This story about the Tesla Model X was first published on Gas2.
Tesla continues to get more free advertising than any company in history thanks to the magic of cheap video cameras and YouTube. In the past few days, a Model X set a new world record for an SUV at the drag strip — humbling a half-million-dollar Lamborghini in the process — and a 97-year-old man got his first ride in a Model S. Both videos make for entertaining watching.
Tesla Model X P100DL Versus Lamborghini Aventador SV
Drag Times recently took a Tesla Model X P100D with Ludicrous mode to Palm Beach International Raceway, where it faced off against a Lamborghini Aventador SV. Here are the specs: The Model X weighs 5,400 lbs. It sends 924 lb-ft of torque and 588 horsepower to all four wheels. List price is $165,000. The Lamborghini weighs 4,200 lbs and features a 750 horsepower V12 gasoline engine driving all four wheels through a 7 speed transmission. It lists for $530,000.
Put them side by side, start the timing tree, and watch them duke it out through the quarter mile. When they trip the lights at the other end, the Model X beats the Lambo by 0.05 seconds. Later in the day, the Tesla established the current world record time for an SUV at 11.418 seconds.
An experienced race watcher will notice a couple of things. First, the Tesla did not have a full battery charge for any of its runs. The people at Drag Times acknowledge the car will be even quicker if it runs with a fully charged battery. Second, in the first race, the Lamborghini bogs down at the start and experiences wheel hop off the line. In a competition where results are measured in thousandths of a second, little things like that are the difference between winning and losing.
Later in the day, a Model S P100DL faces off against the same Lamborghini and gets stomped because the Tesla driver totally blows the start and lets the Lambo get part way down the track before he can find the go pedal, proving once again that drag racing is as much about reaction time and traction off the line as raw power.
In the end, drag racing results have little to nothing to do with everyday driving except for those who delight in stop light grand prix competition. But they do give Tesla more free advertising than any other car company in history. That as much as anything else makes executives at other car companies tear their hair out.
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
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