Andrew, here is a revised video of the Plaid going 8.77 seconds. Thought you might want to add it to your channel! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ndyToKuGv53OgIlj.html Also went a 5.67 in the 1/8 !!!!!!!

That’s electric for you

is he? i want to see the beast in him.... joke or not hahaha

👍 Good point! With all this horsepower inflation, it’s easy to forget that 11 seconds is still faster than ~98-99% of vehicles on the road, and like you said: Fastest production pickup truck!

Regarding the top speed, *both* of the two R1Ts ran 109.9MPH and recent Motor Trend magazines listed it as “Governed to 110”

The Model X Plaid has the same powertrain as the Model S Plaid, just 500 to 600 lbs more weight.. I'm running consistent 9.80's with it.

he was a bit antsy! It was worth the weight so you can learn the car and get it ready.

Thanks for the run Oliver! 👍

@@TeslaPlaidChannel it was fun. Giving me the hit made it an interesting race. Maybe we can race again. I'm trying to lose some weight before the bext time. My weight is holding me back from running 9.70's..

@@jamesengland7461 I did race the Plaid before. It takes 10 seconds for launch control to drop down. You can either wait and have a horrible r/t or launch and have a slightly worse ET.

Thanks Don! Our house is fine and the damage at Bradenton is still being repaired. (They’ve been cancelling or relocating events to other tracks.). No ETA yet on when they might be able to reopen.

I was thinking the same. At least they didn't take a direct hit. Doesn't look like I'll be vacationing in Ft. Myers Beach this winter. :(

With extreme weight reduction (removing all airbags, front seats, dashboard, center console, dash screen, all 20 speakers, etc) and some modification and fabricated parts, one is already running 8.70s. (But it’s not NHRA legal, and doesn’t have a roll cage which is heavy and would slow it down.) Our local tracks won’t allow these kinds of modifications to safety equipment, and besides, we like the comfort of regular seats plus a dashboard and a stereo when driving to/from the dragstrip 😃. 9.10s-9.20s are good until the next software update 👍

👍 Indeed, we are living in an amazing time of horsepower inflation 😃

👍 Indeed, I’ve been fortunate to hit those 0.00s and similar with very few reds in the past several months. Crazy that an 11-second truck can seem ‘slow’ when looking for competitive races, when that’s far quicker than things the the GMC Syclone that was once considered “a super fast truck” not too long ago…

Well, having one foot braked 0.00 Reaction Time might be luck, but having two of them within one week? 🤔 (Staging too deep here was the unlucky part)

I'm sure it can. The drag isn't much greater, and the motor will rev up to at least 216mph, as one guy who hacked his limiter demonstrated. X probably wont go 216, but I'm sure over 200.

I'm the Model X Plaid owner.. I'm sure it would do over 200 mph. The car pulls equally as strong from 0 to 163 mph which is the top speed.. Tires are only rated 149mph.. It would need z rated tires to go 200 mph.

@@ivegoneplaid congratulations! She's a beauty!

@@jamesengland7461 love my X Plaid. I needed the space for the family, otherwise I would have gotten the S Plaid.

👍 Likewise, we raced it back in January with a better result: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oZqnf66e3tjHlnU.html/?t=615

For what they cost, it seems like diminishing returns. We could get the same ET result by removing the passenger seat…

I’m still hoping to see you get into the 8s one day…

@@thedownwardmachine 👍Just one software update away! 😃

The inverter adjusts the amps depending on the battery state of charge. The idea is that they turn up the amps when the SOC is low because of the lower battery voltage (volts x amps = watts or power). So, perhaps at 85%, they start to turn-up the amps a bit and still have enough volts to get max power. Hmm.

