What Tesla has done with its Model S wasn't just to create a very fast electric luxury sedan - the first of its kind -, but also provide the world with the best electric motor that a decent amount of money can buy at the moment.
That meant that if you didn't skip your physics lessons in high school and you were handy with a tool or two, you could get your hands on one of these beasts, connect it to a battery pack of your choice, bolt it to a chassis and then have some emissions-free fun.
It's definitely not an easy task and not something you can do in the two spare hours you have every evening, but it's also immensely satisfying for those who can afford it. Just have a look at what the guys at Eurodyne, a car tuning company from Ottawa, Canada, were able to achieve, with a little help from a local car shop called Tapp Auto.
Their vehicle looks like any other kit car of this type out there: a generic sports car with tiny dimensions and the kind of build quality that wouldn't be accepted even by an Indian automaker. That being said, it most definitely has that charm of a shed-built vehicle.
The absence of convenience features means that the car is light. It uses one Tesla performance motor that moves the rear axle with power coming from two Chevrolet Volt battery packs in parallel, good for approximately 32 kWh. The team used to have a Model S 85 motor, but it has recently upgraded to a more powerful one from a P85.
The extra power was soon felt on the drag strip where the previous best run of 10.98 seconds for the quarter-mile was cut short to just 10.1 seconds. That's literally a fraction of a second away from making the electric kit car a nine-second vehicle, which would be a tremendous achievement.
The builders of the car believe that's possible. They say that on a race prepped track and in warmer weather, the car should be able to go under the 10 seconds mark. Despite the heavy smoke in the interior view, the wheelspin as all that power is sent to the rear tires can easily be heard.
As for the race with the poor Porsche, it was never really a competition. The 818 red kit car was only competing against the clock, with the 911 there just so it wouldn't take up the whole track by itself. Watching the race, you can't help wonder: would an extra motor on the front wheels really add that much weight?
"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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