Gutted Tesla P100D Sets Electric Sedan Record, Dusts Muscle Cars

The terms “electric car” and “hot rodding” don’t generally hand-in-hand….and are perhaps a sacrilege combination of words in the eyes of the vast majority of gearheads, but there are some folks out there who take electric performance dead-serious.

Case in point is the crew at the Tesla Racing Channel, who have tweaked and beat on their Tesla P100D, pushing it well into the 10-second zone and mopped the track with many a muscle car in the process. The P100D, touted by Tesla as the quickest accelerating production car in the world (if you discount the LaFerrari and the Porsche 918 that can’t be purchased new), goes 0-60 in 2.5 seconds, all with seating for five and plenty of storage capacity.

The TRC guys have been running their P100D over the last year at tracks and streets around the East coast, documenting much of it on their YouTube channel as they down Mustangs, Hellcats, Nissan GTR’s, and a whole pile of other high-horsepower machinery that shouldn’t be looking at the tail lights of a four-door electric car.

Exercising a little old-school hot rodding technique, the TRC guys recently gutted their $135,000 Tesla, removing all of the seats, the interior carpeting, and even the speakers, in the process removing over 500 pounds of weight from the 4,941 pound car. All that remains, aside from the dash and factory steering wheel and steering column is a fabricated aluminum racing seat. They also removed the front sway bar and swapped the 12-volt battery under the trunk for a lighter piece.

With the weight taken from the car, they were able to jump from their previous best in the upper 10-second zone to a 10.41-second record lap at 125.12 mph, with a 1.50 short time and a 6.55 at 103 mph to the eighth-mile at the recent Street Car Takeover at the Atlanta Dragway. For good measure, they put it to a Hellcat, a Grand National, and a Pontiac Trans Am in the process.

Might we see this thing in the nines in the near future? Even if you’re not impressed with what they’re racing, you certainly have to admire their creativity and drive to be controversially different.

About the author

Andrew Wolf

Andrew has been involved in motorsports from a very young age. Over the years, he has photographed several major auto racing events, sports, news journalism, portraiture, and everything in between. After working with the Power Automedia staff for some time on a freelance basis, Andrew joined the team in 2010.
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