Watch the Tesla Model S Plaid With Track Pack Boss Around Nürburgring at Over 186MPH

Where would Elon Musk's company be without it stirring a little bit of fuss on every outing, right? To be fair, though, if there is any place on this planet where a fast-going car should find it the easiest to make headlines, it has to be the 12.943-miles long (20.83 kilometers) North loop of the Nürburgring with its 154 corners and over 1,000 feet (300 meters) of difference in elevation.

With their massive weight and the crippling effect on their maximum range when going extra fast, production-spec electric vehicles don't exactly feel at home on any racing track, let alone one with this kind of characteristics. However, the auto industry made the Green Hell the global benchmark a long time ago, and, by the looks of it, nothing short of aliens landing and building a new track could ever change that, so whether he likes it or not, Musk has to conform.

To be perfectly fair, Tesla has nothing to fear from the Nordschleife. The Model S Plaid may not be the quickest electric vehicle around the track and will never be, but neither is the BMW M5 the quickest among ICE cars, and yet you don't hear anyone complaining. But if you think about it, both are performance-oriented four-door sedans, so why should the Model S Plaid compare itself to the Rimac Nevera hypercar that costs 20 times as much while the M5 can look at the Mercedes-AMG ONE and say, "not my problem"?

Besides, the Model S, with its factory-provided Track Pack, has a more than decent lap time around the 'Ring that's certainly a lot closer to Nevera's than the M5's is to AMG's hypercar. There is still a little controversy surrounding the Plaid's exact result (what did I say about Tesla enjoying a bit of discussion around its name?), but the gap between the Model S and the Nevera doesn't seem to be much larger than 20 seconds.

A lap around the Nürburgring in a Tesla Model S Plaid equipped with the Track Pack shouldn't be about getting the best time - let the company worry about that - but enjoying the quasi-unique experience of this vehicle. Yes, I'm talking about the massive instant acceleration deployed after exiting each corner - and with 154 of them on the Nürburgring, you get just as many chances to enjoy it.

It helps when you have an experienced driver behind the wheel, one that knows every inch of the track better than you know the insides of your pockets, and not because you bought new jeans, but because he's been a driving instructor on the track for years. Apart from running his business that basically has him living on the Nordschleife, Misha Charoudin also has a quite successful YouTube channel he uses to share all the inevitable shenanigans that come when you have access to fast cars and the world's most exciting racing track. Oh, and the skills to make the most of both.

The Tesla Model S Plaid is a completely different beast, though. You see, Misha is more used to track-focused BMW M3s and Porsche 911s, relatively lightweight cars that focus just as much on handling as they do on power. With the Plaid, that balance is heavily skewed in one direction, and you won't get any prizes for guessing which one.

That being said, this isn't his first outing on the 'Ring in a Model S, let alone a Tesla. Though some of the previous ones ended in relative disaster (the brakes on a Model 3 all but failed midway through and the battery overheated quite rapidly), he's not one to shy away from what he knows will be a memorable experience. Plus, this is a Model S Plaid with the Track Pack and a few other modifications made by its owner, so it should handle the abuse considerably better.

Maybe "mods" is overstating it a bit. The EV is actually stock with only a bit of weight removed by doing away with everything behind the front seats and replacing those with lightweight Recaro bucket seats. Other than that, the S looks just as clean as it did on delivery day.

Misha doesn't state any particular goals for his run in the Plaid, but I'd be surprised if the push to break the 186 mph (300 km/h) milestone was by accident. He does one better - he actually goes just over 190 mph (306 km/h) before remembering he's in a vehicle the wrong side of the 2.5-ton mark and hurling toward a corner. The stress on his face is almost palpable, and if there was ever any doubt over how genuinely stressed he was, the sigh of relief after clearing that following corner removes it straight away.

Of course, there is no point talking about the overall lap time because, on the one hand, the track was by no means empty, and on the other, him gunning for that top speed figure meant the battery went into overheating protection mode halfway through, limiting the available power. Don't worry, though, that doesn't mean it turned into a stroll as the sheer brute force of the EV continued to shine throughout the entire lap. You may have mixed feelings about EVs in general, about Tesla in particular and about the company's CEO, but if you love cars, you'll definitely enjoy this clip.