For about a week now, the Internet has been ablaze with rumors coming from the world's favorite track, the Nurburgring. In an impressive display of force, two heavily modified Tesla Model S have been doing the rounds, attempting to set the benchmark for future EV performance.
After letting the fans stew for a while, Tesla came out on Twitter on Thursday and officially confirmed the time: 7:20 minutes.
And that's not even the big news. That will come next month, when the carmaker plans to drastically improve on that and bring it down to 7:05, one minute shy of the all-time record for electric vehicles set on the track by the Volkswagen ID R.
Officially, Tesla is not trying to break any records, and the cars they use for these runs are heavily modified compared to the usual production version. For instance, there are three electric motors instead of two, and the interior is stripped down to the minimum.
What Tesla is trying to do is get the hype up for a possible production run of a Plaid mode in the S, and possibly even X and 3 later down the line. As per available info, Plaid should overthrow Ludicrous in becoming the fastest setting available for the EV, and it should do so no later than the end of next year.
The video you can see at the bottom of the page was shot by our spies at the beginning of the week, and shows one red and one blue Model S being unloaded in Germany, before setting off on their quest to become the most talked about cars of the week.
Data from our track tests indicates that Model S Plaid can achieve 7:20 at the Nürburgring.
With some improvements, 7:05 may be possible when Model S returns next month.
Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies. Full profile
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