The Tesla That DESTROYS Everything

foreign [Music] [Music] the Tesla Model S is the current king of straight line performance the top dog plaid version has over a thousand horsepower it will do 0-60 in 1.9 and a quarter mile in 9.2 try as they might no one has built an electric car that's as fast as exciting or as interesting as Tesla's flagship until now this is the Tesla Model S plaid by California based tuning company unplugged performance codenamed Dark Helmet and yes the name will sound absolutely ridiculous or brilliant depending on how childish you happen to be but the performance it promises is by all accounts far more advanced than the basic offering from Elon but not because of Any dramatic changes to the power output unplugged performance is about working smarter not harder and that means underneath all the flashy arrow is the heart and soul of a Model S that means the batteries are the same the motors are the same the battery management system is the same but that's no bad thing because that stuff is already top tier I think I might need my own Dark Helmet for this one so I've never actually driven The Plaid before uh and it would be a shame if I didn't at least feel what the acceleration was like now incidentally the term plaid comes from the movie Spaceballs and the term Dark Helmet comes from the same film a little bit of sci-fi trivia for you now let's do a launch head back oh my God that is insane oh man I can actually speak the car is so quick wow wow as mind scramblingly fast as it might be from a launch unplugged performance doesn't actually quote any naught to 60 times this isn't a drag car instead it's focused entirely on going around corners and that absurd Arrow creates drag that actually reduces its ability to accelerate but with some electric cars might be able to keep up with it in a straight line there is very little that can keep up with this Model S around the bends saying Dark Helmet has arrow is a bit like saying Elon Musk has money it's a bit of an understatement look at the front Wing big enough to slice your ankles off from three meters away enormous and it's strong it's actually bolted directly to the chassis because without that it would fall off it can take my weight understeer ain't gonna be a problem [Music] obviously you've got to balance that front arrow with a little bit of down Force at the rear and unplug performance have certainly done exactly that I first want to draw your attention to this massive rear diffuser enormous and it's a world away from the fake diffusers you get on many road cars you might also spotted this little wing up top it's not little though is it this is the biggest Wing I think I've seen on any vehicle outside of a 1930s biplane in total the Aero package on Dark Helmet produces over 1800 kilograms at 150 miles an hour and it has a secondary use that not many people know about it also doubles up as an ironing board the rest of the Bodywork is a mixture of standard Tesla and custom parts from unplugged it comes with their s Apex carbon fiber wide body bolt-on Aero kit which provides 50 millimeters more track width as well as weight saving the front and rear windows are glass but side windows are made of lightweight lexan and they're a 19-inch race wheels with titanium lug nuts inside everything has been stripped to the Bare Bones with a single Alcantara bucket racing seat and very little else the weight of a standard plaid is approximately 4 700 pounds although ironically the addition of the extra arrow and roll cage increases dark helmet's weight back up to a similar level but the Driving Experience between this and a standard car and night and day how does it drive well first of all there's the noise or rather complete noise I expected to hear the motors whining a lot more because there's very little sound deadening in this car but actually I can't really hear the motors too well what I am hearing is a ton of wind noise and loads of stones and rocks and Pebbles slamming up against the underside of the car and almost the sound of my own heartbeat pounding because of the sheer speed of the thing and also the strikers you might be ready to stand so whenever you slam on the brakes basically the car Dives and that front splitter slams into the tarmac and you get this crunching noise as it bottoms out it's supposed to do that by the way no real concerns and then there's the wind I've stood Trackside watching this car fly by on the Main Street and it sounds like a fighter jet during a flyby trying to break the sound barrier is epic even on the outside and even without the sound of internal combustion maybe the biggest most staggering difference between this and a normal tester are the brakes they are Next Level unplugged have swapped out the steel brakes you get in the standard plaid for a set of carbon ceramic brakes front and rear competition pads and I've also got steel brake lines which means there's no loss of consistency this thing stops on a dime every single time it's incredibly reassuring when you're stopping and that's despite the fact it's a heavy car not that it feels that way because with over a thousand horsepower the acceleration is frankly astonishing quicker and more responsive than any combustion car I've ever driven it Corners well too thanks to a full suspension makeover including two-way race coilovers Billet adjustable front upper control arms and unique lower control arms with sealed spherical bushings the big one though the absolutely massive and your normal Tesla Road car other tires Dark Helmet uses Yokohama racing slicks illegal on the road but out here on the track they provide astonishing levels of grip and when you combine that with the weight of the car mashing the tires into the tarmac and the downforce this thing sticks wow it might have started Life as a Tesla but it doesn't feel like one anymore this feels Epic but of course not everyone will agree tracks like this are usually dominated by loud big-engined petrol cars with plenty of Heritage the drivers of which will take some convincing about the merits of an electric sports car no matter how fast to gauge the reaction of someone firmly associated with the old school I invited professional NASCAR driver and Corvette Z06 owner Jesse urugi to get his