No matter how anyone feels about EVs these days, we should all applaud the smart engineering needed to move a 4,800+ lbs. sedan to 60 mph (96 kph) in around two seconds. Then up for the quarter-mile in the low 9-second bracket!
Without a doubt, Tesla has done an utterly amazing job, and its Model S Plaid is probably the greatest production-specification car right now. It can hit all those performance benchmarks on stock tires, and still have the elegance needed to haul the entire family to a black-tie event! Hey, even Brooks Weisblat from DragTimes had to admit that his previous Napier Green McLaren 765LT monster has nothing on the Plaid...
But once you open the door to the aftermarket secto,r all bets are off. So, here are the good folks over at the Drag Racing and Car Stuff channel on YouTube putting that into the proper perspective. What we have here are a couple of drag races (followed by another duo of roll races if that is your dragstrip poison from the 1:34 mark) featuring a Tesla Model S Plaid and Team Duo’s Ford Mustang S550.
While the Plaid is obviously in factory configuration, the aftermarket ‘Stang is labeled as a turbocharged warrior (no other details are available). The skirmishes took place in the Street Racer Mild Class (and the 150 mph/241 kph class for the ZL1 and Mustang rolls) at the recent Street Car Takeover (September 17th and 18th) event that took place in St. Louis, Missouri (World Wide Technology Raceway).
Although it looks stock, save for the wheels and tires, this “sleeper” turbo Ford Mustang is probably a fully built monster judging by the way it makes the quarter-mile passes. Seriously, that was quite unexpected, especially the way it shot off the start line during the first race (at the 0:26 mark).
Basically, it secured victory over the first 60 feet or so, as the unsuspecting Plaid driver probably had a lot of confidence in the EV’s ability to recoup any gaps. This time around, though, it didn’t turn out as planned. So, the turbo Mustang surprisingly took the laurels with a 9.3s to 9.44s ET.
Later during the evening, a rematch took place (from the 1:17 mark) and this time around the Plaid owner was on par with the reaction time. But, even so, the ‘Stang took pride in its muscle car heritage and secured a second victory, complete with even better ETs: 9.17s for the Blue Oval and 9.25s for the Model S.
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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