The Speed Academy youtub channel took a slightly modified Tesla Model S Plaid, which was worked on by Mountain Pass Performance, for a ride on the track. Not in terms of performance, but chassis, tires and ride electronics – traction control and stabilization.
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Together with a strange steering wheel, this can be a recipe for a problem – the car looks twice (even almost three times) in exactly the same way off the track, in the grass and in the bushes.
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The steering wheel, which has no upper part, was the most controversial part of the recent Model S facelift.
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In the video it can be seen in time from 6.59 – through the finish line Tesla accelerates to about 240 km / h and then during heavy braking the car loses stability. Skid is probably a problem for a driver who is obviously very experienced and calm in such situations, probably also because it is very problematic to quickly feel on the steering wheel, which is not at least a little round. But the steering wheel alone could not be the problem.
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“When I brake anywhere else on the track, the ABS starts to sound normally, normally, predictably,” the driver explains later. “Only when I run into that particular unevenness at 230 km / h, all four wheels lighten up, the ABS loses track of what’s going on, and the person completely loses control of the car.”
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It would be easy to accuse Tesla of a lousy ABS calibration, but she did not develop the system, but bought it from Bosch, a giant in the industry. In the driver’s opinion, interventions in the road stabilization system may also be to blame, which may affect the ABS’s behavior. “Otherwise, people with plaid would still be crashing,” the driver adds.
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They decided to manipulate the stabilization because its factory setting is not suitable for driving on a racing circuit. “As soon as a route mode appears, we may not have to,” says the driver, referring to a possible future update to the car’s on-board software.
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A detailed look at the telemetry of the car, which can be seen in the video from 3.17 pm, shows that the ABS system did not work at the incriminating moment – the driver is investigating the last case he managed to keep the car on the track. In the latter case, he did not brake as hard as in the previous two.
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People who drive the S Plaid without road modifications are most likely not at risk because they do not interfere with the car’s electronics. Nevertheless, the data was sent to Tesla for analysis so that any shortcomings could be rectified. That the modifiers came to him like this on the track and that two trips off the asphalt went without any damage to the car is quite good in the end.
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Of course, it can be argued that 240 km / h is not commonly used on roads, but this would not be entirely true – there are still oases of motoring freedom in the world where this is legal, not only at airports and racetracks but also on some sections of German motorways or roads on the Isle of Man.
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