- Elon Musk says the Tesla model S Plaid can do zero to 60 in under two seconds, and do the quarter mile faster
than any production car. But he also has said that
reality is a computer simulation and we should nuke the planet Mars. So I don't know whether to believe this freaking guy or not. It's probably the fastest accelerating car you can buy today. But, that's under a very
specific set of conditions. I got curious. Well, what are these very specific sets of conditions needed,
and why are they so important? So today we're gonna break
them down and figure out how you can stack the chips
in your favorite to beat it in an actual drag race. Turns out, you might be able to do that in your mama's minivan. As long as your mom's minivan
has a top fuel engine in it, it's got a wheelie bar, drag slicks, and as long as she's not in it. (upbeat fun music) Thank you to The Zebra for
sponsoring today's video. Everyone's in a rush nowadays. And if you're looking to
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and compare quotes to find your perfect policy today. Turn green. Turn green. Plaid is Tesla's newest,
fastest top of the line model S. And like everything else Elon does, it's a cheeky reference
to a 35 year old movie featuring Rick Moranis. Look it up. It's crazy. - They've gone to Plaid. The Plaid built upon earlier Teslas that featured ludicrous mode. The first ludicrous model S in 2015 was capable of going as fast as a $2 million Porsche Carrera GT. And while those cars were
built for outright speed, the model S is a
comfortable spacious sedan that costs a 17th of the price. But Tesla wasn't content
being merely ludicrous, oh no. And they have continued
to push EV technology. But when the Plaid was announced, Musk man made some almost
unbelievable claims. Saying it would do zero to
60 in just 1.99 seconds. Something no production car has ever done. To put that in perspective, if you were to push a car out of a plane, it would only reach
about 44 miles per hour after two seconds of free fall. It would take another 0.7 seconds
to reach 60 miles an hour. At full blast, the Plaid is producing 1.3 GS of acceleration. More than gravity itself. No matter what comparison
you choose though, the Plaid is straight out simply fast. But on Tesla's website,
you'll see a little asterisk next to that 1.99 zero to 60 time. That's because the Plaid can't achieve its maximum acceleration at just any time and any place. It needs a couple of specific
things to make that happen. (Jeremiah snaps fingers) Kind of like when I do
my zero to 40 sprints, I gotta be like creamed
up with the icy hot on the back of the thighs. Got my cleats on, you
know, shirt off obviously. Gotta let everybody know
what I'm working with. Tight underpants. Just, I run in underpants. If you've ever tested the zero
to 60 time in your own car, your results were probably slower than what the manufacturer, magazines, and other websites said. You might've thought that this was 'cause you didn't have the right conditions. Everything from tire
pressure to air temperature, elevation, humidity, and even
how much gas is in the tank can affect acceleration. Maybe you blamed it on a
headwind or the sun in your eyes. But if you're like MotorTrend
and have a reputation for doing reliable and
repeatable zero to 60 times, you'll use precise instrumented
testing and control for as many of those factors as possible. But still, it's likely
your time was slower because the zero to 60 you've
been told your car will do is a rollout time. So what does that mean? A rollout is based on
timing at drag strips. A typical strip has a set of
yellow, green, and red lights often called a Christmas tree. Now, well, I could explain it to you. I would like our resident
junior drag racer, Mr. Nolan Jay Sykes, to
explain what's going on at the drag strip. Nolan, help us out. - Thanks, Jerry. Yeah, I used to compete in drag racing. Spent a lot of time on the drag strip. Love talking about this stuff. So the green light is the obvious one. It tells the driver when the race starts, but important information is conveyed by two other lights on the
Christmas tree as well. Two of them are linked to light beams that run across the track. When the first beam is blocked
by the car's front tire, that triggers the top light
or the pre-stage light. This tells the driver that they're seven inches
away from the starting line, which is also where the second beam lives. When the car's tire blocks that one, this triggers the stage light which tells the driver to stop
and wait for the green light. Once the green is lit,
the driver can take off, but the clock which records
the car's elapsed time, or ET, doesn't start until the front tire is no longer blocking the stage beam. It takes time for the
tire to clear that beam, which means the car is already moving when the timer finally starts. So that means if you use this method for measuring zero to 60 time, you aren't measuring
the actual time it takes for a car to accelerate from a dead stop to 60 miles per hour. - The little star next to the Plaid's 1.99 zero to 60 time indicates that this is with rollout subtracted. A car can reach five or six
miles per hour in the rollout, and that reduces the
reported zero to 60 time by as much as 0.3 seconds. Really, it's a five to
60 mile per hour time. But Tesla isn't the
only one who does this. Companies like Ford and Chevy often report times this way as well. The practice is so widespread, many companies, magazines, websites, report rollout zero to 60
times without telling you that's what they're really doing. And roll out times are
somewhat controversial. Some testing sources argue that if everyone is
