- Elon Musk says the Tesla model S Plaid
can do zero to 60 in under two seconds,
and do the quarter mile faster than any production car.
But he also has said that reality is a computer simulation
and we should nuke the planet Mars.
So I don't know whether to believe
this freaking guy or not.
It's probably the fastest accelerating car
you can buy today.
But, that's under a very specific set of conditions.
I got curious.
Well, what are these very specific
sets of conditions needed, and why are they so important?
So today we're gonna break them down and figure out
how you can stack the chips in your favorite to beat it
in an actual drag race.
Turns out, you might be able to do that
in your mama's minivan.
As long as your mom's minivan has a top fuel engine in it,
it's got a wheelie bar, drag slicks,
and as long as she's not in it.
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Turn green. Turn green.
Plaid is Tesla's newest, fastest top of the line model S.
And like everything else Elon does,
it's a cheeky reference to a 35 year old movie
featuring Rick Moranis.
Look it up. It's crazy.
- They've gone to Plaid.
The Plaid built upon earlier Teslas
that featured ludicrous mode.
The first ludicrous model S in 2015
was capable of going as fast
as a $2 million Porsche Carrera GT.
And while those cars were built for outright speed,
the model S is a comfortable spacious sedan
that costs a 17th of the price.
But Tesla wasn't content being merely ludicrous, oh no.
And they have continued to push EV technology.
But when the Plaid was announced,
Musk man made some almost unbelievable claims.
Saying it would do zero to 60 in just 1.99 seconds.
Something no production car has ever done.
To put that in perspective,
if you were to push a car out of a plane,
it would only reach about 44 miles per hour
after two seconds of free fall.
It would take another 0.7 seconds to reach 60 miles an hour.
At full blast, the Plaid is producing
1.3 GS of acceleration.
More than gravity itself.
No matter what comparison you choose though,
the Plaid is straight out simply fast.
But on Tesla's website, you'll see a little asterisk
next to that 1.99 zero to 60 time.
That's because the Plaid
can't achieve its maximum acceleration
at just any time and any place.
It needs a couple of specific things to make that happen.
(Jeremiah snaps fingers)
Kind of like when I do my zero to 40 sprints,
I gotta be like creamed up with the icy hot
on the back of the thighs.
Got my cleats on, you know, shirt off obviously.
Gotta let everybody know what I'm working with.
Tight underpants.
Just, I run in underpants.
If you've ever tested the zero to 60 time in your own car,
your results were probably slower
than what the manufacturer,
magazines, and other websites said.
You might've thought that this was 'cause
you didn't have the right conditions.
Everything from tire pressure to air temperature,
elevation, humidity, and even how much gas is in the tank
can affect acceleration.
Maybe you blamed it on a headwind or the sun in your eyes.
But if you're like MotorTrend and have a reputation
for doing reliable and repeatable zero to 60 times,
you'll use precise instrumented testing and control
for as many of those factors as possible.
But still, it's likely your time was slower
because the zero to 60 you've been told your car will do
is a rollout time.
So what does that mean?
A rollout is based on timing at drag strips.
A typical strip has a set of yellow, green, and red lights
often called a Christmas tree.
Now, well, I could explain it to you.
I would like our resident junior drag racer,
Mr. Nolan Jay Sykes, to explain what's going on
at the drag strip.
Nolan, help us out.
- Thanks, Jerry.
Yeah, I used to compete in drag racing.
Spent a lot of time on the drag strip.
Love talking about this stuff.
So the green light is the obvious one.
It tells the driver when the race starts,
but important information is conveyed
by two other lights on the Christmas tree as well.
Two of them are linked to light beams
that run across the track.
When the first beam is blocked by the car's front tire,
that triggers the top light or the pre-stage light.
This tells the driver
that they're seven inches away from the starting line,
which is also where the second beam lives.
When the car's tire blocks that one,
this triggers the stage light
which tells the driver to stop and wait for the green light.
Once the green is lit, the driver can take off,
but the clock which records the car's elapsed time, or ET,
doesn't start until the front tire
is no longer blocking the stage beam.
It takes time for the tire to clear that beam,
which means the car is already moving
when the timer finally starts.
So that means if you use this method
for measuring zero to 60 time,
you aren't measuring the actual time it takes
for a car to accelerate from a dead stop
to 60 miles per hour.
- The little star next to the Plaid's
1.99 zero to 60 time indicates
that this is with rollout subtracted.
A car can reach five or six miles per hour in the rollout,
and that reduces the reported zero to 60 time
by as much as 0.3 seconds.
Really, it's a five to 60 mile per hour time.
But Tesla isn't the only one who does this.
Companies like Ford and Chevy often report
times this way as well.
The practice is so widespread,
many companies, magazines, websites,
report rollout zero to 60 times without telling you
that's what they're really doing.
And roll out times are somewhat controversial.
Some testing sources argue
that if everyone is reporting times with rollout,
then maintaining that standards lets you more easily
compare different cars.
