Tesla Model 3 Performs at Super Car Levels

Bolt on upgrades to a street-legal Tesla Model 3 almost matched the racetrack time for a Mclaren F1 car on the Tsukuba Circuit in Japan.

The fastest recorded lap time at Tsukuba is a 1:00.3 by a Nissan Nismo GT-R.
McLaren F1: 1:04.6
Tesla Model 3 Ascension-R by Unplugged Performance: 1:04.7
Porsche 911 GT3 997: 1:04.8
Ferrari F40: 1:04.8
Audi R8 V10 5.2 FSI: 1:04.9
Lamborghini Gallardo: 1:05.0
Porsche 911 Turbo 997: 1:05.2

34 thoughts on “Tesla Model 3 Performs at Super Car Levels”

  1. I for one find the Tesla fans annoying. If you say anything they perceive as negative they start accusing you of shortingTesla stock.

  2. Or vastly superior performance. The 1000 hp Lucid Air (which is supposed to be shown in production prototype form at the NY Auto Show in April) at about the same price as the top end Model S has a top speed of 217 mph and a 400 mile range at highway speeds. Having that kind of range at highway speeds is a first.

  3. Having to preheat the battery to achieve these results makes them suspect as does having non stock brakes and suspension. All recent Supercars have a top speed of at least 200 mph which the Model 3 doesn’t at 162 mph.

  4. Nobody “desires” a city car for under E10000.
    They are prepared to compromise on such a car. But they still desire the high end luxury and/or performance model.
    Or they don’t care about cars at all and their object of desire is a Stradivarius Violin or a top end gaming rig or a world cruise holiday or a 400 sq. m luxury house or whatever.

  5. Which is apples and oranges to the point of the article. When performance and fun are not criteria. You don’t buy a performance-option’ed Tesla for cheap people-moving.

  6. A city electric car that you can buy it (subsidized) under 10000 euros, that’s the real object of desire for many people

  7. And I’m intrigued by whoever voted that this article made them angry.

    Unless of course they’d just bought a McLaren F1.

  8. Collin Chapman would be proud his advice was being followed.

    Maybe not so much the bit about the car falling to bits as it crosses the finish line.

  9. High performance carbon ceramic brakes.
    Lower suspension, with new springs, new roll bars, new dampers, and I think some changed suspension arms (so that was pretty extensive changes there).
    Bigger, high performance, but still legal road wheel and tyres.
    New aerodynamic kit for less drag and significant downforce.
    Modified interior with racing buckets to hold the driver in place (and be safer).

    No increase in power. No “significant” weight reduction.

  10. I, too, much prefer to read than watch a video.

    This particular time I was able to watch the video, and it wasn’t too bad. But as a general rule I read text sites to read, and watch video sites to watch videos.

  11. And obviously it’s pretty myopic to cherry pick lap time *as a truly meaningful measure* at the expense of everything else a ‘supercar’ gives you that something like a base civic absolutely sucks at; and arguably sucks at worse than many cars from decades ago.

    E.G. being fun rather than a BORING transportation device that happens to benefit from trickle down and collateral traction and stability tech.

  12. That gradient is the point – the arrival/imminence of future things as in ‘NBF’

    That said, I haven’t been following exact specs but I’d be surprised if you can actually compare a 2020 base honda civic and lap competitively against an F40 not just on Tsukuba but also e.g. Mugello, Spa, Assen, Aragon, etc. And the precise decade does matter as you specified – can’t make the comparison work unless the compared decade is fixed. 1992 is not the same as 70s and 80s.

  13. If you consider a car from 1992 a ‘supercar’. I mean it’s a fast lap, but, the F40 was designed in the 80’s and the Mclaren was 1992… You can take a base honda civic and beat many of the top sports cars from the 70’s and 80’s… i mean 30 years of technology improvements make a difference…

  14. Video details the changes. Lowered it a bit, added a wing, upgraded the brakes, stuff like that. Still a workable daily driver.

    This was with a non-professional driver who’d never driven a Tesla before.

  15. Yo that’s priceless lol! I know that has wheels but it reminds me of this old arcade game called S.T.U.N. Runner.

  16. When you somehow autologin and your password posts, and ya have to delete/reset. That was fun. ^_^
    I think perhaps the Tesla 2020 Roadster would perform more at high performance levels. On the fence about the Model 3. Not that I wouldn’t buy one.

  17. The standard F40 comes in at around 2700 lbs. It’s a svelte athlete compared to what passes for a super car these days weight-wise. Collin Chapman would be proud his advice was being followed.

  18. I’m actually surprised the old, old Ferrari F40 does as well as the far more modern supercars.

    Though I am suspicious that it wasn’t exactly as it first appeared out of the factory in 1987. For one thing, it almost certainly doesn’t have 1987 spec tyres on it, and tyres are one of the biggest changes you can make to upgrade the track performance of a car, especially one that came with (by 2020 standards) fairly low tech shoes.

    Likewise brakes and shock absorbers. Very influential on speed, but consumables, and so you need to replace them, and it would be more difficult and more expensive to source the original spec stuff than modern equivalents which would have much higher performance.

    I wouldn’t be too surprised if you’d needed to replace (and hence drastically upgrade) the turbos either.

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