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Comment by tomjakubowski | Hacker News Reader

> Tesla, for example, still doesn't have an official Nurburgring lap time because it simply isn't able to drive at racing speeds for long enough without the battery overheating and reducing power output to avoid damage

Now I'm really curious: with a limit on the Tesla's performance to keep the battery from overheating, what's the fastest time it could do?

That they don't have an official lap time for this reason strikes me as almost dishonest, since they marketed the Roadster entirely and the Model S significantly on performance. But you can't actually drive either to its limit for more than a couple minutes? Lame.

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> But you can't actually drive either to its limit for more than a couple minutes? Lame.

Notice all of Tesla's marketing is about acceleration, not lap times. They beat any other car hands down on the drag strip. But cornering is just not their forte (too heavy) and driving fast for a long time is hard (too much power draw).

Too heavy? But the skateboard puts all of the weight as low as possible

Weight, even if it’s low, still increases stopping distance and requires more grip to get around corners. You can’t escape kinetic energy.

You saw that when top gear compared the original tesla vs its donor car - the Tesla had amazing acceleration but wallowed going round corners when compare to the ICE Lotus it was based on.

A Tesla is way too heavy and soft to produce a decent lap time. They accelerate really well but fast cornering is not their forte. The Nurburgring has some very fast sections where you go top speed or near top speed for a long time. I also would have my doubts about the brakes holding up.

It should be mentioned, too, that Tesla doesn't have an official Nurburgring lap time because they don't want one. They've made several official statements that they aren't interested in such competitions.

There are unofficial times [1], but Nürburgring apparently takes manufacturer wishes into respect on declaring official times.

Multiple EVs have official times at this point. Tesla doesn't seem to care right now.

(VW, on the hand, with Nürburgring in their backyard has to care, and it is fascinating to hear what's going on with their EV race teams.)

[1] An example: https://jalopnik.com/heres-what-a-tesla-model-s-can-do-aroun...

Nurburgring has a notoriously long lap. Fast times are measured in handfuls of minutes. It's an interesting fact that Teslas aren't race cars capable of going full out for minutes on end, but I'm not sure that's relevant to most potential customers.

Here's an 8:50 lap (amateur driver) with a P85D. From 2015.

The 3 is better on the track than the S. Still heavy, of course.

Oops, missed the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dphw4km60m4

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