Others argue that using rollout doesn't demonstrate
actual zero to 60 performance,
and drag race timing simply isn't relevant
to most consumers interests.
Some have even gone as far as calling
rollout numbers cheating.
I've been there.
It's not fun.
When MotorTrend tested the Plaid,
they recorded a 1.98 second zero to 60 with rollout.
And that vindicates Tesla, because they openly said
that their 1.99 is without rollout subtracted.
But the total zero to 60 time MotorTrend recorded
was 2.28 seconds.
And when you're making claims
that rest on hundreds of seconds, devil's in the details.
And at the Plaid launch event,
Elon Musk said no production car
has ever done zero to 60 in under two seconds.
It looks like that is still true.
Mr. Musk, he aint lying according to MotorTrend's testing.
The thing is, MotorTrend does typically report
zero to 60 results with a rollout subtracted.
But they also said the Plaid doesn't count
as a sub two second car.
What the heck?
That's because to get that crazy acceleration,
the Plaid has to be on an actual drag strip
because drag strips are extra sticky.
Their surface is coated with a synthetic resin
known as VHT or PJ1 track bite.
(Jeremiah clicks teeth)
Track bite is pretty amazing stuff.
It's fire resistant, water repellent,
it's even biodegradable.
And it helps the tires of a drag car
hookup and grip the surface instead of spinning.
But it's not the resin itself that's so sticky.
Track bite attracts and retains rubber particles
from the tires that pass over it.
It helps the surface get rubbered in.
Increasing the grip just like the racing line
on a NASCAR track after a bunch of laps.
The reason why a rubbered in track surface
is grippier than plain asphalt is because
materials stick to themselves better
than they stick to other materials.
Even though the traction between a soft rubber tire
and rough asphalt is pretty good,
the grip between rubber and rubber is even better.
The extra grip of a prepared track surface
was necessary for MotorTrend to get the Plaid
zero to 60 time under two seconds.
The best they could do on a regular asphalt
was over two seconds, even with roll out subtracted.
But it was so, so close.
Just 2.07 seconds.
We're talking eight one hundredths of a second
from breaking the two second barrier.
Take the seats out, let skinny Bob drive,
and now we're cooking.
So now that we've demystified
the dark arts of zero to 60 times,
what can we expect for the quarter-mile times for the Plaid?
Well, Tesla says the Plaid will run the quarter
in just 9.23 seconds.
Another record for a production car.
Faster than the Demon even.
That's thanks to her staggering 1,020 electric horses.
F1 cars have about a thousand horsepower,
and the fastest quarter mile time
we could find for one of those was 9.2 seconds.
Of course, F1 cars aren't designed
specifically for drag racing, but neither is the Plaid.
After all, it seats four, has air conditioning,
and it weighs 4,800 pounds.
That's as much as three F1 cars, or a typical SUV,
or two long-finned pilot whales,
or one short-finned pilot whale.
Or.
(drum rolling)
Yo mama! (laughs)
In spite of that, MotorTrend recorded a time of 9.25 seconds
at 152.6 miles per for the Plaid
when it was run on track bite.
That's close enough to Tesla's claim, 9.23 seconds
to vindicate that too.
Mr. Musk, he's telling the truth.
Tesla says that they expect most Plaid owners
will run their car at drag strips,
and that's why they're going with the drag strip numbers.
And if you're not one of those owners
and plan to stick to regular old asphalt,
you should know that MotorTrend estimated
that the asphalt quarter-mile time is 9.34 seconds,
which again, is still faster than anything else you can buy.
A Bugatti Chiron that costs nearly $3 million
takes 9.4 seconds to do that.
This is insane.
A 16 year old kid with a rich dad
will be driving one of these cars,
and it's gonna make you furious. (laughs)
That 9.34 second time is estimated
because a road car going that fast
raises some unique safety concerns,
which we're gonna explain in just a moment.
But before we do that, there's still one more thing
the Plaid needs to achieve those top tier times.
Not only do you need to ignore the first few miles per hour
and use a special surface,
but you have one condition
that a lot of people have a problem with.
To get to 9.2 seconds in the quarter mile,
you have to enable drag strip mode.
This process, which takes between eight and 15 minutes,
pre-conditions the battery pack and electric motors.
The battery is heated or cooled to the ideal temperature,
and the motors are cooled
so that it can deliver maximum power.
When that process is complete,
the car will tell you that peak performance is ready
and you can complete the final step.
Cheetah stance.
(fun comedic music)
(prerecorded cheetah growl plays)
To initiate cheetah stance,
you pull up wherever you plan to launch from,
you hold the brake pedal with your left foot
and the accelerator with your right foot,
and over the next eight to 10 seconds,
the car lowers the front end by two inches
and firms up the suspension.
Preparing the car to deal with the massive weight transfer
that's about to happen at launch.
Once complete, the Plaid lets the driver know
by displaying cheetah stance enabled and ready to launch.
You just let off the brake pedal, hold on tight,
and the car will rip through the quarter mile
in it's advertised time.
