Say what you want about Tesla - and there's plenty to be said - but you can't deny the fact the Model S Plaid is absolutely sick. It may not have the best build quality or finish (though owners swear it's way better than the previous S), but it more than makes up for that by having the quickest powertrain you can get in a production car.
The Rimac Nevera will have something to say about that once actual client deliveries start, but then again that's a car that costs millions so it's not exactly a fair comparison. If anything, the even crazier performance of the Croatian hypercar only emphasizes the superiority of the electric powertrain.
With quarter-mile times in the very low nines, no stock car can even come close to the Plaid. Modding is always an option, but given how great the gap is, you'd have to do some very serious and expensive tinkering to stand a chance, not to mention choosing your starting vehicle carefully. It's by no means impossible, but if it ends up being more expensive than the Plaid, then it kind of defeats the purpose since this used to be the ICE drivers' main defense: "yeah, but that Tesla is a rich man's car."
So, on the one hand, you have stock cars, and on the other, modified ones. What else is there in between? Well, you could say police cruisers fall somewhere in the middle. They are based on standard models but get slightly juiced up in the process of becoming patrol cars, partly to make them more competitive on the street, and partly to offset all the added weight the extra gear carries.
Usually, we're not looking at any significant gain, which means these cars are hardly any match for a hardened drag racing vehicle - or indeed a Tesla Model S Plaid. In the case of the Colorado State Patrol Dodge Charger you'll in the clip below, it's probably powered by the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6, which makes it easy prey for something as tame as a hot hatch, let alone an electric sedan with three motors and over 1,000 hp.
Well, this race was never meant to be a cliffhanger, but rather a fun matchup between two cars with very different performance levels. At the same time, though, it's not hard to imagine how Government officials are looking at this thinking "we really need to upgrade our police cruisers," which would make this clip yet another Tesla advert, only this time aimed at the officials.
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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