Five days after Elon Musk announced he’d sent a Tesla Model S at the Nurburgring in an attempt to beat the Porsche Taycan’s record lap time, we get the first solid confirmation that there is indeed a crew there preparing for the attempt.
Our spies spotted a very aggressive-looking Tesla Model S P100D, complete with wide fenders, fat tires on lightweight wheels and reportedly a roll cage fitted, surrounded by a team of engineers on the Nurburgring.
Earlier today Road & Track reported citing local sources that Tesla has booked a private 30-minute time slot at the famous German track on September 21, indicating at the announced lap record attempt. There’s also the chance of them trying to set a lap time on September 18, but according to the report, that session is probably not a private one.
Musk confirmed via Twitter that they won’t try a lap time this week but he also claimed that the Model S has set a new lap record at Laguna Seca for “fastest 4 door ever”, with the onboard video and more details coming tomorrow.
During the past few days, a normal Tesla Model S was also spotted at a shop outside Nurburgring featuring a clear plastic glued to the carbon spoiler together with more tape, as well as a set of sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires, raising eyebrows about the seriousness of the effort.
Now that we have laid eyes on the actual car that’s going to have a go at the lap record, we can say with certainty that Tesla is taking this matter more seriously that initially thought.
Beating Porsche at their home turf is a huge challenge for Tesla and the chances of doing so with a standard-spec Model S looked pretty slim. In addition, Porsche’s development work to make the Taycan as fast as possible around the Nurburgring are described by the locals as “very intense”. All we have to do is wait and see if this Tesla Model S has what it takes to beat the Taycan.
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