As you're probably already aware, the Tesla Model S Plaid recently set the official world speed record for a production electric car. It lapped the famous Nürburgring with a time of 7:30.909.
About as quickly as Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted out the news, people were insisting it was false. This is because Musk called the Plaid "Completely unmodified, directly from the factory."
Tesla skeptics took aim at the news, as well as Musk's words. We saw comments about tinted windows (potential hiding alterations inside the car), a round steering wheel rather than the yoke, and more. However, the information Musk tweeted was made official, and it seems the car was honestly all stock. Some folks actually chimed in on Twitter apologizing for calling Musk a liar.
We've got a few folks from the IEV team that are currently in Europe, and they plan to hang out with Misha Charoudin at the Nürburgring today. They're going to watch some EV lap runs. Hopefully, we'll have more information to share after their outing, and perhaps some other video content.
If you're not familiar with Misha, he's a multi-lingual Russian man who's a huge car enthusiast. He has actually lived and worked at the 'Ring, and it seems few others have access to the news he shares. After the dust settled, Misha put together the above video to set the record straight about the Plaid's record run.
Misha makes it clear that the record was, in fact, legit. It was notarized and verified by the 'Ring, and the run took place during official lap-timing sessions. He says if you were to be very nitpicky, the car may not be seen as completely unmodified, but only because it has some added safety features inside. The topics and timestamps are as follows:
00:00 Intro
00:40 Elon Musk Tweet
01:58 Completely Stock?
02:13 It's Legit
02:26 Better Onboard coming
03:00 More data please!
04:20 The Driver
05:33 Porsche Taycan Record
07:03 Tesla is FIRST!
07:30 Embarassing
08:20 What's Next: Tesla?
08:50 2019 Tesla Attempts
09:58 What's Next: Porsche?
11:14 What's Next: Rimac?
12:07 EV Classes
13:11 Great for the Nürburgring
14:15 Battery Heat Management
14:56 Outro
Check Out More Related Tesla Plaid Coverage:
Once you've had a chance to learn exactly what Misha has to say, scroll down and start a conversation in our comment section. Moreover, stay tuned as we may have more from Misha and the Nürburgring in the near future.
Source: Misha Charoudin (YouTube)