You need some serious firepower to keep pace with a Tesla Model S. But as the owner of the 370Z in this video discovered, actual fire isn’t that helpful when it comes to going fast, let alone catching up to a Plaid.
Elon Musk and his henchmen might have cheekily subtracted the drag racer’s rollout time from its zero to 60 mph (96 km/h) figure to come up with the advertised 1.99-second number, but make no mistake, the Model S Plaid is about the fastest accelerating production car you can buy this side of a Rimac hypercar.
But the modified car community is inhabited by people like the owner of the 370Z in this video, who have spent fortunes building cars with more than double the power they had when the left the factory. And they’re not shy when it comes to showing off what they’ve got.
According to the title of the video the yellow 370Z is good for 700 hp at the wheels, meaning it has received a turbo package that improves its acceleration way beyond what’s possible in the stock Z with its 332 crank horsepower (337 PS). And in theory it ought to give the modded Nissan a slim chance against the heavier 1020 hp Tesla.
In the first roll-on race at the start of the video the Z initially looks like it’s pulling ahead, though since the Model S Plaid makes no noise (or none that can be heard over the Nissan’s engine) it’s hard to know exactly when its driver nails the gas. But when he does, the Nissan very quickly disappears stage right.
Clearly a glutton for punishment, the Z’s owner is soon back alongside looking for a rematch. And very soon after that is wishing he hadn’t bothered. The Z’s driver hasn’t even finished the countdown to roll-on round 2 when there’s a sickening mechanical rumble, followed by a huge flash of orange as the back end of the Nissan is engulfed in flames.
Fortunately, it looks like the flames extinguish themselves just as the car comes to a halt, but not before they’ve made a real mess of the paint on the trunk and rear bumper. As for how much mechanical damage the Z has suffered, that’s unclear, but any major blow up is going to run into the thousands. Which is a bitter pill to swallow when you know you weren’t even winning when it let go.