Tesla launches Track Pack for Model S Plaid
Exhilarating new model sets its sights on the world’s fastest exotic supercars – both on the road and on track.
Tesla’s quickest car just got even faster.
The electric car brand has listened to critics – including owners who crashed cars on track – and upgraded the brakes and tyres of the range-topping Model S.
A new Track Pack for the electric machine makes it more potent on track, helping the car stop and turn with more authority than before.
It also raises the car’s electronically limited top speed from 175mph (280km/h) to 200mph (321km/h) – some 60km/h more than Porsche’s Taycan Turbo S.
Tesla says its 760kW machine, priced from $US107,490 ($159,250) in the US, is the “quickest accelerating car in production today”.
Independent testing from Car and Driver found it “actually blows the quickest exotics away” –beating every model from Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini – and matched the other-worldly thrust of the 16-cylinder, quad-turbocharged Bugatti Chiron.
It reaches 100km/h in a touch more than two seconds, and only needs nine seconds to streak down the quarter mile.
But owners who put the performance to the test found its stopping power wasn’t up to the task.
YouTuber Chillin’ with Chet said he was “almost killed” when the brakes on his Tesla failed at 270km/h.
Surviving unscathed, he reported that Tesla cut corners by supplying cars with brake fluid that
“has no place in a car that is to be used on the track”.
The new Track Pack available to US owners replaces the fluid with a motorsport-spec alternative with a much higher boiling point.
Available to new or existing Model S Plaid customers, the $US20,000 ($29,600) pack also adds 410mm carbon-silicon carbide front brake rotors with six piston calibers (and slightly smaller brakes on the rear).
Lightweight 20-inch “Zero-G” wheels are wrapped in Goodyear Supercar 3R semi-slick tyres measuring 285mm in width upfront and 305mm on the rear.
Updated firmware includes a tweaked all-wheel-drive system with a rear-biased setting to induce oversteer.
On the inside, a conventional round steering wheel replaces the original Plaid’s yoke (now available as an optional extra) while the car’s 17-inch touchscreen and 22-speaker stereo remains unchanged.
Australian customers have placed deposits on the car and can register their interest but there is no indication when it might arrive in local showrooms.
UK Top Gear reporter Tom Ford was invited to drive the car in the US.
Acknowledging that there was no clear on-sale date for the car in right-hand-drive markets, Ford said the Plaid was “not just fast, it’s seriously embarrassing for modern day supercars”.
“The Plaid needs the bigger brake package: a car this fast just really needs the best brakes it can have,” he said.
“It’s a monster.”
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