Tesla Model S and Seemingly Wet Track Make Camaro ZL-1 Want to Go Home

The result is a track car that packs a meaty 6.2-liter supercharged V8 engine with 650 horsepower and just as much torque if you use the metric system, or 479 lb-ft if you're more fond of the imperial one. With or without the 1LE, the ZL1 is designed to behave itself on the track primarily, but it can also act as a daily driver for those who need 650 hp for the office commute. For some reason.

But, like all performance cars that leave the front wheels to handle steering exclusively, the ZL1 has what is called an Achilles' heel: it needs decent grip to deploy all its grunt efficiently. Any sign of slippage and the traction control system will nerf the power to prevent wheelspin. Shut TC off and you'll be relying on your right foot to manage wheelspin. One way or another, the result is the same: poor off the line acceleration.

That turns into even more of a problem when the car you're facing in a drag race is the unofficial king of traction control. Tesla's software makes any launch completely wheelspin free to the point where it seems to be defying the laws of physics. Sure, we've become used to it over the years and it's not as impressive now as it was five years ago, but the damn thing definitely still works. If anything, it has improved.

To be completely fair, the Tesla driver - and the person who posted the clip on YouTube - claims the track was one hundred percent dry. They say nobody would have raced otherwise, and since they're the only person who was there to witness, we'll have to believe them. Plus, it's common drag racing practice to take five whenever it starts raining and only reopen when the track is dry. However, it's hard to shake the impression of wet asphalt after watching the clip and seeing all those lights bouncing off the entire length of the track with menacing-looking clouds in the background.

If it was indeed dry, then we'd like to know exactly what happened to the Camaro ZL1. There was never supposed to be any contest between the two given the Model S' 2.who-even-knows-anymore seconds 0-60 mph sprint time (compared to the ZL1's 3.5 seconds), but it still shouldn't have ended in such a landslide.