On short straight line teslas will leave most combustion engine cars in the dust, but it seems that Teslas can't handle more than a lap or two without overheating.<p><a href="http://www.thedrive.com/news/5207/this-video-reminds-us-that-the-tesla-model-s-is-an-awful-track-car" rel="nofollow">http://www.thedrive.com/news/5207/this-video-reminds-us-that...</a><p>Anyway, 99% will never race a car, so it is not that important. Lamborghinis are probably used in the track more by their owners than your average Teslas will be.
I've yet to come across a situation in normal traffic where > 100 HP wasn't wasteful.<p>If you want to see electric cars beating ICEs in drag racing look no further than White Zombie:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rVTIpS5zb4" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rVTIpS5zb4</a><p>Which makes for some very comical footage. I'm quite sure White Zombie would absolutely smoke a Lamborghini and maybe it would do the same with a Tesla.<p>Takeoff is around 0:40 in that video, blink and you'll miss it.
A couple of points worth highlighting:<p>1. The Lamborghini can sustain this level of performance whereas the Tesla can't. So even if the Tesla can beat the Lamborghini within this particular set of constraints, it won't beat the Lamborghini in any sustained racing environment.<p>2. The Lamborghini Aventador SV weighs roughly 3,800 lbs, whereas the Tesla Model X weighs roughly 5,300 lbs. Really impressive for such a heavy car to beat a much lighter car even in a drag race.<p>3. There's a conversation to be had here about the practical value of acceleration over ability to reach top speeds and sustain them - especially on normal roads and in daily life. One can argue that rapid acceleration and a top speed of 90 is far more valuable/useful than slower acceleration and a top speed of 200.
So, did anyone look at the time slip?<p>Slip #1: The Tesla showed 11.468 and the Lamborghini showed 11.307 on race one;<p>Slip #2: Tesla hit 11.418 while the Lamborghini shows 11.281.<p>A the bottom, the "Left 1st .2764" indicates the Lamborghini driver had over a quarter second slower response time.<p>Basically the Tesla beat the Lamborghini because the driver was slower. The second time slip shows the Lamborghini only 0.05 seconds slower response time and beating the Tesla in elapsed time.<p>I don't see how this is a win or am I missing something?
This is a great headline for Tesla.<p>The point isn't whether a Tesla could beat it in a real race, etc, this is just a "brand" moment for them.