Tesla Model S Plaid runs 9.23 seconds in quarter mile sprint

Customer deliveries of Tesla’s hotly anticipated Model S Plaid may not have begun yet, but already there are wild claims about the four-door’s performance being thrown about.

Tesla themselves reckon a 0-60mph (0-98km/h) time of 1.9 seconds is achievable – which, quite frankly, is absurd.

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The Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport

But now, Drive Tesla Canada is reporting that a source witnessed the Plaid run the quarter-mile time in just 9.23 seconds recently at Autoclub Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California.

That’s fast enough to leave a Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport in the dust. Let that sink in for a moment – an electric four-door sedan is quicker than an eight-litre, quad-turbo W16 hypercar that costs more than the average Beverly Hills mansion.

It’s so quick that the only production car that could hope to beat it in a drag race is Rimac’s multi-million dollar C_Two, which recently ran a quarter mile time, on standard Michelin PS4S tyres, in 8.94 seconds.

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The Rimac C_Two

Of course, the Plaid’s time is just an unsubstantiated rumour at this point, and we don’t know what the circumstances were.

Was the car on standard tyres or drag radials? What sort of surface was it run on, drag strip or road? These are the questions that need to be answered before we can start hailing the Model S Plaid as the new performance benchmark of the automotive industry.

But, if it’s all legit, then my oh my has Elon Musk and his team been able to achieve something truly staggering.

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