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Comment by ronnier | Hacker News Reader

My Tesla S Plaid has 1020 hp and 0-60 in 2 seconds. It never gets old. New plaids start at $92,000.

> > It never gets old

Unlike a Tesla a 911 will be able to do it 500 times in a row, like clockwork. Again and again. You'll literally run out of tires and the car will be screaming for more.

That's also the reason why Porsche has most wins of any constructur at Le Mans 24h and Nurburgring 24h and I am pretty sure they are on the podium for most wins at Suzuka 24h and Spa 24h, Porsche also won the Dakar multiple times and the Rally World Championship a handful of times. Tesla instead never even competed once in such races, however they are the kings of the financial press and PR stunts on twitter I'll give you that.

People say the 911 has a cult following ( for example they are very defensive of the same 50 year old design vis-a-vis Italian sports car which change design language every 3-5 years) but at least it's rooted in performance over the last 50 years.

Tesla cultists instead can't even locate the fancy names of tracks I just mentioned on a map, nor they know the country they are in or where the multi-stage competitions take place.

> > New plaids start at $92,000

Any decently mantained used 500cc twin stroke bike starts (and ends) at $5000 and has the same 0-60mph time as and a 0-60-0 time (and distance) some 2 orders of magnitude better than that go kart for easily indoctrinated rich people.

The model in the article is slow for a 911, but I can tell you as a 911 (992) owner the acceleration is plenty fast enough, well, it’s borderline terrifying for public roads (mine’s around 3.2s).

It may not be at the level of the best EVs, but honestly I think off-the-line acceleration is a massively overrated stat because it’s not something you can really leverage, safely, most of the time - I hardly ever use launch control (it’s not even particularly useful for the track). Once you get sub 4 seconds, any faster is just shredding tyres. My last car, a Maserati, was 4.5s and that felt plenty fast enough too (and I still shredded tyres!)

Everything else is important: handling, steering responsiveness, brake responsiveness, mid-range ‘grunt’, and depending where you are in the world: top speed and how quickly you can get there. A 911 will leave a Tesla in the dirt at high speeds [1] - on a clear road I could sail up to 200 mph without any drama [2] (seriously, watch that video to see how utterly drama free 200mph is in a 911 on a public road).

It’s impossible to communicate how much confidence the car gives you, it’s utterly planted at speed and in corners. The 911 has a long history of being one of the best driving experiences, it is a true supercar with 50+ years of engineering refinement, that’s hard to beat.

Along with the badge and elegant design, that’s what you pay for.

[1] https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a38453459/tesla-model-s-pl...

[2] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bXRyy-RBuzc&pp=ygUecG9yc2NoZSA...

A 911 feels planted right up to the point where it isn't and then you better be ready for it. It can go from 'drama free' to 'lots of drama' pretty quickly especially on roads with trash or uneven moisture on them. I accidentally put one ass-backwards on the Berlin ring at night and it wasn't even over the limit. Pre-traction control though, so probably these days that would go a little better. Learned a good lesson there and fortunately no damage or injury other than to my ego.

> Pre-traction control though

You’d find it hard to do that now. I’ve had a few moments where I’ve been in Sport Mode and gone to overtake someone on a damp road, accelerated a bit too hard, and then the backend has gone out. Even then it’s trivial to bring under control because of the traction control. It’ll let go a bit, but to spin it you’d have to be quite aggressive.

Not that you don’t have to be careful with all that power, but I’d rather be in a (modern) 911 with that power than probably any other powerful car.

It’s a much more refined car these days, its past reputation as a yuppie killer are pretty much done. It even tells you to switch to Wet Mode when it’s raining :D

A friend of mine crashed a 911 pretty badly, he rolled out of a parking garage and got hit by a bus that had zero time to brake. He walked away from that without a scratch and I'm still amazed by it two decades later, by rights he should have been hamburger. That chassis is impressive, to say the least.

Not sure why you’re getting downvoted because it’s absolutely true, anything less than 600HP for a luxury EV is low.

Sure, but it's still Tesla and not a Porsche.

Yeah the base model taycan that is about the same price doesn’t even come with adaptive cruise control.

Neither does a Rolex have a built-in calculator.

ACC is an important security and comfort feature that is of course optional on the Porsche.

The difference is that a Taycan is Porsche through-and-through, and in addition to being fast in a straight line it does the good things in corners that make you feel fizzy.

A plaid goes like stink in a straight line. It has awful brakes and handles like a sled. Very much a one trick pony. Great if that's all you want from a car, but many of us want a more complete package.

You should look again. The plaid beats the Taycan in the Nurburging. None subjective things about the plaid vs taycan

* plaid faster 0-60

* plaid faster quarter mile

* plaid has more range

* plaid has faster nurburing times

* plaid costs less

Disregarding for a moment the usefulness of ring times these days, I'd expect that if the plaid is actually faster, it has everything to do with horsepower. The ring is a very fast track.

0-60 and quarter mile times are great, for some people they're everything. But while I find acceleration to be entertaining, the feel of a well balanced car in the twisties is worth the price of admission.

Essentially, plaid is the EV version of a GT-R. Super competent, great numbers, and about as much fun as racing an toaster. Proof that you can do amazing things with enough hardware.

Even so, it's still a Tesla. You guys are missing the point Porsche built its brand and following around (I don't care either way, I'm not target for either brand). There are ridiculous tuned and overpowered Golfs out there with same claims (speed, handling, whatever), yet at the end of the day it's still a Golf. There are Porsche classics for a reason, there are no Tesla classics for a reason.

The plaid has better brakes as an option and apparently a much better handling since a software (!) update.

It’s for sure not a GT3 RS on the track but it’s not that bad like it used to be until very recently.

911s aren't really about the straight lines. You can get a reasonably equivalent performing car for well less than half the price of the SC, so factor in that at least half the car's value comes from scarcity due to low production numbers and 911 halo effect. It's non-trivial to get these cars even if you can well afford them and they're considered iconic by many folks who love cars. All that said, this model is more of a collectible money grab to me than the car someone who loves 911s goes for -- I'm biased, 992 GT3 is more fun all day, and that's on a track where it belongs.

I run about 1/3rd of that and there is no way that opening the floodgates on that is safe in normal traffic. Other people simply don't expect you to accelerate that fast. And I don't have time (or ambition) to do it on a track.

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