Gary Zhou 
Back when the Taycan Turbo S was released, Porsche made it a point to highlight that the all-electric sports car is capable of maintaining its performance despite multiple launches, unlike its main competitor, the Model S Performance which tended to lose power as its battery was discharged. This particular weakness does not exist anymore with the Model S Plaid, but if a recent video is any indication, it appears that Tesla’s repeatability of performance has reached absolutely insane levels.
Brooks Weisblat of YouTube’s DragTimes channel has been having a blast with his Tesla Model S Plaid, taking the vehicle to the track and racing it against practically every car willing to step up against it. In a recent video, the veteran drag racer decided to test how well the Model S Plaid would perform when the vehicle’s battery was just at 20%. The test, according to Weisblat, was performed after 40 quarter-mile runs since each launch consumed about 2% of the Plaid’s battery.
Much to his surprise, the Model S Plaid performed shockingly well. Despite its low battery level and the run being its 41st journey through the drag strip, the Tesla was still able to finish the quarter-mile in 9.94 seconds at 136.40 mph. The vehicle’s 0-60 mph time was also listed at 2.33 seconds as per Dragy data. This all but proved that Tesla was not joking when it stated that the Model S Plaid’s performance would be incredibly consistent and leagues better than its already impressive predecessors.
While the Plaid’s predecessors like the Model S “Raven” Performance and the Model S P100D with Ludicrous Plus were amazing machines that could slay supercars, they tend to exhibit a drop in performance as their batteries lose their charge. This was evident when Car and Driver tested the Model S Performance against the Porsche Taycan Turbo S over 15 quarter-mile runs. The motoring publication claimed that the Model S slowed down to such a degree that at one point, the vehicle’s 0-60 mph time went beyond 6 seconds and its quarter-mile time slowed down to over 14 seconds.
Such a result seems extremely improbable for the Tesla Model S Plaid. Showing consistent performance after 40 quarter-mile launches is impressive in its own right, but completing a sub-10-second run with a low battery level proves that the Model S Plaid is nothing short of a monster. With such numbers, it appears that drag racing fans should start getting used to the sight of the Model S Plaid embarrassing supercars on the drag strip even as their batteries approach empty.
Watch DragTimes’ Tesla Model S Plaid quarter-mile run at 20% battery in the video below.
