While it’s possible to catch a glimpse of a Tesla Model S staging at the local dragstrip, they don’t make many appearances at track days. EVs that weren’t designed specifically for racing circuits typically become undone after a few laps of sustained abuse, with Tesla’s first sedan being no different. Early examples of the Model S even failed to get around the Nürburgring when pushed to the limit, with touring car driver Robb Holland sharing videos of the model forcing itself into limp mode as components began overheating during a test run in 2014. Holland praised the car for its sublime road manners, though concluded it was ill-suited for serious racing.
Things are a little different today. Tesla now holds the fastest single lap of any EV to grace the Nordschleife and sells the Model 3 Performance with a dedicated track mode it plans on extending to Model S Plaid vehicles via an over-the-air (OTA) update. But can some fresh code and a little time really do what’s required to make the sedan a valid track vehicle when the preexisting hardware remains unchanged?
The big get with Tesla’s track mode is the ability to tweak or (allegedly) defeat the sedan’s fairly invasive stability control system. Handy during the daily commute, stability control ultimately limits what the car could do on a pristine racetrack. On the Model 3, this results in putting regenerative braking into overdrive and using it to assist with torque vectoring. Though the driver is never really free from getting assistance since the automaker’s vehicle dynamics controller is constantly monitoring things to decide how best to divert power to improve rotation.
However, the biggest gripe among those attempting to race the Model S typically stems from the heat management program erring on the side of caution. This too has been addressed with track mode by offering the same pre-cooling system that’s on the Model 3. Here, Tesla lowers the operating temperature of the battery pack in preparation for the onslaught of heat it’s about to be subjected to. It does the same whenever the car has pulled off the track or is enjoying a cooldown lap. The manufacturer claims the system allows for operation of the powertrain beyond typical thermal limits and increases refrigerant system capacity by overclocking the AC compressor into higher speed ranges.
The rest is about what you’d expect from any track mode. Dampers default to their setting and the infotainment system swaps to displaying all the relevant temperature readings, with a lap timer and G-meter thrown in for good measure.
Unfortunately, I’ve still not seen many Model 3 Performances make more than a handful of laps on any course before it begins issuing warnings about the brakes or battery overheating. But overheating is a common concern among people tracking their street cars and it’s probably not fair to directly compare a Tesla luxury product to something that’s been equipped with an external oil cooler and some tow hooks.
Tesla said this is all about keeping the fastest EV lap time at the Nürburgring and prepping the Model S for a 200-mph top speed that’s supposed to come by way of future OTA updates. I’m inclined to believe this will require a few hardware updates to be accomplished safely, however. As nice as the Model S is to take on the freeway, its steering needs to be sharpened before the company decides to transform it into a four-door hypercar. It’s also going to need better tires and brakes — the latter of which Tesla plans on offering by way of a carbon-ceramic brake kit for $20,000 available later this year. Though they’ll technically cost more than that since you’ll also have to purchase the 21-inch wheels in which to house your fancy stoppers.
With the ability to breeze past 60 mph in the low two-second range, nobody paying attention is going to claim the Model S Plaid isn’t an extremely fast car. But it seems to do all its best work in a straight line and I’m not sure why the manufacturer is so obsessed with competing with Porsche on the Nürburgring. These planned updates will undoubtedly make it more capable from a performance perspective, I just have doubts that it’ll make for a better luxury sedan or set the Model S to replace the Mazda MX-5 as the default track day automobile.
[Image: Virrage Images/Shutterstock]
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“the preexisting hardware remains unchanged”
I assume you’re referring to the hardware on the redesigned 2022 Model S, not the design which barfed on the track in the story from 2014.
The Track Mode – like FSD – will leverage existing hardware. Unlike FSD, it will actually work, presumably.
You assume correct.
“I’m not sure why the manufacturer is so obsessed with competing with Porsche on the Nürburgring.”
My guess is they think it will help them sell cars. But you keep wondering, Matt.
Yawn.
Naaw, no one would ever cross shop a Model S with a Taycan.
“I’m not sure why the manufacturer is so obsessed with competing with Porsche on the Nürburgring.”
Have you met Tesla owners / Elon Musk? Crazy inferiority / short man complex.
“I’m not sure why the manufacturer is so obsessed with competing with Porsche on the Nürburgring.”
It’s not necessarily because they’re going to track it. It’s an endurance test of sorts. If it can handle the Nurburgring, it should be fine with being pushed under normal conditions.
“Have you met Tesla owners / Elon Musk? Crazy inferiority / short man complex.”