Great question! There are several factors that have to be taken into account to get a good reaction time. The first thing that must be *definitively anchored down* is where the driver will *always* stage. This is critical because if this varies by even an inch or two, then the Reaction Time (RT) will be entirely inconsistent (or Red, like the 3rd race when I staged an inch too deep). Unless the driver has a “spotter”, there are only two choices *where* to stage: Shallow or Deep. Shallow is when the driver just barely lights the second bulb. Deep is when the driver goes further until the first (pre-stage) bulb just barely goes out. Key words for BOTH of those: *Just Barely*. Once the staging location is consistent, it’s trial-and error for each vehicle and driver. Each car model has a different response time from telling it to “go” until it actually moves. The Plaid responds pretty quick, but it’s different between using Launch Control versus just “smashing the accelerator”. When Shallow staging, on a Sportsman (full) tree with 0.500 seconds between yellows, the time to “go” is *sometime* after the 3rd yellow (and long before green). But it is absolutely NOT “as soon as the 3rd yellow light appears”. Going as soon as I see the 3rd yellow gives a Red light every time. I need to see the yellow for about ~0.1-0.2 seconds. (There’s 0.5 sec from the last yellow to green, so the chance of “leaving on yellow” giving a good 0.001 reaction is 1 in 500 for any given car. i.e., almost no one is so lucky that they can go as soon as they see a given yellow and it works perfectly for their car…and this is why they sell delay boxes so that drivers can dial in a delay of .001 to .999 or whatever they need so that leaving as soon as they see a certain bulb will give a 0.000 result. But these require a trans brake, and obviously don’t work with Teslas.) So that’s where the challenge comes in: practicing to know exactly how long to “stare” at that last yellow light until we “go”. Sure we could “play it safe” and wait for green and have a (very poor) 0.3 second reaction time, but that effectively reduces a great 9.20ET to a mediocre 9.50 (mediocre for a Plaid that is)

Andrew, thanks for taking the time to reply, really appreciate the in depth answer, now I finally get all the terminology. I've just started roll racing down here in Adelaide, and when the long awaited international standard drag strip is finally finished, I will have to learn all that for myself!

The Plaid’s Pirelli P-Zeros are set to 42-44psi, depending on temperature. Any lower just slows it down, as long as the *track prep* is good like it was on this night. (We didn’t slip the tires at all; our very slightly slower 60-ft on the 2nd pass was due to not getting very deep into Launch Control.)

@@TeslaPlaidChannel thanks a bunch my best time on those tires is 9.3 at 150 but 149 60ft

Context is that we talked about racing it Vs the Plaid. Knowing just that it had 4 motors and lots of HP, we thought it might be within a margin of a second or so, where “giving it the hit” would make a compelling race. But 2.3 seconds was too big of a gap. (About ~23 car lengths.) No point to racing it vs the Plaid. (That’s the entire context for the commentary.)

Yet in the bigger picture, YES, 11.5 is an outstanding run for a 7000 pound pickup truck. That’s competitive with a Dodge Hellcat or Tesla Model 3 Performance 👍. Fastest production truck ever! (But just not competitive with a Plaid)

It’s close enough that these tracks haven’t said anything about it yet. If we were running say 155, I’d expect to hear it. But a fraction of one MPH over (150.77 was our fastest trap on this race night) does not appear to be enough for them to demand a significant vehicle modification to a street driven vehicle (not trailered like most of our competition).

@@TeslaPlaidChannel thank you got it keep up the good work enjoy watching no street driven cars are keeping up with low 9s

@@TeslaPlaidChannelplaces like show time and Bradenton may be more lenient but tracks like Gainesville seem to be more strict unless things have changed in the last 10-12 years back 12 or so years ago a friend went 9.2 at 148mph and they told him at Gainesville if you go 150+ your done racing until the car has a chute but yes the car was trailered to the track

@@gloriamaletta8667 👍 Indeed: Although both Bradenton and Orlando threatened to throw us out last year (before the NHRA rules changed in February), only Gainesville actually kicked my buddy out in December. Key difference: Although all are “NHRA” tracks, only Gainesville is *owned* and *operated* by the NHRA (not just “sanctioned”).

Gainesville Plaid ejection happened this day: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ad9ml614rOCvm30.html

Great question: We’ve reviewed 19”, 20”, and 21” Plaid setups in a video (link at bottom) and here are the key points when it comes to a launch traction, with the assumption being that you want an all-around tire that won’t slip on launch (so that the Plaid won’t cut power): -We want the lightest (hence smallest) setup that will get the job done. Any extra tire costs ET at the top end. -More sidewall is better. -Softer compound is better, especially when the car won’t allow a burnout. Although I don’t have any personal experience with the Super Sport tire, I can say that the PS4 (very similar to 4S) was absolutely outstanding on our 2019 Model S Performance for 1001 dragstrip runs. Amazing all-around tire, and shockingly good at the dragstrip. I was really hoping to see that tire delivered on the Plaid last year. They are awesome around town with good tread life, and reletively lightweight too. The Plaid’s stock 19” Pirellis have been a close second. And they’ve proven to be better than the 21” PS4S as we tested them side-by-side last year. (With so little sidewall on the 21”s, no surprise.) Of all the 20” tires made with a 28.0” outside diameter, the Nitto NT01s are just about the only choice in a soft “competition” tire. But these are not for street use, so only recommend if you are ready to swap them regularly. If 18”s fit over the rear brakes without any modifications, Mickey Thompson makes a drag radial that’s 28.0”. Yet guys that modify those rear brakes might run a PS4 up front. Really! So while not knowing how the Super Sports compare to the PS4S (or PS4), I keep coming back to the 1” sidewall difference. If you can find some good reviews of the SS for launch traction, then those on 19” wheels (the narrowest rim width that the tire will comfortably mount on) would likely be my choice. Really wish they made a PS4 in 255/285 19” sizes with 28” OD. More in this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m6dpl9iXs6q3nGw.html

