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The Tesla Model S Plaid managed to touch 269 kph, or 167.14 mph, on the Nürburgring, and this is the best we’ve seen to date
by Sidd Dhimaan, on LISTEN 03:44The Model S Plaid set a new record for the fastest production EV at the Nürburgring, snatching the record from Porsche. Elon Musk confirmed this on Twitter, but Tesla also uploaded a video of the run from Model S Plaid’s onboard camera. It seems like a pretty neat view of the action, but there’s something else that caught our attention – the top speed.
The driver managed to touch 269 kph, or 167.14 mph, in this run, which is the best the car has done to date.
For Now, 269 kph (167.14 mph) Is The Model S Plaid’s Real Top Speed
The Model S Plaid’s official top speed is rated at 200 mph (321.9 kph), according to Elon Musk and Tesla, but no one has ever touched it thus far that’s been recorded.
The Model S Plaid managed to touch 269 kph (167.14 mph) during this record run, and this is the top speed that is officially uncovered on camera.
The top speed recorded before this was 154.1 mph by the Model S Plaid that currently holds the quarter-mile record (9.081 seconds at 154 mph). Tesla’s official claim for the quarter-mile run, by the way, is 9.23 seconds at 155 mph.
We digress. The driver managed to sprint past 250 kph (155.3 mph) on a few occasions. At one stretch at the end, he managed to touch 269 kph (167.14 mph). While it sounds pretty impressive, it must be noted that the driver stayed above 260 kph (161.55 mph) for about 15-odd seconds. This means he had the bandwidth to go beyond 269 kph (167.14 mph). We’ll not delve deep into it as there could be many arguments against it and in favor of it, but it sure makes us question if this is the best that the Model S Plaid can achieve for real, and if 200 mph is just a theoretical number? We’ll let you rumble over it in the comments section.
Tesla Is The New King Of The Nürburgring
For those of you unaware of the record run, Tesla managed to beat Porsche’s record run at the Nürburgring by around 12 seconds. The Taycan Turbo had recorded a time of 7 minutes and 42 seconds back in August 2019, but Tesla, in its official run, lapped in 7 minutes and 30.909 seconds at an average speed of 166.320 kph (103.34 mph).
At the end of 2019, Tesla managed to lap the ‘Ring in 7 minutes and 13 seconds; 29 seconds quicker than the Taycan Turbo! But, the official record states that the run was beaten in about 12 seconds. Mind you, Porsche’s record was set in Taycan Turbo, but now the automaker has the Taycan Turbo S and we could see a retaliation soon.
What do you have to say about the Model S Plaid “official, real top speed” and the record run in general? Watch the video below and share your thoughts with us.
P.S.: In case you want to jump straight to the action, watch the video from the 7:00 time stamp and keep an eye on the digital speedometer.