reporting times with rollout, then maintaining that
standards lets you more easily compare different cars. Others argue that using
rollout doesn't demonstrate actual zero to 60 performance, and drag race timing simply isn't relevant to most consumers interests. Some have even gone as far as calling rollout numbers cheating. I've been there. It's not fun. When MotorTrend tested the Plaid, they recorded a 1.98 second
zero to 60 with rollout. And that vindicates Tesla,
because they openly said that their 1.99 is without
rollout subtracted. But the total zero to 60
time MotorTrend recorded was 2.28 seconds. And when you're making claims that rest on hundreds of
seconds, devil's in the details. And at the Plaid launch event, Elon Musk said no production car has ever done zero to
60 in under two seconds. It looks like that is still true. Mr. Musk, he aint lying according
to MotorTrend's testing. The thing is, MotorTrend
does typically report zero to 60 results with
a rollout subtracted. But they also said the Plaid doesn't count as a sub two second car. What the heck? That's because to get
that crazy acceleration, the Plaid has to be on
an actual drag strip because drag strips are extra sticky. Their surface is coated
with a synthetic resin known as VHT or PJ1 track bite. (Jeremiah clicks teeth) Track bite is pretty amazing stuff. It's fire resistant, water repellent, it's even biodegradable. And it helps the tires of a drag car hookup and grip the surface
instead of spinning. But it's not the resin
itself that's so sticky. Track bite attracts and
retains rubber particles from the tires that pass over it. It helps the surface get rubbered in. Increasing the grip just
like the racing line on a NASCAR track after a bunch of laps. The reason why a rubbered in track surface is grippier than plain asphalt is because materials stick to themselves better than they stick to other materials. Even though the traction
between a soft rubber tire and rough asphalt is pretty good, the grip between rubber
and rubber is even better. The extra grip of a prepared track surface was necessary for
MotorTrend to get the Plaid zero to 60 time under two seconds. The best they could do
on a regular asphalt was over two seconds, even
with roll out subtracted. But it was so, so close. Just 2.07 seconds. We're talking eight one
hundredths of a second from breaking the two second barrier. Take the seats out, let skinny Bob drive, and now we're cooking. So now that we've demystified the dark arts of zero to 60 times, what can we expect for the
quarter-mile times for the Plaid? Well, Tesla says the
Plaid will run the quarter in just 9.23 seconds. Another record for a production car. Faster than the Demon even. That's thanks to her staggering
1,020 electric horses. F1 cars have about a thousand horsepower, and the fastest quarter mile time we could find for one of
those was 9.2 seconds. Of course, F1 cars aren't designed specifically for drag racing,
but neither is the Plaid. After all, it seats four,
has air conditioning, and it weighs 4,800 pounds. That's as much as three
F1 cars, or a typical SUV, or two long-finned pilot whales, or one short-finned pilot whale. Or. (drum rolling) Yo mama! (laughs) In spite of that, MotorTrend
recorded a time of 9.25 seconds at 152.6 miles per for the Plaid when it was run on track bite. That's close enough to
Tesla's claim, 9.23 seconds to vindicate that too. Mr. Musk, he's telling the truth. Tesla says that they
expect most Plaid owners will run their car at drag strips, and that's why they're going
with the drag strip numbers. And if you're not one of those owners and plan to stick to regular old asphalt, you should know that MotorTrend estimated that the asphalt quarter-mile
time is 9.34 seconds, which again, is still faster
than anything else you can buy. A Bugatti Chiron that
costs nearly $3 million takes 9.4 seconds to do that. This is insane. A 16 year old kid with a rich dad will be driving one of these cars, and it's gonna make you furious. (laughs) That 9.34 second time is estimated because a road car going that fast raises some unique safety concerns, which we're gonna
explain in just a moment. But before we do that,
there's still one more thing the Plaid needs to achieve
those top tier times. Not only do you need to ignore
the first few miles per hour and use a special surface, but you have one condition that a lot of people have a problem with. To get to 9.2 seconds in the quarter mile, you have to enable drag strip mode. This process, which takes
between eight and 15 minutes, pre-conditions the battery
pack and electric motors. The battery is heated or cooled
to the ideal temperature, and the motors are cooled so that it can deliver maximum power. When that process is complete, the car will tell you that
peak performance is ready and you can complete the final step. Cheetah stance. (fun comedic music) (prerecorded cheetah growl plays) To initiate cheetah stance, you pull up wherever
you plan to launch from, you hold the brake pedal
with your left foot and the accelerator with your right foot, and over the next eight to 10 seconds, the car lowers the front end by two inches and firms up the suspension. Preparing the car to deal with
the massive weight transfer that's about to happen at launch. Once complete, the Plaid
lets the driver know by displaying cheetah stance
enabled and ready to launch. You just let off the brake
pedal, hold on tight, and the car will rip
through the quarter mile in it's advertised time. Insane. Now why certain people have a problem that the car has to get
pre-conditioned is beyond me. If you have a drag car at the
strip, you gotta warm it up. You gotta do a whole
