Ever since Tesla made the insanely fast Model S P85D ludicrously quick and named it the P90D, people have been trying to see just how big the difference is between the two versions.
After we got our first taste of a drag race between the P85D and the P90D a few weeks ago, the votes were pretty much “in”. The newer version is obviously faster as soon as it accelerates off the mark. Even the numbers back that up, telling us that the P90D will hit 60 mph (96 km/h) in 2.8 seconds as opposed to the P85D’s 3.1 seconds.
So as long as everything is fair, the updated model should easily win every time right? Right, but what if we give the P85D a somewhat decent head start? Both of these cars accelerate so violently that you’d think it would be hard for either of them to catch the other once one of the drivers was late to get on the throttle.
That’s pretty much what happens in this video. Even though wheels start spinning almost simultaneously, it’s obvious that the driver of the blue Model S (P90D) wasn’t as decisive as he should have been – which quickly led to a surprisingly large gap between the two vehicles.
Sure enough, the more powerful model catches up to the P85D but it takes nearly 13 seconds for it to actually pass it and take the lead.
This just goes to show how much the driver’s reaction time matters when we’re talking about two crazy-fast cars, able to build up leads without any difficulties as soon as they take off from a stand still.