Tuesday 20th January 2015

Hellcat vs Tesla: Time For Tea?

A drag battle for the soul of the American car industry, after a false start

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With 350,000 views on YouTube in just two days it's fair to say that this drag race video is already doing it's own small part in breaking the internet. It's already picked up a fair few comments in the Gassing Station, too - but we figured it deserves a wider audience through the homepage.

Yet to watch it once is to realise that the narrative that has sprung up around it is almost entirely wrong. Because this isn't the story of how a cappuccino-sipping electric-powered Tesla comprehensively outgunned some old-school Detroit V8 muscle so much as the story of how a Dodge Challenger Hellcat driver completely fluffed the start and then decided to play it for laughs.

Credit to the Tesla P85D, the new four-wheel drive version of the electric carmaker's saloon, with a peak total 691hp. It sets off at a convincing pace on its way to an 11.68 second quarter mile, crossing the line at 114.6mph. That has to make it the fastest production electric car in the world; not bad for a four-seater with room for luggage.

But having messed up the start the Hellcat driver seems more intent on punishing his rear tyres than he does on recording a time. Rear wheels are spinning, and a fair amount of opposite lock is applied, for at least 100 yards. It certainly proves the Dodge is a hard car to get off the line (something born out by my experience in one last year), but in a fair fight it would be very close, especially as it's already recorded an 11.2 second quarter on road legal tyres.

Now if somebody could take them both on track for us with an expert driver...

Watch the video here.

 

 

 

[British Beef]

I was in a Tesla taxi just this morning (Stavanger, Norway), very impressive packaging, and its a full 5 seater with option plus 2 in the boot, so its a 5+2 seater, still with seperate storage space under the bonnet.

The Hellcat looks far more fun mind!!

[British Beef]

norty said:

I'd urge everyone to go for a test drive in a Tesla S and not judge them until you do.

Plenty of fun to be had between 0 and 30 mph if you can do it quicker than pretty much any other car on the road. The lack of fuss is part of the game.

I disagree. It is a very nice bit of engineering and technology wrapped up in a nice looking shell. Very cheap to run and would make a great commuter.

BUT fun to drive it absolutely is not. 2.2 tonnes, no gear stick, no noise and large dimensions see to this IMO, despite being one of the fastest accelerating car I have ever been in.