Finally Answered! Can A Tesla Cybertruck Towing A Porsche Really Beat A 911?

Since the launch of the Tesla Cybertruck last year, one of the claims that has received the most attention was Elon Musk’s assertion that the EV can beat a Porsche 911 through the quarter-mile, while towing a 911. The claim is finally being put to the test under the most generous circumstances.

While our own Chris Chilton cast doubt on Musk’s claim in a great post, its validity was further examined mathematically by Engineering Explained’s Jason Fenske, who used his trademark white board to show that the Tesla CEO’s numbers were probably inflated.

Read: Math Throws A Wrench In Elon Musk’s Tesla Cybertruck Vs. Porsche 911 Triumph

Now, Fenske has been invited to the drag strip by Motor Trend to see if his math checks out in the real world. They brought together a privately owned Cybertruck Cyberbeast, hooked it up to a trailer, put a Porsche on the back of it, and rented a racetrack to put the truck to the ultimate test.

And the outlet was very thorough, poring over details from Tesla’s video, and going so far as to find the actual trailer that the automaker used in its run (which happens to be the lightest car hauler on the market).

Where details weren’t available, Motor Trend interpreted them as generously as possible. They brought the slowest, lightest (non-Dakar) 911 on sale to the track (a Carrera T), and even put the lighter driver in the EV, to give the Cybertruck the best chance possible of meeting Musk’s claim.

So this is it. This video is as perfect a recreation of the conditions of Tesla’s launch film as it is possible to see. And? Well, it won’t come as a surprise to people who have followed their careers, but Fenske’s math is correct, and Musk’s claims are overblown.

In the quarter-mile, the Porsche 911 Carrera T beats the Tesla Cybertruck (towing a 911) consistently. Although Motor Trend only showed the results of three races in the video, on its website it reveals that it ran six races, and in every one, the sport car beat the electric truck, by as much as 0.7 seconds in the final race, but by only 0.2 seconds in the first (and most closely contested) run.

What may come as a surprise to you is that, on average, the Porsche even wins in the eighth-mile — the distance Tesla was likely showing in its launch film. Although the Cybertruck beat the 911 to the half-distance mark in their first race, that’s the only run out of the six that it won cleanly. Overall, the Tesla is faster through the eighth-mile once, the vehicles tie twice, and the Porsche wins three times.

Naturally, this isn’t an indictment of the Cybertruck, which performs spectacularly in this test and is, by any measure, an extremely quick vehicle. Even Fenske admits that he was impressed by the EV, and that “it felt fast, it didn’t feel like I was towing!” Better still, he says that it was stable, and never seemed sketchy, despite the fact that what it was doing was very silly, and probably a little dangerous.

In fact, I would go so far as to call this race a testament to the impressive speed of the Tesla Cybertruck, but it is another reminder to not always believe Mr. Musk’s claims.