Silverstone Track day in a Model 3 Performance

[preseh]

Just got back from taking my M3P to Silverstone GP for a track day - what a blast! I wanted to see how feasible it was to use the M3P on track for the day and thought I'd post a few thoughts here:

Pros:
- Extremely capable car especially in the wet where a lot of the dedicated track cars had to just tiptoe around
- No engine noise meant being able to hear exactly what the tyres were doing
- Driving settings really easy to customise to your liking with Track Mode

Cons:
- Reduced performance after just 3 or 4 laps. I started losing 10-20mph on the straight after around 10 minutes.
- No decent charging infrastructure on site meant two 40 min round trips to a Supercharger
- Two 10-15 minute sessions before needing to go and charge

The car was stock apart from upgraded pads and fluid as I'd heard the stock brake fluid boils quite easily under track conditions. I hadn't tracked the car before now so I don't know what the stock brakes would have been like but with the upgrades I had absolutely no brake fade.

If the track had proper Supercharger infrastructure then you'd be able to get a really good day of driving. However, with the reduced performance after a few laps, and the pain of having to drive so far to get topped up, I'd probably want to wait until the infrastructure has improved before I go back to Silverstone in the M3P.

Here's a video of one of the faster laps of the day (And the battery going from green to red on screen!):

Has anyone else had any success tracking their Tesla? Would be interesting to know if there's a solution for the performance fade and which tracks are the best for charging infrastructure.

 

[NastyNick83]

Wouldn't it be awesome if there were 3x groups (beginner, inter, advanced) in a day each being 20min sessions. And in the 40mins you weren't on track you could plug in to a high-speed charger to top back up to 100%

Unfortunately until the infrastructure is there to do that then tracking any electric car will be compromised.

Would absolutely love to do it though - and fair play for committing to two 40min round trips

 

[preseh]

Yeah, if the chargers were on site then it'd make it very doable indeed and at full charge the car is extremely quick! I think setting the regen braking to low probably would have helped keep the battery temperature lower so that's some food for thought for next time.

 

[MrBadger]

Was the red battery temperature or state of charge?

 

[preseh]

Was the red battery temperature or state of charge?

The bit going from green to red is the battery temperature. There's also a high brake temperature alarm bell going off at 1m8s in the video. I think the actual car battery was something like 50% at this point so it could have been going quicker with more charge.

 

[NastyNick83]

I spy another M3P at the start of the video - what was the trackday event? How did they get on?

 

[davidmc]

Brilliant video.

Can you show a ghost of your previous lap on the map? If not that would be a great addition

 

[preseh]

I spy another M3P at the start of the video - what was the trackday event? How did they get on?

Good spot. It was just a regular Silverstone track day and that was the only other Tesla out there. He'd found a 50kwh charger on site in one of the Silverstone car parks but it had cobwebs on and wasn't working so he ended up parked up next to me at the nearest Supercharger

 

[preseh]

Brilliant video.

Can you show a ghost of your previous lap on the map? If not that would be a great addition

Thanks You can't unfortunately although that would be a cool edition or at least some sort of +/- time indicator compared to your best lap.

There's a whole bunch of data it exports into a CSV file for you too but I couldn't find any data logging software that could actually use it

 

[Neilio]

Great video!

I wonder if the current M3 performances will get the V2 track software?

 

[94jdh]

Great video!

I wonder if the current M3 performances will get the V2 track software?

I thought this was already included in a recent update?

 

[Luudcrs]

So jealous you guys are able to track on an F1 circuit! Did you get any brake overheat warnings on the screen? I only upgraded pads and fluid, didn't feel much brake fade, but did get the warnings so had to do cool down laps.

 

[MrBadger]

My son and I do a few Formula One circuits on my turbo trainer. A bit slower than in a car though, but we do overheat. I've yet to tackle Eau Rouge at Spa though and my son said Monaco was hard. I'm ticking off the easy ones first.

 

[preseh]

So jealous you guys are able to track on an F1 circuit! Did you get any brake overheat warnings on the screen? I only upgraded pads and fluid, didn't feel much brake fade, but did get the warnings so had to do cool down laps.

Yeah it's a great circuit with loads of run-off just in case you get things a bit wrong. I had a brake warning once or twice on screen but no brake fade similarly with upgraded pads and fluid. The main thing holding me back was the power drain after four laps especially on such a big circuit.

 

[Felipe G]

- Two 10-15 minute sessions before needing to go and charge.

30 minutes at the track is also my experience with my Alta Redshift motocross bikes.

My solution is to bring two bikes. It I need to race/ride longer than an hour, then also haul a bunch of lithium batteries and a huge gas powered generator.

 

[Felipe G]

Sounds like, in order to maintain the performance, you need to cool the battery a lot more effectively than what the stock cooling system can do.

You should add nitros, LOL!

Maybe spray water on the heat exchangers. This works great on my track turbo AWD car. The temperatures drop instantly.

And install wider tires in order to carry more momentum around the corners and rely on the motor power a little less.

 

[fastp3d]

Thanks You can't unfortunately although that would be a cool edition or at least some sort of +/- time indicator compared to your best lap.

There's a whole bunch of data it exports into a CSV file for you too but I couldn't find any data logging software that could actually use it

Racerender 3 will read that CSV file. You just have to make your own template and graphics.

 

[CliffSD]

For those in California, I've done Tesla Corsa at Buttonwillow, and it's a really well-organized event for Tesla-only rounds on the track. Supercharger is about 10 minutes away. No trouble with brake fade on my M3P, but then again I have a lot of room for improvement in my track driving.

 

[benclear]

My brother was at this track day (that’s him in ‘German M3’ disappearing off passed the Lotus). He told me all about the M3s there, he was quite impressed. Nice clean lap mate.

I’m not convinced to take my M3P on track yet, I love my car on the road but on the track I worry the excitement is taken away by the quiet progress and the lack of opposite lock moments on account of the superb vectoring. It’s the one place I’m not yet prepared to give up petrol, though I have sold my track car and built a sim rig which has rather helped my CO2 output.

Got a feeling that Brands Indy or Castle Combe might be the best places for the M3P which is impressive if true, for such a heavy car.

 

[simonog]

I race there a few times every (normal) year in a historic Morgan. It’s a great circuit. What’s your top speed at the end of the hangar straight? That would tell us something about the aerodynamics of the Model 3. I have never dared take my Model S on the track!