Roadster does a 12.7 quarter mile at Infineon

[v21Iceland]

12.7 is good, but what is amazing is that if he would have gotten the reaction time of the driver in the other lane it would have been a 12.1 !!

That is some misunderstanding over here. Reaction has nothing to do with the time. You could have a reaction of 5 seconds but still have the same time because the clock doesn't go off until you go off the line.

The reaction of a 1.0 is exactly the reaction when the green light comes up. You are allowed to go off half a second before the green light comes up, or 0.500 in reaction. If you go under that reaction time (0.499 or under) you've lost the run. This has nothing to do with the time you finish in, but in a race it's really important. Because it's a competition who's first over the finish line, not who goes the better time. So a car who goes 12.9 wins a car who goes 12.5 if the reaction of the cars differ a 0.5...

Am I making this clear?:smile: (english is a second language to me)


PS: There are rumors that the Tesla Roadster Brabus edition is gonna hit the strip over here in Iceland this weekend with a F3 driver behind the wheel. Will be interesting to see if 12.7 gets beaten.

whoops! Sorry to bump this old thread, my mistake...

 

[Palpatine]

That record has already been broken. The current record (NEDRA SP/A3) stands at 12.643 seconds.

 

[qwk]

^
I think he is talking about a regular roadster and not a sport.

 

[TEG]

Rumor has it that the one run at Infineon wasn't exactly 100% stock...

It may be that non-sport is incapable of beating it.

 

[Palpatine]

Rumor has it that the one run at Infineon wasn't exactly 100% stock...

It may be that non-sport is incapable of beating it.

That is likely accurate. Rumor has it that the Tesla Roadster that did 12.7 at Infineon was a modified 2008 from inside Tesla Motors by their engineers. They might have been testing some of the modifications that would ultimately be inside of the Roadster Sport version.

The NEDRA SP/A3 class is for street production unmodified vehicles above 349 volts. There are other categories for modified cars. It really all depends on voltage of the EV.

 

[qwk]

I have no doubt that with sticky tires and great driving the 12.7 non sport times could be beat. Street tires don't hook very good, thats why the 60' times in all of the timeslips posted aren't very good for a 12 second pass.

Another couple of tenths could also be shaved off by going with a taller tire. That would improve top end by lowering motor rpm at the end of the track.

There are many little tricks like that to improve track times.

 

[tomsax]

I have no doubt that with sticky tires and great driving the 12.7 non sport times could be beat. Street tires don't hook very good, thats why the 60' times in all of the timeslips posted aren't very good for a 12 second pass.

Another couple of tenths could also be shaved off by going with a taller tire. That would improve top end by lowering motor rpm at the end of the track.

There are many little tricks like that to improve track times.

There's not a lot of "great driving" involved in drag racing a Roadster, at least not for elapsed time (i.e., ignoring reaction time).

I didn't sense the stock tires spinning even with a two-foot launch and TC off, so I don't see how sticky tires would help on a 2008 Roadster. I have confirmation from Tesla to not expect the 2008 Roadster to spin the stock tires with TC off when on dry pavement and driving in a straight line. (That said, I am not recommending turning off TC for anything other than drag racing in a safe, controlled environment.)

According to my data, getting a stock 2008 Roadster under 12.8 is going to take a trick I don't know about, or maybe a driver under 100 lbs.

I posted more detail in a blog entry: Drag Racing a 2008 Tesla Roadster - Tom Saxton's Blog

 

[qwk]

I don't have first hand experience drag racing a roadster, but have drag raced alot during the last 12 years in ICE cars.

I just don't see a car that has full torque from 0rpm, and runs 12's not spinning the tires with the traction control off.

We will have to wait and see if the times improve, when more people start drag racing and tinkering with these cars.

 

[TEG]

The Roadster does have a strong weight bias on the rear driven wheels which would give it more traction than a typical front engine ICE vehicle.

Also you don't have any clutch popping trickery going on that could start the wheels spinning.

With all that said, it did seem like the sport model sometimes had a little bit of wheelspin off the line with traction control off.

From 0 to 50 it pulls like it should be a 10s car, but then as you get past 80mph the acceleration doesn't feel so strong anymore.

 

[Palpatine]

This is an EV vs EV race without the ICE sounds interferring. It certainly sounds like (1:23) the wheels are spinning a bit on takeoff.

 

[tomsax]

I totally believe the Roadster Sport can break the tires loose, even the sticky tires. I'm just saying that the stock 2008 Roadster won't. That's not just my opinion, I was told this by a Tesla employee who would know.

Tom

 

[Zak]

Tire Squeal

It is possible that the Tango is making the tire noise. It certainly sounds primarily like the Tango powertrain in the video.

Zak