The Rimac Nevera has stolen the crown from the Tesla Model S Plaid as the world’s quickest production car but how do the two compare when lined up for a drag race down the quarter-mile?
Shortly after powering down the quarter-mile in 8.58 seconds with the Nevera, Brooks from the DragTimes channel on YouTube asked Rimac if he could race the electric hypercar against a Model S Plaid. He was given the thumbs up and raced the two on three occasions.
Watch Also: Rimac Says Nevera Is World’s Fastest Accelerating Production Car After Doing 1/4 Mile In 8.58 Seconds
You can skip the first race as the driver of the Tesla had the much better reaction time and was able to briefly jump out into a lead before being caught. By comparison, the second race was absolutely perfect, with the driver of the Model S Plaid having a reaction time of 0.09 seconds compared to the 0.091 seconds of Brooks in the Nevera. With the reaction times virtually identical, we get to see the performance discrepancies between the duo.
Off the line, the Rimac is obviously quicker but not by much considering it has almost twice the power of the Tesla. As the speeds build, the Nevera continues to stretch out its lead, consistently returning times in the 8.5 and 8.6-second range compared to the 9.2 and 9.3 second times of the Model S Plaid.
What’s interesting about these results is that the Tesla’s two electric motors combine to produce 1,020 hp while the four electric motors of the Nevera deliver 1,914 hp. This just goes to show the monumental amount of additional power you need to shave off just a few tenths down the quarter-mile. It also indicates that road-legal tire technology is somewhat of a limiting factor with both cars able to hit 60 mph in around 2 seconds, but not much quicker than that.