If Tesla’s bold acceleration claims for the second-generation Roadster come to fruition, the electric sports car will be the quickest accelerating production car ever built.
Tesla asserts that the Roadster will hit 60 mph in just 1.9 seconds, 100 mph in 4.2 seconds, and complete the quarter mile in 8.8 seconds. However, are these ambitious times even possible?
To find out, Engineering Explained set about discovering how fast a car can accelerate with street-legal production tires.
Last year, the YouTuber asserted that with current tire technology, no production car could reach 60 mph quicker than 2.05 seconds. However, in the 12 months since then, tire technology has improved and will probably continue to improve through to the Roadster’s launch, meaning a 1.9 second time isn’t an impossibility.
Another interesting take away from recent talk about the Roadster is the possibility of it using rocket technology. Elon Musk hinted at this on Twitter and theoretically, the sports car could accelerate to 60 mph in 0.01 seconds, as long as the rockets used had enough thrust.
Knowing that Tesla’s claims are possible, it’s now just up to the company to ensure the production model achieves them.