Elon Musk’s whimsies have a curious habit of becoming realities, sometimes regardless of the cost or the benefit. And if 2019’s Tesla vs Porsche debacle was started by a tweet, could it be possible that the 2021 EV laptime race was just started by a podcast?
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Elon joined the Joe Rogan Experience podcast last week, for podcast #1609, and in amongst the usual quips and mutual butt-kissing were some choice snippets regarding the Nürburgring Nordschleife and the about-to-drop, tri-motor Model S Plaid.
We’re trying to get to, on the Nurburgring, get to the low-7-minute mark. And then, with further improvements, I think we could bust 7 minutes on the Nurburgring, which would be a pretty wicked act on its own.”
Now, let me just interject with a small reality check…
The tri-motor prototypes that were running the ‘Ring in pre-COVID times were stripped to the gunwales. They were prototypes. Not street cars. The reason that the windows were blacked out, was because it was nothing but bare metal inside; not even a roll cage was present. These 1000-hp prototypes were doing a single lap per battery charge, running the stickiest rubber that money could buy on shocks more likely to be found at Le Mans than Wal-mart.
Making a road-car go faster than those Porsche-beating prototypes will be no easy feat.
And now that the Nürburgring have finally stepped in to control, adjudicate and regulate official lap-records, Tesla won’t be able to pull the decades-old tricks so beloved of companies like Porsche and Nissan in the early 2000s.
So what does this mean? Well, if they can really get a road-legal, production-spec Plaid to do even a low 7-minute lap, I’ll be impressed.
And if they *officially* break 7-minutes, with a legit, production Model-S Plaid, under the watchful gaze of the TüV inspector and German notary, I’ll eat one of my own BTG T-shirts.
