Shinobi'sZ

I made sure to get the same color.

serpent

Which one is faster? LOL

A tesla 3 tried to run me on the freeway. I downshifted to 2nd and by the time i hit 100 i could tell he gave up.

Shinobi'sZ

All Tesla power drops off above 80 mph. My brother's friend was the lead engineer who designed the Model 3 and I asked him why the power dropped off above a certain MPH? He told me it was because as the motor winds faster it develops EMF and heat which kills the battery life and they have to warranty them for 10k miles or so.

There are also two variants of the Tesla 3, the standard and the Tesla P3 Dual Motor (Ludicrous Track Mode) which is the one I have. The advertised 0-60 for the P3 is 3.3 seconds, but it doesn't feel as fast as my Z06. It's hard to tell because one has AWD and the other has launch/traction control and they both leave the line hard. I have put my P3 in Track Mode which the P3 did set the record at Luguna Seca for an EV car. But honestly it doesn't feel as quick off the line as my Z, and it doesn't feel like it handles as well as my BMW 335i M Sport (suspension/brakes). But the P3 is deceivingly fast, quiet, and handles very well compared to other cars in it's class, plus the enhanced auto pilot is a very nice feature in commute traffic.

When I have put the car in track mode on windy roads it is very responsive and handles very well, it just doesn't feel like the Bimmer or Vette, but that doesn't mean it isn't performing as such.

TrackAire

I don't know too much about the options that can be ordered on a Tesla, but I was at a track day April 8th and a P3 with what i believe had a track pack on it was there. Was it you by chance??

The organization I ran with was impressed with the car and seemed happy to have him there. Here are some email updates Checkered Flag Racing Association sent out after Mondays track day. Pretty cool to read about real world EV potential, shortfalls, etc. I would think that the Tesla would be a blast doing Pro Solo and Autocross type events. Plenty of speed and launch capability and plenty of juice left over to get you home.

1st update:

TESLA:
We were privileged to have a Tesla Model 3 with track pack join us at TH. I can happily report that the track pack works. They were able to drive the entire session without the power being reduced. To my knowledge, this is the first electric car cable of this achievement. Although the Model 3 has a range of over 300 miles on the street, it would only do two sessions on a charge. Had they attempted a 3rd session, they would not have had enough voltage to get to the closest quick charging station. At a 120 volt recharge, they were only getting an additional one lap per hour of charging time. Track range was only about 20% of street range. Congratulations to Tesla! With some track organizations you only get 80 minutes of track time. I think that would work for the Tesla. Not a perfect fit for our 150 minute days unless the track is close to a charging station.

2nd update from the P3 owner:

TESLA UPDATE:
Just a little clarification on the Tesla side. After examining my footage and stats, I can say with certainty that my power WAS reduced sometime into my 4th lap. Not crazy reduced but def reduced. It was a little hard to tell for sure on the first session, what with being on a new track, and also since my street tries and brakes were starting to go away around that point as well.
That being said, I could still get up to around 104MPH on the front straight (would have been more if I still had full braking) even 28+ minutes in to the session.
Thanks again for having me!

Mike

Shinobi'sZ

Nope wasn't me. But thanks for sharing some real world info. Looks like it went into reduced power mode because of the battery usage power, I guess I have two cars that will go into reduced power mode when tracking lol. I think once some of the EV's are more mainstream there will be chargers around. When I use the Tesla Supercharging stations they get about 250-300 miles per hour charge when the battery is less than 1/2 charged. The watts/amps gradually taper off as the battery gets more full towards the top towards the last 15 minutes of charging it will only be at like 40 mph. However pretty easy over 20 minutes to charge up about 80 miles.

When track mode is selected the secondary fan kicks on to keep the battery cool and the mileage reduces about 100 miles. So if the car is fully charged, which is unlikely unless trailer-ed to the track the best charge it will have is 213-215 miles of charge for a track session. I can see where two 20 min track sessions would significantly deplete the battery down. Once the battery is down I believe it will conserve power. So unless somebody has a portable 240 vac portable generator on the same trailer, the car will be limited to only 2 sessions..or at least it appears to be such from the info you shared, but will be rectified when charging stations are installed.

DanWS6

I've been on the fence the last 6 months on what to replace my E92 M3 with: either a Model 3 or a Z06. The Model 3 would be more practical from a daily driver perspective but the Z06 would be way more fun overall, especially since I can just take a bus to work.

LimeyC5

My sister- and brother-in-law from outside N. O. were in town last weekend, and one of the things he wanted to do was test-drive a model 3 at our local Tesla showroom, so I duly took him down there. Apparently there is no Tesla showroom anywhere in Louisiana, Alabama or Mississippi; the nearest is in Houston (!). He arranged a full test drive for the next day, but we managed a very short drive there and then in a dual-motor Model 3 (not the Performance model). I sat in the back, and I must say I thought it hustled along very well, even compared to my Z06, via SOTP impressions. Maybe I will arrange my own test drive one of these days. He did say that his full drive in a base model was good but not nearly as impressive as the dual-motor. (I did not go on that one).

Shinobi'sZ

For comparison the dual motor in a Tesla P3 over the a non performance option is equivalent to a base Corvette to a Z06, or a non M Series Bimmer to an M Series. There is that much difference. I love my P3 and I was not a big Tesla fan like all of the fan boys that drive them. But I can say now that I own one, I am very pleased with not having to buy gas, letting the car drive its self in traffic, and 0-60 in 3.3 when I need it. It is still fun to be sitting next to some driver in a fart pipe'd something or other and then just leave them in complete silence...they just get really small in my rear view mirror, will catch up with me to pass and then get stuck in front of me on a 2 lane highway until they get to the freeway. Most of the time I don't participate or get bated, but sometimes I can't help myself if I"m next to some aggressive driver thinking he has a race car with his fart pipe'd Honda Civic Sport or Race...whatever the hell it is.