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Tesla Didn't Have Laguna Seca Officiate Its Alleged Record Model S Lap Time: Report
Tesla Didn't Have Laguna Seca Officiate Its Alleged Record Model S Lap Time: Report-September 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:10:33

Photo: Tesla

After making a bunch of noise on Twitter about taking the to the German Nürburgring after the set a record there, Tesla instead claimed it set a record time for a sedan around . The only problem is the track reportedly did not officiate it, so their time didn’t “officially” break any record. You can’t make this stuff up.

Yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced a Model S had set a lap record around Laguna Seca, and later released a video allegedly showing the car make a time of 1:36.555.

This would beat the previous record for a production performance sedan of .

The Jag’s record was officially set by racing driver and Motor Trend contributor Randy Pobst, who holds quite a few impressive records and lap times around that track.

But Tesla’s time, , was not official, as nobody from Laguna Seca was witness to the record attempt to officiate it:

But a spokesperson for Laguna Seca wrote in an e-mail to CNBC: “We were not officiating while the Tesla was testing on the track. Official records only happen during sanctioned events where a sanctioning body is officiating.”

Tesla said it had no further information to offer about the Laguna Seca lap at this time.

So Tesla may have the claim, and the video to back up the claim, but it doesn’t have the track’s sign-off on an official time. So while the Twitter archives will remember the Model S for beating a recored lap time around Laguna Seca, the time is, in fact, not one for the record books.

It’s all kind of an odd development, Musk’s newfound quest for lap time glory. From our perspective it feels like he’s a bit threatened by the potential of the electric , said to be the fastest EV around the Nürburgring. Not long after the production Taycan dropped, Musk tweeted that a Model S would be headed to that track for a record attempt too. (Also: don’t we all already know the Model S is fast? I mean, nobody’s disputing that.)

But it’s worth noting Tesla also , instead having to sign up for the industry testing period which would mean they’d be sharing the ‘Ring with other automakers, . Apparently Tesla may have now reserved a private slot to have a shot at the ‘Ring record time with a clear course, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

Before Porsche had even shown the production Taycan to the public, it had a Nürburgring lap time.…

There is a heavily modified red Model S currently at the ‘Ring—which looks pretty sweet with its aftermarket wheels, dark tinting and rolled fenders, as —but the attempt to beat the Porsche supposedly has been pushed back for further safety testing.

All of this is mostly pointless and useless information, but as my colleague David Tracy pointed out to me this morning, as electric vehicles continuously trump combustion engine vehicles in performance and the industry shifts further to battery power, companies are going to lose a lot of the tangible qualities like engine note, transmission gearing, fuel type, etc. that they can currently lean on to differentiate their vehicles from the competition.

With EVs, companies will have to turn to styling and outright performance, so we’ll likely only be getting more and more of these silly time-beating shenanigans.

More on this as we get it today.

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