We had some time with a 2014 Tesla Model S 85, the non-performance version and did a quick 0-60 MPH test run with the Vbox.  Tesla rates the Model S 85 at 362HP and a 0-60 MPH time of 5.4 seconds.   With the battery at less than 50% the Model S ran 0-60 in 4.9 seconds and 0-100 in 12.4 seconds.

While this is well ahead of Tesla’s quoted numbers, we think it will do even better with a full charge.   We tested the base 60 kWh model a while back with a full charge was able to run 0-60 MPH in just 5.1 seconds.

To continue with our popular Tesla video series (Tesla vs Viper and Tesla vs Corvette) we have some video of a Tesla Model S P85 going up against a very pricey Italian super car, the Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Super Trofeo Stradale (STS).

With a price tag close to $300,000, this Lamborghini is named after the Super Trofeo Racing Series and is equipped and modeled after the Lamborghini race cars.  The STS is Lamborghini’s lightest Gallardo at just 3,400 pounds (real world weight) and is powered by a 5.2L V10 making 570 horsepower through a 6 speed e-gear automated transmission  with  all wheel drive.  We tested the STS earlier in the year and ran 11.2 @ 126.5 MPH which was the quickest time for any Gallardo down the drag strip.

The $95,000 Tesla Model S P 85 is powered by an electric motor that is about the size of a small office trash can and makes 415 horsepower.  With no transmission and a weight of 4,700 pounds, we tested this Model S earlier this year as well running a 12.3 @ 110.8 MPH.

Of course the specs and odds are in favor of the Lamborghini in this race, but we wanted to show  just how “on your game” you have to be when going up against a Tesla that has instant power and torque at any speed, even when driving a $300k exotic car.  In the first race from a dead stop, a slight delay in reaction time (about the time it takes to snap your fingers) by the Lamborghini’s driver resulted in a the Tesla catapulting ahead while the Lamborghini had to play catch up for quite a while.  In the 2nd race the start was even with the Tesla spinning a bit and the STS was ahead the whole time.   In the 3rd run from a roll you can see how a simple delay in the start along being too low in the RPM range in the Lamborghini can result in a rather long game of catch up.   The Tesla’s instant power and torque at any speed, combined with no shifting makes it easy to take many cars and drivers by surprise.

While we’re testing the performance capabilities of the Tesla Model S by running it down the 1/4 mile in heads up races such as Tesla vs Corvette Stingray and Tesla vs Viper, others are digging deep into how the Tesla Model S functions internally.

Being the technical marvel that the Model S is with it’s 17″ multi-touch display, all digital dashboard, all electric drivetrain, remote control Apps and more,  along with the fact that the car was designed from the ground up with no predecessor, it’s no surprise that internally it’s using the latest technologies to run these systems.

Some tech savvy Model S owners have located a 4 pin connector (HSD 4 pole M12) on the left side of the Tesla Model S dashboard that turns out to be a disguised ethernet networking port.  After taking apart one end of an ethernet patch cable and trying different pin combinations to connect with the Tesla’s port, a networking connection was established between the Model S and a laptop computer.  This connection allowed for port scanning and data sniffing to explore  how the Tesla Model S systems communicate with each other and what services are running and used.

The car’s internal 100 Mbps, full duplex ethernet network consists of 3 devices with assiged IP addresses in the 192.168.90.0 subnet, the center console, dashboard/nav screen and one more unknown device.  Some ports and services that were open on the devices were:

• 22 (SSH)
• 23 (telnet)
• 53 (open domain)
• 80 (HTTP)
• 111 (rpcbind)
• 2049 (NFS)
• 6000 (X11)

Port 80 one one device was serving up a web page with the image or media of the current song being played.  The operating system is modified version of Ubuntu using an ext3 filesystem.

Using X11 it also appears that an owner was able to somewhat run Firefox on both screens as per the pictures.

All of this technology certain brings up the question as to when and if Telsa’s internal systems will be hacked and jailbroken to allow 3rd party applications to run on the large 17″ touchscreen.  Hacking your iPhone is one thing, hacking your car is quite another.

We should also note that apparently Tesla engineers detected this hacking or exploring and sent a nastygram to the cars owner, “Tesla USA engineers have seen a tentative of hacking on my car.”, “can be related to industrial espionage and advised me to stop investigation, to not void the warranty”.

Does Tesla have an network intrusion detection system installed on the cars?  Do they have the right to not allow you to tinker with your own car?

This is certainly going to be interesting as more Tesla’s hit the road and more people attempt to get into it’s systems.  So far just about every consumer device that’s been desired to be hacked into, has.

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Reference: http://www.teslamotorsclub.com

Here is another featured race from the StreetCarDrags.com event at Palm Beach International Raceway this past weekend.  We put our 2013 Tesla Model S P85  heads up against the brand new 2014 Chevrolet Corvette C7 Z51 with the 6 speed automatic transmission.

It’s a rehash of our wildly popular Tesla vs Viper race we did last year where we pit new age American electric against modern American muscle and the results were similar with the Tesla Model S winning one race and the Chevrolet Corvette winning the other.

Tech Specs:

• 2013 Tesla Model S P85: 415 HP, 4,690 pounds, no transmission
• 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray: 460HP, 3,450 pounds, 6 speed automatic transmission

Can the Tesla Model S with 45 less horsepower carrying 1,240 more pounds keep up with the Corvette Stingray?    Click play below and find out…

 

 

 

A race car owner recently tested their Tesla Model S in A2′s wind tunnel.  While the results were close, the Tesla Model S reportedly edged out the Daytona Race car in terms of it’s coefficient of drag.  Check out the pictures and video below:

Take a look at this bright green Tesla Model S spotted with Elon Musk and some other execs in the background at the Tesla factory.  All kinds of rumors are running rampant with this one from it being an all wheel drive test mule Model S with 600HP to just a new color, or the possibility of it being featured in an upcoming movie.

