Tesla desperately wants to take the Nurburgring lap record for four-door electric sport sedans away from Porsche, but the company has suffered an embarrassing setback.
As you can see in this YouTube video posted by Talea Media, a Tesla Model S prototype apparently encountered an issue and had to pull over to the side of the Nordschleife.
There’s no word on what happened, but a fire truck was called to the scene and its crew was spotted talking to the driver of the Tesla. A second vehicle was also deployed to caution other drivers about the situation ahead.
Also Read: Tesla Model S Prototype Allegedly Demolishes Porsche Taycan’s ‘Ring Lap Record
While it’s not unusual for prototypes to occasionally breakdown or even catch on fire, this incident wasn’t without an ironic twist. As you can see at the beginning of the video, the Model S was passed by a Porsche Taycan prototype.
Eventually a tow truck arrived on the scene and hauled the Model S away. Following this, operations returned to normal.
The development is certainly embarrassing for Tesla, but the company might have the last laugh as company recently said “Data from our track tests indicates that Model S Plaid can achieve [a time of] 7:20 at the Nürburgring.” This is close to the time calculated by spy photographers and it means the Model S should be able to beat the Taycan’s lap time of 7 minutes and 42 seconds.
Of course, Porsche recently revealed that lap time was set using a pre-production Taycan Turbo and not the more powerful Taycan Turbo S. The latter model should be a little bit faster, but Tesla has suggested they’ll make some improvements to their Model S and try for a time of 7 minutes and 5 seconds next month.
H/T to Jalopnik