After unveiling their brand new Model S Plaid last week at Laguna Seca, Unplugged Performance (UP) is now taking on the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC).
During practice sessions and now into qualifying today, Randy Pobst is setting some impressive times in the world’s fastest production car.
If you are unfamiliar, the PPHIC is a more than 12 mile (19km) race to the top of Pikes Peak, the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The race begins at an altitude of around 9,000ft, and ends at the peak which is about 14,000ft above sea level.
Practice sessions early in the week are broken down into sections, with different sessions held for the lower and upper parts of the course. The team at UP, with the help of The Kilowatts, have shared some impressive footage of the upper section of the race.
Despite the twisty and curvy roads with sheer drop offs that would make most people drive very slowly, Pobst is able to hit speeds of 130mph (209km/h).
Where the Model S Plaid is really able to shine is on the uphill straightaways, where it is able to use its instant electric torque to accelerate up the hill with ease.
https://twitter.com/DriveTeslaca/status/1407379979348807680
Those practice sessions have now ended and qualifying has officially begun.
In early qualifying, the UP Model S has already posted an impressive time of 4:10.3. Despite the fast time, the team says they have been “conservative” and with continued tweaks to the car will be faster on race day.
Qualifying update @PPIHC. We’ve been conservative today and comfortably beat our qualifying record last year. Last year our Model 3 clocked an impressive 4:15.09. Now UP Tesla Model S Plaid delivered an ICE crushing 4:10.3!
We are still optimizing and will be faster on race day! pic.twitter.com/ttv2f2Qiv9— UNPLUGGED PERFORMANCE (@UnpluggedTesla) June 23, 2021
It will definitely be interesting to see how the team performs at Pikes Peak 2021, as it is looking like the car is exceeding expectations so far and settings times that rival race cars that are purpose built for the PPIHC.