take on Dark Helmet foreign [Music] Jesse what's up thanks for coming man yeah thanks for having me yeah nice toy you got there what's that the ca yep c806 so not just the base CA it's a 2023 Chevy C8 Z06 non-z07 package on it um just got this actually a few months ago and this car is absolutely amazing the engine is the star of the show in this thing right yes so a lot different than GM's ever done so this is the first time GM's ever done the flat plane crank motor it's a 5.5 liter smallest motor I've ever seen in a Corvette but still making 670 horsepower and to the wheels it actually makes a pretty good amount at 617 so this thing's a monster wherever it goes where it's on the track drag strip Street you name it this thing's an absolute beast and it's lighter than this car and speaking of monster I just want to get your opinion on Dark Helmet what do you think of this this thing looks like Vader to me it looks it's a full blown race car I mean if you look at this thing with all the arrow on it you got the racing slicks racing wheels huge wing on the back and it's lightened up because there's absolutely no interior in there you got a case I mean this thing is ready to go this is still a street car I can actually take it to the grocery store go get groceries go home and then go to the track if I want to well here's the question though Jesse which one of these two cars would be faster around Big Willow today Z06 or dark calendar well this thing definitely has the advantage with the arrow the horsepower and the tires and I think when you have the advantage in all those different Realms right there typically you'll win but this thing is a heavy Pig too at the same time and it's an electric car you can't left foot break it and press the gas at the same time so maybe that's a little disadvantage who knows maybe a big Tesla is going to come in with his nannies and say hey stop racing and pull the power away I don't know but with this thing I know it's a monster we'll see how it does and maybe I'll have to use some skill to help drive this thing well skill is a great point because what I want to actually do is drive this car myself set a lap time and have you set a lap time in your Z06 and obviously you're a NASCAR driver an actual professional and I am not which the two of us would be quicker me in the Dark Helmet or unit Z06 today right now since this car right here can pretty much drive itself you might have the upper hand but I'm going to try to see if I can pull some tricks out of my sleeves to see if I can now laugh you with the ca06 okay all right and with that let's do it good luck yeah thank you you too foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign the result was intriguing the Z06 a car developed specifically with a track in mind managed a 131.53 dark helmet in my hands managed a 129.52 the heavily modified Tesla was quicker than the dedicated sports car by around 2 seconds and Dark Helmet had several things working against it during my lap the car's state of charge was just 66 percent which meant it wasn't making full power unplugged estimated a loss of about 150 horsepower its slick tires meanwhile were also heavily worn having done many test sessions on this and previous occasions it was at this point that we became curious as to what the car could do if it had full power fresh Rubber and its development driver Craig Coker behind the wheel so after topping up the battery and switching the tires for a brand new set of Yokohama slicks Craig went out to see what he could do the Target to get as close as he could to the current lap record set by a modified 911 GT2 RS after his warm-up lap Craig was fully dialed in and set off with the intention of setting one flying lap any more than that and the battery wouldn't be in a high enough state to charge or cooling to set a good enough time almost immediately this happened Craig had to abandon the lap after just the first turn this meant a lower than ideal heat-soaked battery and dirty tires but he decided to give it one more shot after trying to cool the batteries clean and warm the tires as best he could this is how the lap played out [Applause] thank you foreign [Music] foreign okay so turn one on your first flyer what happened turn one first flyer I don't think the tires were up to Temp yet and I ended up just dipping two tires yeah on the side and I'm like oh man I think you know you had another lap in you at that point or I just reassessed figured out the thermal management system looked at everything gave a couple good turns car felt great I just need to cool down um and then we went for another one okay went all out all right holding back you certainly did I had the times you do I have the times ready so okay so just to recap okay the the Eevee record right now is a 127.78 the overall lap record is a 121.08 you beat the previous EB record by seven seconds no and you've smashed the overall lap record by over a second what yes you got a 120.045 congratulations oh good I thought you were ripping out there good job so officially Dark Helmet is the fastest car ever around Big Willow The King Dark Helmet ridiculous name ridiculous speed with this car unplugged performance has built an absolute monster the fastest Tesla ever the fastest car I've ever driven and the fastest car ever around Willow Springs International Raceway how long will its record last probably not long at all because even if there was something fast enough to knock Dark Helmet from its perch Craig and the rest of unplugged still have plenty of performance to tap into so I get the feeling Dark Helmet will be the car to beat for quite some time not just here but possibly anywhere it goes next [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: AutoTrader

Views: 478,871

Keywords: Dark helmet, Unplugged performance, Willow springs, Lap record, Tesla model s plaid, Model s plaid, Plaid Vs, Modified tesla, Tesla drag, Lightweight tesla, Tesla aero, Tesla Nurburgring, Randy pobst, Rory Reid, craig Coker, Auto trader, Bionic Phoenix

Id: S-xP4DI_5g4

Length: 17min 37sec (1057 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 03 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/robustCone]

This thing breaks the all-time course record for all cars ICE and EV.