Tesla S Plaid at a rural dragstrip (huh?? ;-)
Discussion
"One of these things is not like the others..."
So, I saw that the closest drag strip to me, which is about an hour and 45 minutes away from my home, was having its final “Test ‘n Tune” day of the season last weekend.
Running my car there would require me to stop and Supercharge to nearly 100% so that I could arrive at the track somewhere over 80% SOC. I had an appointment near the Supercharger that morning anyway so it made it easy enough to do that and then head down to the track for some fun.
This track is literally in the middle of nowhere in Northern Michigan, but it was pretty full on the day which makes some sense, as it’s the only strip anywhere in the area.
There was every possible type of vehicle out there, from all-out dragsters, older muscle cars, a “Smart Car” (yes, really) to beat up, stripped out clunkers to snowmobiles to drag motorcycles. My Plaid, however, was the only EV.
In my experience, it’s hard to predict what kind of reaction an EV will get at any drag strip, and I have to admit that I feared the worst, given the location of this strip. But my fears were unfounded, because all of the reactions were extremely positive, with plenty of thumbs up and multiple people coming over to say how cool they thought the car was, and commenting on its performance.
While I didn’t set any new Plaid ET or trap speed records, there were no other street cars that ran anything close to what the Plaid ran. I played around with different launching techniques over my 5 passes, and sometimes got a great launch and sometimes not such a great one, with my best 60 foot time being in the 1.5xx range. My best run (1/8 mile) was 6.3xx at a bit more than 118 mph.
Potentially re-stating the obvious, a full-out Launch Control/Cheetah Stance launch in this car on a sticky prepped surface is pretty crazy, and FUN!
Drag racing may not be for everyone, but it was a great time and a great way to get some real entertainment value at $25 for the day!






So, I saw that the closest drag strip to me, which is about an hour and 45 minutes away from my home, was having its final “Test ‘n Tune” day of the season last weekend.
Running my car there would require me to stop and Supercharge to nearly 100% so that I could arrive at the track somewhere over 80% SOC. I had an appointment near the Supercharger that morning anyway so it made it easy enough to do that and then head down to the track for some fun.
This track is literally in the middle of nowhere in Northern Michigan, but it was pretty full on the day which makes some sense, as it’s the only strip anywhere in the area.
There was every possible type of vehicle out there, from all-out dragsters, older muscle cars, a “Smart Car” (yes, really) to beat up, stripped out clunkers to snowmobiles to drag motorcycles. My Plaid, however, was the only EV.
In my experience, it’s hard to predict what kind of reaction an EV will get at any drag strip, and I have to admit that I feared the worst, given the location of this strip. But my fears were unfounded, because all of the reactions were extremely positive, with plenty of thumbs up and multiple people coming over to say how cool they thought the car was, and commenting on its performance.
While I didn’t set any new Plaid ET or trap speed records, there were no other street cars that ran anything close to what the Plaid ran. I played around with different launching techniques over my 5 passes, and sometimes got a great launch and sometimes not such a great one, with my best 60 foot time being in the 1.5xx range. My best run (1/8 mile) was 6.3xx at a bit more than 118 mph.
Potentially re-stating the obvious, a full-out Launch Control/Cheetah Stance launch in this car on a sticky prepped surface is pretty crazy, and FUN!
Drag racing may not be for everyone, but it was a great time and a great way to get some real entertainment value at $25 for the day!
QuickQuack said:
Nice! 
What was your opposite number when you were running?
My i-Pace would be annihilated by that, but I don't live that far from Santa Pod in Northamptonshire, maybe I should take it there soon just for the hell of it anyway...

What was your opposite number when you were running?
My i-Pace would be annihilated by that, but I don't live that far from Santa Pod in Northamptonshire, maybe I should take it there soon just for the hell of it anyway...

Not sure I understand what you’re asking…?
The car next to me in the run shown on the time slip was a drag-optimized mid-1960s muscle car of some type. Didn’t really register which specific marque…maybe a Pontiac? It was a cool car though and sounded the business…
I had fun - made 5 passes within about 90 minutes, which isn’t bad. A car broke on the starting line while I was waiting between my 3rd and 4th runs, which added about 20 minutes of cleanup time or it would have been even quicker. 1/8 mile helps too - blink and you miss it!
Reaction time has me questioning if you jumped the start. Did you really react to the lights less than 0.1 of a second?
That's a red card in sprints and a 10 sec penalty in F1
Hope you enjoyed your day; would love to do it but don't own anything worthy of "wrung what you brung". Although at Gutersloh airfield we ran this event a couple of times before the H&S police stopped it
That's a red card in sprints and a 10 sec penalty in F1

Hope you enjoyed your day; would love to do it but don't own anything worthy of "wrung what you brung". Although at Gutersloh airfield we ran this event a couple of times before the H&S police stopped it
TheDrownedApe said:
Reaction time has me questioning if you jumped the start. Did you really react to the lights less than 0.1 of a second?
That's a red card in sprints and a 10 sec penalty in F1
Hope you enjoyed your day; would love to do it but don't own anything worthy of "wrung what you brung". Although at Gutersloh airfield we ran this event a couple of times before the H&S police stopped it
LOL - I just guessed right, and believe me, on the other 4 I wasn't nearly as keen at the lights! ;-)That's a red card in sprints and a 10 sec penalty in F1

Hope you enjoyed your day; would love to do it but don't own anything worthy of "wrung what you brung". Although at Gutersloh airfield we ran this event a couple of times before the H&S police stopped it
Indeed, my R/T on one of them was a 0.67xx, and the car in the other lane pulled a 0.1xx, leaving me standing. Funny enough, afterwards, I congratulated him on leaving me "sleeping at the tree", and he said, "Maybe so, but I knew you were coming! (past him)", and I did...
The fun part of an event like this is it doesn't matter what you run - many are there just for fun, though there was also some actual racing happening that day too.
My first run of the day saw me lined up next to a Suzuki drag motorcycle. Not only did he absolutely demolish me at the light, he also ran 5.7xx, so it wouldn't have mattered what my reaction time was - I was gonna "lose" regardless....
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