 

Related Links:

• Tesla Model S Drag Racing Energy Usage and Cost
• Tesla Model S Performance sets World Record for the Quickest Production Electric Car
• Tesla Model S 60 kWh vs Tesla Model S 85 kWh Performance

 

 

Source: TeslaMotorsClub

 

A member over at TeslaMotorsClub spotted this Tesla Model S Performance 85 sitting at the Hertz in San Diego available for rental.   If you want to rip up the streets quietly (0-60 in 3.9 seconds) in a Tesla Model S then head on over and be ready to spend quite a bit at $1,500 per day.

We wonder if you have to bring it back with a full charge or be hit with some crazy charging fees??

Source: TeslaMotorsClub

While we’ve done quite a few tests with the 2012 and 2013 Tesla Model S 85 Performance, we recently had some seat time in Tesla’s base model, the Model S 60 kWh.  The base Model S with the 60 kWh battery is rated at 302 HP (225 kW) and 317 ft-lbs of torque.   Tesla claims a 0-60 MPH time of 5.9 seconds and a 1/4 mile of 14.2 but as we’ve seen in the past with the high end Model S 85 performance, Tesla seems under rate their cars, so we decided to bring out the VBOX and test it out.

This Model S was equipped with the 19″ wheels, technology package,  no panoramic roof and was painted in what we think is not the best color for the Model S, BROWN.  We charged up the Model S 60 to it’s full capacity (208 EPA rated miles) and headed out for a few runs.   The Model S 60 was amazing consistent running 3 consecutive 0-60 MPH runs in just 5.1 seconds with 0-100 MPH coming in at 12.8 seconds and the 1/4 mile in 13.7 @ 102.8 MPH.  This is significantly  quicker and faster than what Tesla quotes and actually beats Tesla’s numbers for the Tesla Model S 85 Non-Performance. View our world record run for the Model S Performance.

We noticed that the while on full throttle, the Tesla Model S 60 was showing a peak power of 240 kW on the digital dash display, this is a little higher than what Tesla lists on their website, 225 kW.   So maybe they are sending out these base models with a bit more power.   The Model S 85 is rated at 270 kW (362HP) and the 85 Performance at 310 kW (416 HP).

We put together two videos, one of just the Model S 60 and another that shows the Model S 60 vs the 85 Performance digital dashes side by side from 0-114 MPH.   Both runs were done on the same road but at different times, enjoy!

 

We’ve had a few questions and interesting comments on our posts and videos about just how much all out racing could be done with a Tesla Model S along with how much that racing might cost.   We did some testing with a 2013 Tesla Model S Performance and took some video of the runs to address these questions in the real world.

The Tesla Model S we tested was equipped with the 85 kWh battery and the Performance Package which makes it the most powerful and highest capacity car that Tesla currently offers.  Power output for this Model S is 416 HP and 443 ft-lbs of torque and the car weighs in at 4,700 pounds.

The state of charge for the Tesla’s battery at the beginning of the test was about 82% full showing 253 miles of ideal range .   We reset the trip computer and set regenerative braking to it’s max setting before the run so we could monitor the Tesla’s energy usage as well as the regenerative braking to determine an approximate net energy usage during the 1/4 mile run.

After coming to a complete stop and turning off traction control we launched the Model S and ran the 1/4 mile under full throttle.   We held down the power just past the 1/4 mile hitting 114 MPH and then let off the accelerator allowing the regenerative braking to bring the car down to almost a complete stop without touching the actual brakes.

As you can see in the video below the Tesla’s total energy consumption was 1.1 kWh at 114 MPH and after the car slowed down using the regenerative braking .6 kWh was put back into the battery.   This results in a net energy usage of .5 kWh for the 1/4 mile pass.  Pretty amazing that the car can recover just over half of energy used and put it back into the battery using it’s regenerative braking.

Using the Tesla’s 85 kWh battery specification we divided 85 kWh by .5 kWh and came up with an estimated 170 all out races before needing to charge back up.  Using our electricity rates here in South Florida @ ~12 cents per kWh from FPL, each race costs just 6 cents!

For those interested in the performance data, the VBOX measured 0-60 MPH in 3.9 seconds and the 1/4 mile at 12.4 @ 111.3 MPH.   Also take a look this Tesla Model S setting the world record for the quickest production electric car.

Take a look at the video below and also check out our other Tesla Model S articles and videos.

Our Other Tesla Videos

We have some screens shots of some hidden menus on a Tesla Model S which reveals some very interesting information about some possible upcoming features Tesla might have in store for it’s Model S.  In the APPS section there are options for an Image Viewer, Sketch Pad, and Scheduler along with a few testing apps.

Even more interesting is the DATA area which shows configuration options for Blind Spot Detection, Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Departure Warning Systems all of which are currently not available in the Model S.  Also shown is a really cool diagram showing the current status of the battery management, charging and cooling systems.

In the settings area there are additional options such as a top speed limiter and derate sport torque.  While those are interesting we were really hoping for a Launch Control option with some more torque off the line to get the Model S into the 11′s at the drag strip.

Holding down the Tesla Logo in the top middle of the Model S 17″ touch screen for 5 seconds and releasing brings up a prompt for a password which allows access to these screens.   No, we don’t have the password and we highly recommend not getting into these hidden menus as they could cause major issues with the Model S if not properly used.

Below is a video showing how to access the hidden menu password prompt along with some screen shots of what’s in the hidden menus.