Insane.
Now why certain people have a problem
that the car has to get pre-conditioned is beyond me.
If you have a drag car at the strip, you gotta warm it up.
You gotta do a whole bunch of preconditioning
that you don't necessarily talk about.
The fact that this car does zero to 60 in under two seconds
is freaking mind blowing.
So I think people are just grasping at straws here.
Haters gonna hate, Elon's gonna skate.
An ollie.
Just did an ollie.
You didn't even see it, but I did.
- New shirt alert. (laughs)
That's stupid.
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- So there it is.
The model S Plaid really will do zero to 60
in 1.99 seconds and run the quarter mile
in 9.23 seconds just like Tesla says.
But it needs a rollout, a prep surface,
and drag strip mode, and cheetah stance to do it.
I think once you know that, you can figure out
how to beat it in an actual drag race.
What does actual drag race mean?
Let me explain.
We saw that taking away the prepared surface
doesn't actually do very much.
You only lose a 10th of a second.
And even then, it's still faster than any production car.
Now before you guess, well, take away drag strip mode,
you should know that the YouTube channel Drag Times
ran the Plaid without drag strip mode,
and they got 9.67 seven in the quarter mile.
Again, that's still faster than anything
you're likely going to show up with.
So it seems like beating the Plaid in an actual drag race
is gonna be pretty hard to do.
But I'm here to play chess, not checkers.
So what if we can beat it on a technicality?
If you want to beat the Plaid in a sanctioned drag race,
you actually want the driver to use drag strip mode
and cheetah stance.
And that's because a real drag race has another condition
Tesla hasn't mentioned.
The driver doesn't choose when it starts.
Actual drag racing uses something called courtesy staging.
If the strip is using courtesy staging,
one driver pulls up to the pre-stage beam
and then waits for the other driver
to pull up to their pre-stage beam on their side.
Once both drivers are pre-stage,
one rolls seven inches forward to the stage beam
then the second driver pulls up to their stage beam.
Once both drivers are staged,
the starter will activate the Christmas tree
and around two seconds later,
boom, green light goes and the race starts.
But it's only once the stage beam is triggered
that the Plaid driver comes to a complete stop
and can activate the cheetah stance.
So unless they've paid off the starter
to wait 10 seconds before activating the tree,
those lights are going green six to eight seconds
before the Plaid has finished its cheetah dance.
That means if you're in the other car,
you're down the track with a six to eight second lead
before the Plaid even launches.
But say you don't put it in cheetah stance.
Well, then you're gonna need a car
that beats 9.68 second quarter mile.
So if you wanna race a Plaid,
just tell them, hey, I'll let you do your cheetah dance.
I won't leave.
And then leave. (laughs)
You might think winning a drag race that way
is a little unfair.
Yeah, well, if so, you're gonna hate the other way
to beat the Plaid.
Snitching.
See, like the Dodge Demon, which was also capable
of a quarter mile time under 10 seconds,
the Plaid shouldn't be allowed in an NHRA
regulated drag strip.
In spite of Tesla's claims that most owners
will be doing this.
Mandatory safety equipment is based on a cars
best quarter mile time.
And if a car can run faster than 9.99
at over 150 miles per, then a lot of additional safety gears
required to raise on a drag strip.
You gotta have a full roll cage,
you gotta have shields around drive line components
in case they explode.
You gotta even have a parachute
in case the brakes fail.
Those obviously aren't included in your $120,000 Plaid.
The driver, they also need to be wearing
a protector fire suit, arm restraints,
then you need to hold an NHRA competition license.
I don't think there are gonna be a lot of Tesla owners
who have that license.
So since the Plaid can run a sub 9.99 quarter mile,
you could complain to the safety crew.
And if you're lucky, get them disqualified.
But, don't do that.
It's frigging bogus, dude.
So if you want to beat the Plaid in a race,
you're gonna have have to fight a little dirty.
But there may be one more way to beat it in a fair fight.
That's where the Rimac Nevera,
a brand new to EV super cars comes in.
The YouTube channel Car Wow
got a Rimac to run 8.62 seconds in the quarter mile
on an unprepared surface.
The company's founder says the Nevera
doesn't need anything like drag strip mode
or cheetah stance to do it.
He claims it'll accelerate like that any time you want.
And I'm sure just like the Plaid,
there are some asterisks with the Rimac,
but at this point we're arguing over
sub 10 second production cars.
Think about that.
In 15 years, you're gonna be able to get a discount
on one of these sub 10 second cars.
That's insane.
You should be so stoked about that.
I can't wait to buy one of these used.
It's gonna be fun.
If you're a fan of Tesla and a bunch of other EVs,
go check out this D-list which lists the fastest EVs
out there right now.
Click right here.
Right here?
Right here.
If you wanna know more about Tesla
and how their autopilot system works, click here.
Thank you guys so much for watching this episode of B2B.
Follow us here on Instagram at donut @donutmedia.
Follow me @jeremiahburton.
Until next week.
Bye for now.