Tesla Plaid Drags Stock and 1,200-HP Built Mustang GT500, Is It Enough for Shelby?

DragTimes’ Brooks Weisblat is one of the most notorious Tesla Model S Plaid owners from the YouTube world. The famous vlogger currently has a best-of-time with the EV of 9.246 seconds on the quarter-mile, and he recently made a few subtle changes to see if he can improve on that.

More precisely, the Plaid was shod in a new set of 20-inch wheels and the front tires have expanded to 285 while the rear ones have reached a 305 width. Just to put that into perspective, he says the new alloys save eight pounds (3.62 kg) per wheel at the front and another 12 pounds (5.44) each in the rear.

Sure, a test pass is always an eye-opener (see it from the 2:45 mark). But the 9.26s ET (at 91% SoC) isn’t as glorious when it’s done alone. Luckily, Tim Burton (aka Shmee150) was in town with his very lime-green Ford Mustang GT500 and agreed to meet up for a friendly confrontation. A couple of races were set up from the 5:20 mark, but we already know the Plaid will eat up a stock Shelby for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all at once.

So, the results speak for themselves: 9.3s and 9.32s (with dwindling SoC, the times will get slightly worse for each pass) for the Plaid, against Shmee’s glorious-sounding Mustang that nailed 10.93s and 10.89s ETs. Now, with a stock GT500 giving us the perspective, how about a couple of battles with a tuned example?

Brooks also met up at the drag strip with friends from Palm Beach Dyno and they were up for a skirmish or two in their 1,200-horsepower (around 1,025 whp) blue Shelby GT500. Now that’s something else, right? Only about a second’s difference, though, as it turns out. So, the Plaid again doesn’t have any issues securing the win, even as it surges to 9.38s and 9.47s.

It seems that without an all-wheel-drive setup, even a matching-powered ICE machine still doesn’t stand a chance, as the modified GT500 only dipped to 9.86s and 9.82s ETs during the races taking place from the 10:12 mark.