Tesla Model S Plaid Drags Itself, Someone Decides to Take a Power Nap in Their Lane

Most importantly, the latest version of Tesla's Full Self-Driving software finally arrived on the refreshed Model 3 – and Cybertruck owners are sad and inconsolable because they're still left in the dark. Elon Musk is almost ready to travel to India to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announce a major investment during the Q1 earnings week – it's possible to see a Gigafactory there in the next few years. Also, Europe is now getting the longest-range Tesla Model Y crossover SUV – the Long Range RWD has a single motor but also an (optimistic) 373 miles of range between charges, according to WLTP.

With that in mind, it's easy to say that Tesla is in a perpetual state of flux. Well, over at the local quarter-mile dragstrip, the sound of roaring V8 engines was recently switched off to allow a silent skirmish. More precisely, after showcasing some of the best moments from major events like Bradenton Motorsports Park's Street Car Takeover edition or the mind-bending action from TX2K's 2024 edition, the good folks over at the racing-focused ImportRace channel on YouTube are back to their usual venue - Island Dragway in Great Meadows, New Jersey - for another Test & Tune Day.

So far, they have shown us a dark and menacing 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 get the better of old and new muscle cars but also get a nasty surprise from a six-second old-school opponent, plus the awkward encounter between a Ford Mustang Mach-E and a Pontiac G8 GT. On this occasion, though, it's Tesla Model S Plaid déjà vu because a crimson example raced a gray one. It wasn't a mirrored quarter-mile dragstrip brawl, though, because the gray Plaid driver decided to take a 'power nap' or something along the line in his or her lane, hence the 1.65 versus 33.97 reaction times!

Naturally, the crimson Tesla Model S Plaid was declared victor by the racetrack's electronic aids, even though – curiously enough – the darker Tesla Model S Plaid posted a 10.06s elapsed time versus the other EV's almost identical 10.09s performance, all thanks to a higher trap speed of 145 mph versus 143 mph! Nothing else happened next; only the crimson example took a couple of solo runs (10.24s and 10.19s) to hone the driver's skills and reaction times.

By the way, remember that now the EV performance wars have heated up – Tesla's 1,025-hp Model S Plaid can be defeated at the local quarter-mile track by the exotic 1,234-hp Lucid Air Sapphire, and there's also a new 'brawler in town' soon, the refreshed 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, which under certain conditions can output up to 1,095 horsepower.