Tesla Motors has made lots of performance claims about its 2012 Model S sedan, and while early test drives have definitely left many with positive seat-of-the pants impressions, there's nothing quite like a quality instrumented thrashing to back up a company's assertions.
Edmunds Inside Line has gotten its (dirty, stinking) mitts on a Performance-spec example and has been putting the battery-powered fastback through its paces in a proper track environment. It now has an answer to that rubber-burning question: "Does the Model S do on pavement what it does on paper?"
It does. And, in the case of the all-important 0-to-60 time, slightly better even – 4.35 seconds as opposed to the stated 4.4 seconds. Sweet!
The Model S also lives up to its billing in the quarter-mile metric, with IL tester Mike Monticello matching the 12.6 second claim that Tesla makes on its website. That's an impressive number, especially if you consider that the company's Roadster currently (but not, we suspect, for long) owns the NEDRA Street Production record time with a 12.643 seconds.
As well as acceleration, the 5+2 seat Model S was also subjected to skid pad, slalom, and braking abuse where it acquitted itself quite nicely for a 4,770-lb machine. While we are still waiting to share our own impressions of this ground-breaking vehicle (soon, we promise!), we are only too happy to offer this bit of entertaining video from the good folks at Inside Line just below.
Edmunds Inside Line has gotten its (dirty, stinking) mitts on a Performance-spec example and has been putting the battery-powered fastback through its paces in a proper track environment. It now has an answer to that rubber-burning question: "Does the Model S do on pavement what it does on paper?"
It does. And, in the case of the all-important 0-to-60 time, slightly better even – 4.35 seconds as opposed to the stated 4.4 seconds. Sweet!
The Model S also lives up to its billing in the quarter-mile metric, with IL tester Mike Monticello matching the 12.6 second claim that Tesla makes on its website. That's an impressive number, especially if you consider that the company's Roadster currently (but not, we suspect, for long) owns the NEDRA Street Production record time with a 12.643 seconds.
As well as acceleration, the 5+2 seat Model S was also subjected to skid pad, slalom, and braking abuse where it acquitted itself quite nicely for a 4,770-lb machine. While we are still waiting to share our own impressions of this ground-breaking vehicle (soon, we promise!), we are only too happy to offer this bit of entertaining video from the good folks at Inside Line just below.
The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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