Also, you may find some valuable insight from other Viewer’s experience in the Comments section of that video 👍

@@TeslaPlaidChannel Thanks Andrew for the detailed answer. What if the lighter option also has the thinner sidewall? I’m looking to get the SV104s and the 20s with the PS4S are 2lbs lighter across the 4 corners than the 19s with the SS. Is the minimal unsprung weight savings more important than a thicker sidewall? I wish the PS4Ses came in 255/285 sizes as well. Seems like they only make the SS in the OE sizes. I’ve watched your tire video numerous times, but haven’t gone into the comment since there are so many. I’ll have to go through them. If sidewall is more important, the question is whether the MPP Big Brake kit will work with the SV104 19s or I’ll just have to get the UP Large Sweep brakes since those are okay with 19s. 295s were recommended for the 20s and wasn’t sure if the extra width was better for traction and speed.

@@HowieDub Our 20” Nittos are 285, and don’t recall them ever spinning, yet the weight difference between 285 and 295 should be negligible. But note that I never actually wanted 20”s. What I really wanted was the 18”s. The record setting (8.75-sec) Plaid runs 18s. All the fastest cars we race (both 1000+ cars in this video) swapped their rear brakes out to run 15” wheels. Yes 15”! For drag racing, no one I know would ever run something as large as a 20”. Also, a good 19” wheel should be lighter than a 20” wheel from the same manufacturer. Enough to make up for the 2lb difference in the rubber? I’m not suggesting you modify your brakes to fit 18s. My Tesla tech confirmed that it would void the warranty on the brakes. But conversely, if you already planned to swap the brakes for other reasons (road course racing?), then that should be your starting point and then the 20”s make more sense for that application. (The Nittos may be a good choice for track days and then the PS4S are awesome for daily use.) But for drag racing, launch traction is ultimately more important than the 2lbs (8 total) in unsprung weight savings. When the tires slip, it costs 0.2-0.3 on average. (This week we ran 5.96, then 6.26 on the next pass when the Pirellis slipped.) The 8lbs total unsprung weight are more like half a tenth at best.

@@TeslaPlaidChannel Thank you for your advice Andrew. Yeah, the 19s are lighter than the 20s (83.2 lbs total weight vs 86), but the SS in 19s can be up to 4.8lbs heavier than the PS4S in 20s depending on which version of the PS4S is used. Thanks again for your help!

We don’t have any plans to put the rear seats back in, since it’s not a daily driver. For any given race video, check the Description. Here are the current details: “The Plaid is weight-reduced and running on the stock Pirelli P Zeros on 19” wheels. (Backseats and most rear material removed. Both front seats are still IN PLACE, along with all door panels, airbags, speakers and subwoofer.)”

👍 And yet there are still other variables. If one of them had, for example, a flat tire, then the increased rolling resistance would require even more HP than what the MPH shows. While certainly not “flat”, the paltry 15psi in the ZL1’s Mickeys were certainly not setup for “maximum trap speed” 🤔

Also depends on aero, car weight gearing etc plus EV torque curve is way different

Plaid is 1020HP, it's AWD traction controll and shifless 20k RPM motors reduce power loss and save launch time, it acts like 1200HP because gas cars need to be 1200HP to overcome the disadvantages.

@@miguellopez3392 It acts like 1200hp?? The Plaid needs 1200 whp to move that 4900 lb race weight to 150 mph! The lighter muscle cars would need around 1000 whp to get to 150 mph.

