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Comment by grecy | Hacker News Reader

I genuinely hope Tesla get a 2020 Roadster to lap the Nurburgring on autopiliot with nobody inside. If it lives up to promises, it will easily set the all time lap record as the fastest vehicle ever.

It will be an interesting time when a $200k production car can whip the pants of a multi-million dollar F1 racecar.

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Elon Musk claimed in a tweet that the roadster can beat a time of 6:44 min on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, which is (currently) 20.832 km long.

The current lap record for street legal cars is 6:40 set by a Porsche GT2RS MR.

The overall record is 5:19.55 set by a Porsche 919 Evo.

F1 last raced the Nordschleife in the 70s. The lap record is 7:06.4, but the track was 22.835 km long back then.

The Roadster might have a chance at beating the lap record for street-legal cars, but physic will make sure that it will not come even close to an overall lap record.

Based on what we know of physics, weight, and grip, elon is, as usual, full of it.

Don't forget the 2020 roadster will actually have rocket boosters. (Elon has given his word on this more than once)

Elon also gave me his word that Vernon Unsworth is a peadophile, so maybe not.

Theres no way a tesla roadster is beating the current record holder, the 919 evo. The roadster would be magnitudes heavier, plus it wouldn't have the aero for the downforce.

https://youtu.be/PQmSUHhP3ug

Obviously we have to take it with a grain of salt, though Elon said it will. So far we've heard of an 8.8 sec quarter and 0-60mph in 1.9s. The chief designer also said it will better all publicly announced numbers.

Tesla cars historically are pretty terrible on the track. They're too heavy, and they wind up overheating.

The torque from the electric motors means they do really well in a straight line drag race, but they're fairly pathetic at any race that involves manoeuvring over a longer course.

The prototype of the Plaid Model S recently was significantly faster around the 'ring than the new Porsche Taycan.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/30846/tesla-model-s-prototype-...

Better than the Porsche Taycan though, to take it somewhat more apples to apples. So there’s that. While having near double the range, a lower price, air suspension, frequent free updates including for performance and handling, seating more people when off track, having a non-vaporware fast charging network... it’s almost an unfair comparison against a one trick pony toy car (I’m sure you can cherry pick some special racing-only case where the Taycan steps up).

They've apparently made improvements to the cooling since the Model S, which could not complete a lap of Nordschleife without overheating.

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