bunch of preconditioning that you don't necessarily talk about. The fact that this car does
zero to 60 in under two seconds is freaking mind blowing. So I think people are just
grasping at straws here. Haters gonna hate, Elon's gonna skate. An ollie. Just did an ollie. You didn't even see it, but I did. - New shirt alert. (laughs) That's stupid. ♪ Give it the beans ♪ ♪ The beans ♪ ♪ Beans ♪ You guys can't get
enough of our catchphrase and we can't get enough designing clothes. That's why we came out with our third give it the beans shirt. This one's with a can. On the front, you've got
your give it the beans can, and on the rear you've got
a gaggle of cans on the back in all different modern styles. That's a little art history joke for you. Very sleek, very street wear, very hip. Get your give it the bean
can shirt on donutmedia.com. Only 29.98. Give it the beans and get one today. - So there it is. The model S Plaid really
will do zero to 60 in 1.99 seconds and run the quarter mile in 9.23 seconds just like Tesla says. But it needs a rollout, a prep surface, and drag strip mode, and
cheetah stance to do it. I think once you know
that, you can figure out how to beat it in an actual drag race. What does actual drag race mean? Let me explain. We saw that taking away
the prepared surface doesn't actually do very much. You only lose a 10th of a second. And even then, it's still
faster than any production car. Now before you guess, well,
take away drag strip mode, you should know that the
YouTube channel Drag Times ran the Plaid without drag strip mode, and they got 9.67 seven
in the quarter mile. Again, that's still faster than anything you're likely going to show up with. So it seems like beating the
Plaid in an actual drag race is gonna be pretty hard to do. But I'm here to play chess, not checkers. So what if we can beat
it on a technicality? If you want to beat the Plaid
in a sanctioned drag race, you actually want the driver
to use drag strip mode and cheetah stance. And that's because a real drag
race has another condition Tesla hasn't mentioned. The driver doesn't choose when it starts. Actual drag racing uses something
called courtesy staging. If the strip is using courtesy staging, one driver pulls up to the pre-stage beam and then waits for the other driver to pull up to their
pre-stage beam on their side. Once both drivers are pre-stage, one rolls seven inches
forward to the stage beam then the second driver pulls
up to their stage beam. Once both drivers are staged, the starter will activate
the Christmas tree and around two seconds later, boom, green light goes
and the race starts. But it's only once the
stage beam is triggered that the Plaid driver
comes to a complete stop and can activate the cheetah stance. So unless they've paid off the starter to wait 10 seconds before
activating the tree, those lights are going
green six to eight seconds before the Plaid has
finished its cheetah dance. That means if you're in the other car, you're down the track with
a six to eight second lead before the Plaid even launches. But say you don't put
it in cheetah stance. Well, then you're gonna need a car that beats 9.68 second quarter mile. So if you wanna race a Plaid, just tell them, hey, I'll let
you do your cheetah dance. I won't leave. And then leave. (laughs) You might think winning
a drag race that way is a little unfair. Yeah, well, if so, you're
gonna hate the other way to beat the Plaid. Snitching. See, like the Dodge Demon,
which was also capable of a quarter mile time under 10 seconds, the Plaid shouldn't be allowed in an NHRA regulated drag strip. In spite of Tesla's
claims that most owners will be doing this. Mandatory safety equipment
is based on a cars best quarter mile time. And if a car can run faster than 9.99 at over 150 miles per, then a
lot of additional safety gears required to raise on a drag strip. You gotta have a full roll cage, you gotta have shields
around drive line components in case they explode. You gotta even have a parachute in case the brakes fail. Those obviously aren't included
in your $120,000 Plaid. The driver, they also need to be wearing a protector fire suit, arm restraints, then you need to hold an
NHRA competition license. I don't think there are gonna
be a lot of Tesla owners who have that license. So since the Plaid can run
a sub 9.99 quarter mile, you could complain to the safety crew. And if you're lucky,
get them disqualified. But, don't do that. It's frigging bogus, dude. So if you want to beat
the Plaid in a race, you're gonna have have
to fight a little dirty. But there may be one more way
to beat it in a fair fight. That's where the Rimac Nevera, a brand new to EV super cars comes in. The YouTube channel Car Wow got a Rimac to run 8.62
seconds in the quarter mile on an unprepared surface. The company's founder says the Nevera doesn't need anything like drag strip mode or cheetah stance to do it. He claims it'll accelerate
like that any time you want. And I'm sure just like the Plaid, there are some asterisks with the Rimac, but at this point we're arguing over sub 10 second production cars. Think about that. In 15 years, you're gonna
be able to get a discount on one of these sub 10 second cars. That's insane. You should be so stoked about that. I can't wait to buy one of these used. It's gonna be fun. If you're a fan of Tesla
and a bunch of other EVs, go check out this D-list
which lists the fastest EVs out there right now. Click right here. Right here? Right here. If you wanna know more about Tesla and how their autopilot
system works, click here. Thank you guys so much for
watching this episode of B2B. Follow us here on Instagram
at donut @donutmedia. Follow me @jeremiahburton. Until next week. Bye for now.
