The videos of electric cars dominating sportscars and even supercars on the drag strip are all over the internet. YouTube is flooded with clips of high-performance combustion cars being put to shame by the EVs. When Tesla came out with the Model S “Performance” versions it was praised as the “king of the dragstrip” by many. Electric vehicles produce all their torque instantly, making them ballistic off the line. Tesla Model S P100D with its dual motors and the all-wheel-drive system can crush the 0-60 mph acceleration run in just 2.23 seconds, which makes it one of the quickest accelerating production cars sold, and a gentle reminder to those who don’t know, the Model S is a luxury sedan that can comfortably seat 5 people and not some crazy electric fighter jet.
Supercar vs. Crossover
The most recent drag domination happened when a Lamborghini Murciélago with fire-breathing V12 decided to take on a humble Tesla Model Y crossover. If we were to ask a person who is not familiar with Tesla’s notoriety on the drag strips, they would’ve placed their bets on the Lamborghini, after all, it is a highly-strung Italian supercar. While the Model Y is just a simple crossover, that moms use to take their kids to soccer practice, but for those who possess the electric vehicle encyclopedia, would know, someone is about to lose their money.
Comparing the specs
This unusual race was recently featured on a YouTube channel called DragTimes, Brooks Weisblat, the host of this channel commandeered the Tesla Model Y Performance, on the parallel track was one of his friends, who was driving a gorgeous yellow Lamborghini Murciélago. If we look at the spec sheet of these two vehicles, the Mad Lambo seems to be dominating the upstart crossover lock, stock, and barrel. The Murciélago has a 6.2 liter V12 with a Flame Tune, which gave the car approximately 570 hp, that said, the Murciélago was launched in 2001, which makes this car almost twenty years old and this is one of the earlier production models, the newer models used a bigger 6.5 liter V12 which put out almost 640 hp.
When this car was new it had an eye-watering price tag of $279,000. The Model Y, meanwhile, is equipped with two electric motors, one in each axle, combined it produces 473 hp which is quite an impressive number for a crossover. During the race, the Model Y had a remaining charge of 89%. Compared to the Lamborghini, the Model Y only cost a fraction of it, with its $62000 price tag. It is quite expensive when you consider, this is only an ordinary crossover, but since it goes like a “lightning bolt” pun intended; the vehicle does seem like a good bang for your buck.
The Race
Now we get to the race, the Tesla Model Y Performance smashed the quarter-mile in 11.928 seconds, while the screaming Murciélago took 14.105 seconds, when they crossed the finish line, The Model Y clocked a speed of 114.71 mph and the Lamborghini was slightly faster, it was travelling at 118.78 mph. This is because, at higher speeds, the electric motors starts to lose its steam, while the naturally aspirated V12 keeps pulling hard. The Model Y also benefitted from a better launch due to Weisblat’s excellent reaction time, the Murciélago failed to launch aggressively. The electric crossover slays the fire-spitting supercar, talk about being a “Silent Killer”.
Tesla’s have also beaten drag focused muscle cars like the Dodge Challenger Hellcat and Chevy Camaro ZL1s, this just shows to prove that era of the combustion cars are slowly coming to an end, with advanced batteries and cutting edge technology, not to mention the zero-emissions, EVs seems to be better than combustion engine cars in almost every facet. The future is going to be cleaner but sadly quieter.
