During Tesla’s Battery Day event in September 2020, the automaker announced the tri-motor Model S Plaid. Along with the announcement, Tesla revealed they had set a new lap record with a prototype of the vehicle at Laguna Seca Raceway.
With driver Sebastien Vittel (not to be confused with the slightly more famous F1 driver Sebastian Vettel) behind the wheel, the record was set with a time of 1:30.3, beating their previous record from a year earlier by more than six seconds.
Last week The Kilowatts spotted two Tesla test vehicles at the same track in what looked like an attempt to beat that record. Based on their footage, it looks like they may have done it.
From a vantage point near the famous corkscrew section of the track, The Kilowatts estimated a time of 1:29.92 around the 2.238 miles (3.602 km) long track. This was the time for the red Model S, which could possibly be a Plaid+ variant. The black Model S recorded an unofficial 1:35.62 lap time.
If their unofficial timing is accurate, it would be the first time an EV had completed a lap in under 1:30, and make it one of the fastest production cars to lap Laguna Seca Raceway.
It is also worth noting that they didn’t witness all of the laps that day, and Tesla may have achieved an even faster time on a previous run.
News of Tesla’s possible lap record follows news last week the Model S Plaid had achieved the fastest quarter-mile time of any production car. The record was set in Bakersfield, California where the Model S completed the 1/4 mile in 9.23 seconds.
You can check out the video of the possible record lap below.
