Tesla has been eyeing lap times with the recent influx of electric cars on the horizon with Porsche and Mercedes unleashing their own takes on the world of batteries. The company's founder, Elon Musk, recently tweeted that the Model S will set out to conquer the Nürburgring. While we did not quite get the Model S taking on the infamous race track in the world of motorsport with Musk clarifying that the manufacturer needs to run proper safety checks for the car on the track, what we did get was the Tesla S conquering the Laguna Seca.
Musk has now announced via Twitter that a modified version of the standard Model S, the Tesla Model S Plaid powertrain and chassis prototype, just set the fastest lap time [1:36.555] for a 4-door sedan at the Laguna Seca, California:
The complete video for the lap at the aforementioned track is attached below:
The previous record was clocked a year ago by a Jaguar XE SV Project 8. According to Tesla, the time its Model S clocked, a 1:36.555, is a second faster than the Jaguar's record.
There is quite a bit of time before we will actually see a commercial version of the Plaid versions of the Model S with Elon stating that the Plaid is "about a year away from production for Tesla's Models S, X, and the [upcoming] Roadster" (the standard version of which was also sent to space!). The good news is that it will be priced competitively despite being more expensive than the current offerings at Tesla.
With a 1:36.555 at the Laguna Seca, we have our fingers crossed for what Tesla has to got in its repertoire at the Nürburgring.
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