Musk is 6’2″ tall. Not sure if someone that can afford a $134k car or whatever it costs would have an inferiority complex. Usually the other way around.
bald, too
As an aside Audi is racing a electric car in Dakar, it uses a range extender because you know don’t want to run out of gas in the middle of the desert. It’s doing well, except for suspension problems. There is also a hybrid truck as well.
track mode = heat management
“NOTE: by turning on this feature, you acknowledge that you are waiving your rights under Tesla’s factory warranty.”
they could just say: “NOTE: you know it’s pay to play, right? Press the left thumbwheel button three times followed the right thumbwheel button twice with 5 seconds to play.”
“I’m not sure why the manufacturer is so obsessed with competing with Porsche on the Nürburgring.”
Part of it is to gain experience for the roadster. Same thing with Audi. Gaining experience for a future vehicle. With the 4680 batteries and structural pack weights should be coming down.
“’ve still not seen many Model 3 Performances make more than a handful of laps on any course before it begins issuing warnings about the brakes or battery overheating. ”
Here is a Model 3 doing a lap of the Nurbergring. The battery does get hot, but never overheats and goes to green at the end of the run. It’s going fast enough to blow by a Z3M at warp speed. I’ve seen plenty of Model 3 videos where the battery gets hot, but never seen it overheat. There is performance degradation, but it’s still moving fast enough to blow by some other cars. There is a difference between running hot and overheating to the point it’s in turtle mode and having to pull over.
Both of these videos also feature the aftermarket Model 3 driver display:
youtube.com/watch?v=Jon1wwNZyEU
youtube.com/watch?v=Q2GTJcUKHNk
For me, Nurgurgring testing is an extended torture test. I want to see how it behaves. If it handles well on the Ring, it should be fine for what I’ll use it for.
I do agree that testing/running production or pre-production units on courses like “the ring” help manufacturers learn about their product. It has the added benefit of demonstrating their product in a very public way in a place where there are many other products on display. It established the performance pecking order and bragging rights.
Developments and improvements in electric vehicles are and will be very quick. In five years we will be laughing at the high price and low range of the first-generation Teslas.
Technology is improving at what seems like an accelerating pace.
The super-fast Teslas just don’t seem relevant to daily life.
I’ve test-driven both my friend’s Model 3 Performance and a demo dual-motor Model 3 Long Range Plus (the car now sold as just plain Long Range). In default settings, the Long Range Plus was the nicer car to drive, because the Performance’s throttle was a hair trigger. The Long Range Plus was more than quick enough for any street driving situation. The Performance trim seems to me like a way to get bragging rights while making your car worse, unless you take it to a drag strip.
Of course all this is even more extreme when you compare the regular and Plaid versions of the Model S.
@dal: That’s good information. For a daily driver, the Long Range is probably better. The long-range does 0-60 in 4.2 seconds, so it’s still pretty fast. I’m still waiting to see what the Ioniq 6 and Polestar 5 look like. Ioniq 6 (not to be confused with the EV6 or the Ioniq 5) is definitely in the running.
We are in a funny timeline when a car that does 0-60 in 4.2 seconds is “still pretty fast.” That’s absurdly quick to the point of being useful only on a track and making the car quicker than that is purely about bragging rights and drag-race YouTube videos.
@dal:
Spot on. I’d never owned a legitimately quick car before I bought my A3 back in 2018, and one of the first things that struck me was how damn slow everyone else was driving all the sudden.
Until the pandemic shutdowns emptied the roads, I never got to experience how good that car was to drive fast (which it was).
Something as ridiculously quick as a Model S Plaid strikes me as something that would be frustrating to own in the real world – what’s the point of all that performance when you’re stuck in traffic?
Part of the reason I sold my G8 GXP—which is slower at legal speeds than even a non-Performance/Plaid Tesla—was that I never had an opportunity to exercise it, so I was just living with an unrefined interior and crap fuel economy for little benefit.
the reviews I watched of the Plaid all said it was badly under braked. Hopefully this is being addressed.
On track pretty much every car short of truly track focused models (GT3, Z06, etc) are under braked. Given the weight of a Tesla and its acceleration its going to need massive brakes. The article mentions the solution: carbon ceramic brakes, a $20k option that you can’t download.
https://insideevs.com/news/552775/tesla-models-plaid-brake-test/
I haven’t sniffed a track in 30 plus years so I’ll take your word for it. What throttle house and others said made me wonder if these might not get overheated in spirited road driving to point that unprepared owners might find themselves in trouble. They really beat on the plaid saying the brake fade happened quicker and worse than most “sporting” cars.
I watched the throttle house video in question. The brake fade that usually happens for trackish cars was not what they experienced. It just didn’t have adequate brakes for the speed it could reach. It was very reminiscent of a tuner car where you have brakes designed for some amount of power/speed and then you double the hp and they can’t keep up anymore. Never driven one, no personal knowledge but was an interesting video. Seemed fairly terrified.
The guys definitely seemed worried by those brakes on such an incredibly fast and heavy car.