Tesla Model S Plaid beats SF90, 911 Turbo S
- Carwow’s three-way drag race put a Tesla Model S Plaid against a Ferrari SF90 Stradale and Porsche 911 Turbo S — and the Tesla won. - The key run was the last standing quarter-mile: the Plaid finished in 9.7 seconds, ahead of the SF90’s 9.9 and the 911 Turbo S’s 10.3. - It matters because a heavy four-door EV still beat two exotic AWD supercars on launch and elapsed time.
A drag race is the simplest possible performance test — line up, launch, and see what gets to the quarter-mile first. That’s why this one lands. A Tesla Model S Plaid, basically a huge four-door sedan, lined up against a Ferrari SF90 Stradale and a Porsche 911 Turbo S and still came out on top in the run that mattered most. The surprise isn’t that the Tesla is fast. Everybody knows that. The surprise is that it beat two all-wheel-drive supercars that look built for exactly this job. (carscoops.com) ### What actually happened? Carwow ran three cars in a head-to-head test: the tri-motor Tesla Model S Plaid, the plug-in hybrid Ferrari SF90 Stradale, and the rear-engined Porsche 911 Turbo S. The format was straightforward — standing-start drag races, a 40 mph rolling(carscoops.com)errari at 9.9 and the Porsche at 10.3. (carscoops.com) ### Why does the Tesla win from a dig? The short version is torque and repeatable all-wheel-drive traction. The Plaid uses three electric motors — one up front and two at the rear — for a quoted 1,020 hp and 1,420 Nm. Electric motors hit hard immediately, so the car do(carscoops.com)matters more than almost anything. (carwow.co.uk) ### But isn’t the Ferrari lighter and almost as powerful? Yes — and that’s what makes the result interesting. The SF90 combines a twin-turbo V8 with three electric motors for 1,000 cv, roughly 986 hp, and it weighs far less than the Tesla. Ferrari’s own(carwow.co.uk)que delivery, and how cleanly the car keeps accelerating without interruption. The Ferrari looked explosive off the line, but the Tesla’s shove stayed brutally consistent. (carwow.co.uk) ### Where does the Porsche fit in? The 911 Turbo S was the underdog on paper, with 640 hp, but it did what 911 Turbo models always do — launch absurdly well and hang around longer than the spec sheet says it should. In the first race it actually got the(carwow.co.uk)ce: devastatingly efficient, just not enough horsepower here. (carscoops.com) ### Is 9.7 seconds a big deal? Very. Tesla’s official Plaid claims have long lived in the low-9-second zone, with a 1.99-second 0-60 mph claim and quarter-mile times around 9.23 seconds in ideal conditions. So 9.7 in a media drag race is not some freak miracle run — if(carscoops.com)nd sedan doing that is still ridiculous. (edmunds.com) ### Does this mean the Plaid is the “best” performance car? No — just the quickest here in a straight line. The catch is that drag racing isolates one thing: acceleration over a short distance. It does not tell you which car feels best, brakes best over a full lap, talks most clearly through the steering, (edmunds.com)g a broader game. The Tesla just wins the blunt-force one. (carscoops.com) ### Why do people care so much about this matchup? Because it compresses the whole EV-versus-ICE argument into ten seconds. One car is a silent electric sedan. One is a hybrid Ferrari. One is a classic turbocharged 911 formula pushed to the limit. When the family-shape(carscoops.com)s far less than either exotic. (carwow.co.uk) ### So what’s the bottom line? The Model S Plaid didn’t just embarrass normal cars. It beat a Ferrari SF90 and a 911 Turbo S in the kind of test supercars use to flex. That doesn’t settle every performance argument — but it does settle this one. If the question is who gets down the quarter-mile first, the giant Tesla still has a savage answer. (carscoops.com)
