Earlier this month when showcasing the Tesla Model S Plaid drag racing the Lucid Air Dream Edition Performance, we mentioned how this battle (Porsche Taycan included) replaced last decade’s Holy Trinity quarter-mile supremacy fight, which involved hybrid hypercars. Well, now that electricity no longer needs its combustion partner to run the show, SUVs can pull amazing drag strip stunts too, matching some of the sharpest contemporary supercars. Enter the 1,020 hp Tesla Model X Plaid, which now holds two world records, being the most powerful and quickest production SUV.
Here in six-seater configuration and sporting the 20-inch wheels (these are better for drag racing than the optional 22-inch units, the electric SUV recently took to the Palm Beach International Raceway in an attempt to beat its previous street-proven quarter-mile time of 9.8 seconds.
As has been the case with the electric super-sedans mentioned in the intro, the one holding on to the yoke for the stunt is Brooks Weisblat of the Drag Times YouTube channel. And since the vlogger’s MO includes verifying the performance via VBOX and Draggy GPS hardware, we’ve got a clear perspective on what a fully charged Model X Plaid can do straight out of the box.
To be more precise, it seems that Brooks only had the strip for one hour, so he went for a few single player runs before a pair of supercars joined the game for the final shenanigans—we’ll see the Model X Plaid duking it out with a Lamborghini Huracan Evo and a 992 Porsche 911 Turbo S in future videos.
Tesla Model X Plaid real-world acceleration numbers, quarter-mile and more
For now, though, we can enjoy the battery-powered SUV in isolation, with the machine pulling a 9.75s quarter-mile run at 144.88 mph, which beats the official time by 0.15s. As for the 0 to 60 mph time, the VBOX showed 2.3s on the prepped surface of the track, which is 0.2s better than the official figure.
However, with only the first of the three solo runs being timed at the track (some issues apparently prevented the other two from being recorded), Brooks felt that he could squeeze some extra performance out of the vehicle, expecting the Model X Plaid to perhaps become a 9.5s car in the future.
And if we look at the Draggy figures, we’ll notice the 60-130 mph time sits at 5.26s—as Brooks reminds us in the video below, this time, as well as the quarter-mile number match the kind of performance that saw people falling in love with the McLaren 720S some four years ago.
Now, if you prefer the sprinting numbers used on the Old Continent, we’ll mention the Model X Plaid did 0-100 km/h in 2.73s, 100-200 km/h in 4.53s, and 0-200 km/h in 7.27s.
And once Tesla manages to deal with the delays for the deliveries of the revamped Model X, we should see plenty of these Plaids giving supercar drivers a hard time.