@@iceman4625 and i know you used a drag race calculator to get that number, that calculator assumes the plaid operates like a gas car, even the plaid doest like other EVs because of its flat torque curve (EV and gas engines loose efficiency past 7000RPM)

👍 For sure. in fact, if he only “coasted” for the second half of the track, that would have been a 9.8-9.9 pass. We know this from our experience when this track previously required us to stay under 10 seconds. Unless we got on the brakes between the 1/8th mile and 1/4mi finish, even the Regen braking wasn’t enough to keep us from running 9s. This tells us that the Vega was already on his brakes well before the 1320ft marker (understandable since his race is only 660ft)

Yeah, i thought they were around 4400, and the Demon's were around 4200.

@@Mr1Tanker someone in another plaid video posted their charger hellcat widebody was 4460# without a driver. Hell a Shelby gt500 is over 4,200# now fully fueled. Which is the same weight as a tesla model 3 performance. What I thought was interesting about weights? A 60s Lincoln could top 6,000# without being an armored presidents ride. And the average car in the 70s weighed over 4,000# that dropped to about 3,500# in the mid 90s. But nowadays cars are so much safer with much better tech and yet the average car weighs about 4,000# again. 😀

👍Yes, thanks Roy, I’m quite familiar with Miguel Roy’s modifications as we’ve been in communication for a few months 😃

Good thing I experienced all the engine building already in life. Three Camaros with modified small blocks, and a foxbody with nitrous. When someone gets older and their back can’t take hours of leaning into an engine bay anymore, they often buy a Corvette or exotic and that’s it. Why not a 9-sec EV? And just like in the 1980s when ECUs took over engine management, everyone said “we can’t modify them anymore!” Then the Aftermarket stepped up, just as they will again for EVs. As for the sound, would anyone buy an aftermarket “performance” muffler if it made their car slower? Of course not. This idea that “slower is better as long as it’s louder” is baloney. If their was a simple cheap muffler that made their car a full second faster but was very quiet, most drag racers would definitely buy it. Races are won by going faster, not by being louder 👍

@@TeslaPlaidChannel You have a good point there, when people get older their toys change if their bank account is healthy enough, EV are not for everyone as the exotic cars neither, Remember that not everyone have at least 150K to buy a Plaid or an exotic . I never said that louder is better than quicker or faster that has never been my ideology, Most of my cars has been extremely quiet but crazy quick and fast! As for my loudest one right now, there is NO even 1 EV in the planet that will get even close unless your RC get into the very low 6"s in the 1/4 mile but again, Loud and extremely quick/fast cars like mine are not for everyone, They could be a little bit too dangerous for most drivers, especially for old people with back problems! Haha! Keep up the good work buddy, one of these days will visit your local track and will be waiting for you at the end of the track after the pass with a cup of coffee for you!

There's not a single dragstrip over 1/4 mile in the entire state of Florida. Nor in any of the surrounding states. Those are largely a myth. Not sure why people believe that they commonly exist? 🤔

And yet the Vega clearly has the least total HP of all cars shown here, but it’s so much lighter (about half of the Plaid). If it had 1000+ like the ZL1, Redeye, and Plaids, then it would be running far faster MPH in the 1/8th mile (where it trapped only 117.6 to the Plaids 118.5)

@@TeslaPlaidChanneli honestly did not know vega’s were that light… roughly 2200lbs…. makes a lot more since now!

It seems that those 1/8 cars are usually running Powerglides. I wonder what prevents them from putting in a TH400, which can handle high HP, and be customized to give them plenty of gear to complete the 1/4 mile. Maybe cost, safety or a combination of that?

Too expensive to run the 1/4.. more liable to break with the longer time at WOT.

@@Mr1Tanker 👍 Exactly right, according to many of these drivers that I’ve talked to…

Drag racing? Yep, it’s got a whole following of people. Some even drag race their diesel trucks, little imports with HUGE tires on the front axle (and skinnies in the back), and rotary Mazdas. It’s not all big gas-burning V8s like some people falsely assume. But I'm not the only one racing EVs. The most famous Drag Racer of all time ("Big Daddy" Don Garlits) races Electric motors now also.

Big Daddy Don Garlits is racing EVs now, and we’re *all* sure he knows a hell of a lot more about drag racing than you do! 🤣

So please feel free to go ahead and give up. Big Daddy came back to racing just to run EVs, but based on your comment, very unlikely you’ll ever realize what he learned 🤔

Only in my early 50s...

@@TeslaPlaidChannel Ha ha my apologies sir. Look forward to the fling car races, been waiting 50+ years myself. Bet we see it.