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"Ludicrous Speed" For Tesla's Model S Means 0-60 MPH In 2.8 Seconds

Posted by timothy on from the neither-blows-nor-sucks dept.

Automobile Magazine, writes reader Eloking, reports that the highest-end of the Tesla line has just gotten a boost upward, thanks to a new "Ludicrous Speed" mode: In combination with a newly optional 90-kWh battery pack, this new mode brings 0-60 mph acceleration down to 2.8 seconds (from a quoted 3.2 seconds for the P85D model). This larger battery pack is offered as an upgrade from the existing 85-kWh model, creating new 90, 90D, and P90D models. It doesn't come cheap, though: this isn't just a firmware update to download. For P90D owners, the upgrade costs $10,000 (including the larger battery); P85Ds can be upgraded for half that price.

6 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. With stock tires on my local road? by iamacat · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Somehow I get the feeling that this $10K upgrade will just get me a bit more smoke and rubber left on the road. Just how was this tested? What am I likely to really achieve on a local highway and with stock tires (presumably while steering clear of cops and any other nearby traffic)?

    1. Re:With stock tires on my local road? by bledri · · Score: 4, Interesting

      A '72 Z28 Camaro is around 4 seconds, so I agree - those numbers are suspect at best. Have they actually done it? Or is this what the engineers calculate it might be able to do?

      This is a Poe, right? Well played. YouTube will give you the answers you seek. :)

      The 762 HP all-wheel drive electric car with traction control and performance tires (standard on the Model D) most definitely blows the doors of of the 255 HP rear wheel drive V8 with a standard differential. Also, the '72 Z/28 has a 0-60 time of 7.4 seconds.

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    2. Re:With stock tires on my local road? by Charliemopps · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I used to race RC cars in competition. Both "Stock cars" (we called them pan cars) and drag races. We're not talking about walmart RC cars here... Mine were custom cut out of graphite sheets with a CNC router. My pan car would do between 70 and 80mph real speed, not scale. The drag car wasn't really measurable but it's speed resembled an arrow in flight. Random video I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Basically everything Tesla is doing was stolen from my old hobby. The torque possible with an electric motor is only limited by the fleshy bit behind the steering wheel. Tesla could literally kill you if they let the motor wind out at full torque. The biggest problem I had to deal with was the heat on the power cables. The cables were the size of pencils but they were draining 20+ c-cell batteries completely dead in just a few seconds. As the tech advanced, we eventually had to get rid of battery connectors completely. We'd solder the battery backs directly to the speed controller. Then the cables between cells would start melting, so we spot welded sheet metal directly to them. Then the speed controllers started frying to we switched to mechanical relays that just dumped the entire battery at 100% at once. We had so many car fires, the school gyms that we used to race at wouldn't let us run there anymore. If you're wondering, to get batteries to dump that much juice at once, you have to "Train" them... we'd hook them up to tractor headlights from the local farm implement store and dump them quick. Then charge them quick. Do this hundreds of times and they'd turn into these super high voltage power houses. I think a while later, after I left the hobby, they put limits on the voltage output of the batteries, because they were getting pretty dangerous. I saw people get hurt at some major competitions by batteries exploding and in one case a car punched through a 3/4" sheet of plywood and broke a persons leg. That was from a standing start from less than 100 feet away.

      As far as tires go... that's nothing. Regular car tires... well they suck. They're made very hard so they'll last a long time. To make a tire than has insane amounts of traction is easy... only problem is it only lasts 5k miles. But if you're buying a $200k car, I doubt you care.

  2. Wow.... that's a full G of acceleration! by mark-t · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's gotta have some interesting ramifications when you are driving on a slope, especially if you are accelerating over a small rise in the road.

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  3. w/AWD and inteligent speed/traction control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is NOT an old-school rear wheel drive with essentially an open diff and sloppy suspension. The car could theoretically apply exactly the maximum amount of power possible before causing wheelspin, to each wheel, continuously adjusting them all simultaneously until you let off the pedal. Given enough power it might even be possible to accelerate /almost/ as fast as you can stop. So, if it can go 60-0 in 104 feet with those tires...

    Tesla vs Hellcat back in January

    Also, if you're only going zero to [the speed limit] and you're on a highway with little to no traffic, I've never heard of a U.S. state that has a law against "accelerating too fast" as long as you aren't racing another vehicle and you don't break traction for an extended period of time or commit some other moving violation in the process.

    But, no, you won't get 2.8 on a road with sand/gravel on it.

  4. Re:Spaceballs by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "It's Tesla One... they've gone Plaid!"