Taycan owner buys Tesla Plaid after his EV gets smoked in quarter-mile drag race

Published by

Bridie Schmidt

July 30, 2021 12:31 pm

Source: Drag Times/Youtube

A Porsche Taycan owner jumped straight on his phone to order a Tesla Model S Plaid after his Porsche Taycan electric sportscar got completely smoked in a drag race.

Both cars ran the quarter-mile at the Palm Beach International Raceway in Florida, with a video of the race posted on Youtube by Drag Times on Friday morning (see full video below).

The winner, of course, was the Plaid, beating the Taycan by three-quarters of a second.

While it’s no secret that the Plaid is billed as the “fastest production car ever“, it wasn’t even in drag strip mode, says the Plaid driver.

Straight after the race, the owner of the Taycan, David Lockhart, was seen ordering something on his phone.

“Dave, what are you doing?” he was asked.

“I’m buying a Tesla,” the owner answered.

“Are you literally ordering a Tesla right at this moment?” came the response.

“You’d be able to troll everybody…on the road, man,” Lockhart replied.

Source: Drag Times/Youtube

Says it all really. The 2.4 tonne Porsche Taycan Turbo S has 750hp, a two-speed transmission and started the race 100% state of charge, and it was up against the 2.2 tonne Tesla Model S Plaid which has 1020hp, no transmission, three motors and started the race with a 90% state of charge.

From the get go the Plaid is way out in front, and while the Porsche gradually picks up pace to barely catch up, it just doesn’t quite make it.

“Holy crap, he’s gone,” says the driver of the Taycan.

The competition between the two has always generated a great deal of excitement, starting with the first time the Plaid (still incognito) visited the gruelling Nürburgring track in 2019, smashing the Taycan’s time by 10 seconds in an unofficial lap record.

Both are available in Australia and although the Plaid will not land in Australia until late 2022, it is the cheaper of the two. The Tesla Model S Plaid starts at $A186,990 before fees, taxes and on-road costs, while the Porsche Taycan Turbo S starts at $A339,100.

This is not the fastest official quarter-mile on record for the Model S Plaid , either. In June, TV personality Jay Leno broke the quarter-mile record for a production car, running a sweet 9.247 seconds CleanTechnica reported.

Even so, it’s exhilarating to watch:

Bridie Schmidt

Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.