which are roughly 30% softer (will hurt your daily driving range though)

Yeah, you're probably right about that, I'm just hoping the tires aren't garbage for traction after only 8k miles lol

When the weather is nice, I'm cutting 1.45-1.55 60' all night, trapping 118 with a 6.1-6.3 1/8th mile and 9.4-9.6 quarter on the 21s. I've been looking into other options, I found some forged magnesium racing wheels, 20", weighing 15lbs each, was curious how much time I'd cut off using the track pack brakes from tesla plus those wheels, wearing some ET Street SS radials from M/T or the good years that come with the track pack.

 

[ramirj2]

That limiter is just to raise track mode top speed from 175 to 200 mph.

In normal or plaid mode I think it's 163 or 165mph, can't remember.

Track Package (Full or just CCB) will raise the limit to 200 mph on any mode. Non track Package is 162 unless you are on Track mode which is 174 mph.

 

[Sam1]

Track Package (Full or just CCB) will raise the limit to 200 mph on any mode. Non track Package is 162 unless you are on Track mode which is 174 mph.

It's for certain 175 in track mode because I've hit the limit a few dozen times. Verified with dragy as well being almost 176mph.