[VIDEO] Plaid on track - complete loss of brakes, airbags deployed

[beachbum]

Be very careful out there! Yet another Plaid post related to the brakes. Ran across this post on my feed of an owner experiencing a loss of brakes after a couple laps with a subsequent slide into a tire wall and airbags deploying.

On IG if you wanted to see the in-car video or connect with him: www.instagram.com/speedy_jeff/

 

[Tam]

...brakes...

It's unclear what's the failure here.

"Failure" sounds like the brakes don't work at all but I think the driver meant the stopping distance is not good enough for his needs even when the brake system performs flawlessly.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Sorry, but that video is pointless without seeing the moments leading up to the car going off!

 

[lbowroom]

Yes, airbags will do that when you crash into hard objects. It's important to update your brake markers when driving a car that is much faster than anything you've driven previously.

 

[Tam]

Could this be more about steering than braking?

Ideally, the car should steer away from the wall. Could the yoke be blamed for the difficulty to steer away from the wall?

The video starts with the trajectory toward the wall on the left and not the clear unobstructed path on the right side.

With the high speed, it's questionable that the stopping distance could be easily achieved in this scenario.

 

[ninefiveone]

This is 100% driver ignorance and lack of skills. Even more so it’s clickbait and playing the victim for a self inflicted lack of maturity and responsibility.

There isn’t a capable and trained track driver out there who wouldn’t have take a few laps first to feel the car out and see what it’s strengths and weaknesses are.

You never beat it for a few laps and find yourself surprised about something like brakes of all things. You’ll feel fade many corners before things fail. And if you didn’t feel the fade you have no business driving like that on track.

Pure stupidity and he’s lucky he didn’t get hurt.

 

[juanmedina]

This is 100% driver ignorance and lack of skills. Even more so it’s clickbait and playing the victim for a self inflicted lack of maturity and responsibility.

There isn’t a capable and trained track driver out there who wouldn’t have take a few laps first to feel the car out and see what it’s strengths and weaknesses are.

You never beat it for a few laps and find yourself surprised about something like brakes of all things. You’ll feel fade many corners before things fail. And if you didn’t feel the fade you have no business driving like that on track.

Pure stupidity and he’s lucky he didn’t get hurt.

He was also running with the aero caps on lol

 

[ninefiveone]

He was also running with the aero caps on lol

Well stupid is going to stupid whenever possible…

 

[M4H4X]

Could you imagine popping 140k just like that? I hope this guy had some kind of track day insurance.

 

[Aggmeister2010]

It's unclear what's the failure here.

"Failure" sounds like the brakes don't work at all but I think the driver meant the stopping distance is not good enough for his needs even when the brake system performs flawlessly.

I don't agree with 'brake system performs flawlessly.' Maybe that's technically true in the sense that they didn't burst a line and fail, but in practice it's already pretty well documented that the Plaid is under-braked for its mass - and braking performance degrades when they overheat.

Small brakes will overheat more quickly because they can't keep up. So, their best performance already isn't enough to achieve braking distances similar to competitors (BMW M5, Taycan, etc)....add brake fade in to that and 'flawless' performance becomes a little hard to support.

I'm not commenting on this guy's particular accident, but a car that's advertised as being capable of going 200 mph with just a different set of tires, and soon to be 'track ready' with just software......that also can't reliably stop itself from much lower speeds is a risk, not flawless performance.

 

[ninefiveone]

More breathless pearl clutching about plaid brakes… sigh.

 

[Tam]

I don't agree with 'brake system performs flawlessly.'...

"Flawless" in the sense of meeting its own designs and specs and not competing with the best in the world. Standard brakes would have further stopping distance while a more specialized $10,000 carbo-ceramic braking system would have a shorter stopping distance. You can't expect standard-stopping distance specs to perform equally to the more expensive specs.

But you are right that Tesla doesn't offer the more expensive $10,000 carbo-ceramic braking system. However, even if this scenario is equipped with the best and most expensive brakes, it's doubtful that the crash could be prevented due to poor steering, high speed for the wrong trajectory and stopping distance.

 

[thesmokingman]

So dude takes his car to track w/o prepping it for track duty then whines about it?

 

[Aggmeister2010]

"Flawless" in the sense of meeting its own designs and specs and not competing with the best in the world. Standard brakes would have further stopping distance while a more specialized $10,000 carbo-ceramic braking system would have less stopping distance. You can't expect standard-stopping distance specs to perform equally to the more expensive specs.

But you are right that Tesla doesn't offer the more expensive $10,000 carbo-ceramic braking system. However, even if this scenario is equipped with the best and most expensive brakes, it's doubtful that the crash could be prevented due to poor steering.

It's a frustrating thing. If I want the fastest car on the market, I have to buy it knowing that the brakes needed to really keep up with that will be aftermarket, and immediately impact my warranty in that area. Not a show-stopper, but Tesla's lack of options does get annoying.

I totally understand blasting out base Model 3's and Y's with minimal upgrades to keep the production cost down and volume up.......but when you get to your flagship vehicle with 1000 freaking horsepower and there's no option for upgraded brakes or additional packages.....i dunno, it feels lazy.

So dude takes his car to track w/o prepping it for track duty then whines about it?

It looks more like he was just a bad driver. But the fact remains that the S is under-braked. Or, more specifically, the stopping distances provided by the only factory brake system available is not in line with competitors in the space.

 

[ninefiveone]

Track performance of a Plaid could be better when it comes to braking, without question. But better brakes wouldn’t have saved the guy in this video and given the weight/HP of a plaid, it would still take a very good driver to manage it well around a track.

I look at the brakes on the Plaid like a safety fuse, lol. They will fail early, the car will plow straight ahead with heavy understeer, and keep idiots from really yolo’ing it into corners at deadly speeds.

You see the same results with Porsche 911 turbo drivers on track surprisingly often. “This is supposed to be such a high performance car! How could I have ended up in the guard rail???” Back in the day, Vipers. So many Vipers into walls at track days…

 

[oktane]

It's a frustrating thing. If I want the fastest car on the market, I have to buy it knowing that the brakes needed to really keep up with that will be aftermarket, and immediately impact my warranty in that area. Not a show-stopper, but Tesla's lack of options does get annoying.

I totally understand blasting out base Model 3's and Y's with minimal upgrades to keep the production cost down and volume up.......but when you get to your flagship vehicle with 1000 freaking horsepower and there's no option for upgraded brakes or additional packages.....i dunno, it feels lazy.

It is very lazy and lack of attention to detail, and of course pushing profits over a car that is actually capable of performance driving. Disclaimer: I haven't yet driven a Plaid so have no idea how good or bad the brakes are, but have seen enough complaints to be concerned I'll have to invest in an aftermarket upgrade.

 

[Issaction]

Full video:

Basically the ABS engages improperly/unpredictably at a specific area on the track.

 

[thesmokingman]

Full video:

Basically the ABS engages improperly/unpredictably at a specific area on the track.

I dunno about that. He was coming in real hot at 150mph into a sharp bend and was hard on the brakes. That portion of the track is real bumpy... looks more like he lost control under braking and spun it. If there was truly as problem I would assume they would have found it at the ring. Also, they modded the Plaid, so it's down to the mods.

 

[beachbum]

Full video:

Basically the ABS engages improperly/unpredictably at a specific area on the track.

Different video…but credit on that video goes to Sasha @MountainPass for the driving and sharing.

 

[juanmedina]

Full video:

Basically the ABS engages improperly/unpredictably at a specific area on the track.

To make it clear Sasha says that they defeated the stability control and what is improperly mapped is the secondary map for ABS from Bosch.