We've seen electric cars race against "gassers" before, but although we've seen some fast electrics hanging out together, we hadn't seen them square off. Until now. A few days ago the Tango belonging to a guy named Jorg (which we've seen driven previously) and the Tesla Roadster Signature 100 series #9 met on the drag strip portion of Infineon Raceway for a little one-on-one action. Now, this particular track has seen a Roadster scoot down the measured quarter mile before in 12.757 seconds hitting 104.74 mph but that car had the newer 1.5 drivetrain and, presumably, freshly charged batteries. This Tesla lacked those advantages.
Spoiler alert! So, how did they stack up? Well, the Tango was quicker, crossing the line in 14.480 seconds at 92.15 mph. However, because of the nature of bracket racing, it also lost. The Tesla, just a smidge slower, covered the distance in 14.666 seconds and was cruising at 101.23 mph when it crossed the finish line. Hopefully we'll be seeing some more of this sort of gas-free competition in the near future. Hit the jump for some electric drag racing video action.
UPDATE: Whoops. Gotta fix a few errors in this post. These corrections come directly from Jorg:
Actually the Tango was owned by Nat Simons in Berkeley, not me, which was only 35 miles away from the drag strip; Iive 70 miles away and so the 45-mile range of the Tango makes getting there problematic.
The Tesla is the one I own, and in this video, drive, and that's why it does so slow; the guy in the other car weighs about 80 pounds less than I do. When we leveled the playing field and let him drive the Tesla on a later run, it got 14.498, which is only 18 thousands of a second slower than the Tango.
Also, please note, the reason we were there that day was to set a NEDRA record for fastest production electric car on a drag strip; indeed, we got it. See http://nedra.com/record_holders.html
Thanks, Jorg!
[Source: YouTube]
Spoiler alert! So, how did they stack up? Well, the Tango was quicker, crossing the line in 14.480 seconds at 92.15 mph. However, because of the nature of bracket racing, it also lost. The Tesla, just a smidge slower, covered the distance in 14.666 seconds and was cruising at 101.23 mph when it crossed the finish line. Hopefully we'll be seeing some more of this sort of gas-free competition in the near future. Hit the jump for some electric drag racing video action.
UPDATE: Whoops. Gotta fix a few errors in this post. These corrections come directly from Jorg:
Actually the Tango was owned by Nat Simons in Berkeley, not me, which was only 35 miles away from the drag strip; Iive 70 miles away and so the 45-mile range of the Tango makes getting there problematic.
The Tesla is the one I own, and in this video, drive, and that's why it does so slow; the guy in the other car weighs about 80 pounds less than I do. When we leveled the playing field and let him drive the Tesla on a later run, it got 14.498, which is only 18 thousands of a second slower than the Tango.
Also, please note, the reason we were there that day was to set a NEDRA record for fastest production electric car on a drag strip; indeed, we got it. See http://nedra.com/record_holders.html
Thanks, Jorg!
[Source: YouTube]
The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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