Video: Battery-Powered Miata Slaughters Pricey Tesla In Drag Race

Just last week, we saw an electric golf cart power-wheelie itself right onto its roof. Continuing with the electric drag vehicle theme, we’ve found this amped-up Mazda Miata lining up on the drag strip with a high-dollar Tesla P85, and the results are borderline-humorously lopsided. While the Tesla, a high-dollar luxury cruiser that runs strong in its own right, is a far more attractive ride as far as looks and comfort are concerned (we’re assuming), when it comes time to drop the hammer, the Luxo cruiser has NOTHING for the diminutive Miata.

According to the captions in the Road Test TV-hosted video, the mighty Mazda boasts an 1,100 amp battery combination delivering 333 volts to a pair of electric forklift motors on the rear wheels, and it does so with extreme effectiveness, powering the hardtop-wearing roadster to DEEP 9-second 1/4 mile times at over 140 miles per hour, making the otherwise-respectable 12.72 ET from the Tesla look downright glacial.

While we don’t have the incremental times from the run, it appears the green Mazda, sporting some healthy Hoosier rubber out back, rips off a very quick 60-foot time, and from there it’s a matter of “how much gap can I put on this Tesla”, with the difference in ET’s at almost three and a half seconds when the dust settles. The Miata also bests the Tesla by a full FORTY miles per hour through the traps, showing there’s more to the Mazda than a hard launch.

While these cars are obviously an apples-to-oranges matchup on the drag strip, with the Tesla designed to cruise comfortably upwards of 200 miles on a charge versus the Miata’s quarter-mile-at-a-time focus, both cars show the promise and potential held in battery-powered transportation — an area we continue to see continuous interest and innovation, from radio-controlled cars to golf carts and on up to these full-sized rides duking it out on the quarter-mile.

 

 

 

 

About the author

Jeremy Patterson

A former bracket racer, Jeremy, known by many as "Taco," stepped out of the seat in 2005 to focus on his growing family. A few years ago, he returned to the sport, this time as a photographer and a journalist.
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