For all of its supercar performance, the Tesla Model S Plaid doesn’t really have much of the performance technology we expect from a supercar. The most obvious example is that hallmark of modern supercardom, active aerodynamics. But that might be changing. The spy photographers caught a Tesla Model S Plaid lapping the Nürburgring with a retractable wing that also changed its angle throughout the lap. Seen here changing its pitch from one shot to the next, it would appear that Tesla is looking for higher cornering speeds.
The car also appears to have a bigger
front splitter than the standard Model S Plaid, as well as carbon-ceramic
brakes, the better to set lap times with. All of which combines to suggest that
Tesla is planning a model that might be better suited to track work than the
Model S Plaid. Could this, therefore, mark the return of the Model S Plaid+?
Although the Model S Plaid is a remarkably
quick car, already handily beating the Porsche Taycan to the Nurburgring EV lap
record, before it was released, a more potent version was also promised. The
Plaid+ was supposed to get 1,100 hp, a range of more than 837 km,
and faster acceleration. Just ahead of Plaid’s debut, though, Tesla CEO Elon
Musk took to Twitter to announce that it was so good that the Plaid+ had been
canceled.
With the competition now hot on its heels
in the form of the upcoming Lucid Air, which may take a slice of the Model S’s
high-performance EV sedan pie, and the Rimac Nevera, which promises even more
mind-bending performance figures, Tesla may be feeling the squeeze. While
there’s no way to know if this car is packing more power, another version of
the Model S Plaid that simply features more track-suited toys doesn’t sound
like a bad idea either.
