Tesla P100D Cleans Up in Night of Street Racing

Whisper-quiet electric motors make for a weird, embarrassing way to lose a street race.

Electric cars tend to conjure up visions of left-lane-hogging garbage-carts, but sometimes we just get a flash of how crazy electric-car performance can be. Like a stripped-interior Tesla P100D annihilating all comers at a street race.

1320 Video caught up with the host of the Tesla Racing Channel for a night of electron-fueled street-racing beat-downs. Although, they’re not quite typical street-racing fare.

We find the whole scene of a Tesla winning street races completely bizarre. Because of its price point, the car’s typical owner seldom cares about anything performance. Seeing a Tesla driver wearing a helmet comes across as exceedingly strange in and of itself.

That helmeted pilot compounds the most incomprehensible part: Watching the electric car whoosh away from increasingly stiff competition. The P100D leaves with only the motors’ whispers and the momentary chirp of tires. And when it leaves, it leaves: The Tesla’s 60-foot time sure looks amazing.

The kill count for the night is impressive. It cleans up on a pair of stock-ish Mustangs first. After wailing on a nitrous Fox Body Mustang with a nasty cam, the pony car’s owner expresses some disagreement over lane choice. He changes his tune after the Tesla whomps him in a rematch.

From there, the Tesla takes down another nitrous Fox ‘Stang with a Pro Mod-style wing. Finally, the car squares off with a Nissan GT-R. All-wheel-drive should make a fair fight, right? Well, maybe. The Tesla trees the GT-R and then just keeps a car length or two ahead. Maybe if the GT-R had crushed the reaction time it would be close.

We’re not sure we’ll ever get used to the silence, but if the future means cars that pull this hard off the line, electric power can’t be all bad.