Two Tesla Model S Plaid vehicles were spotted today at Germany’s famous Nürburgring racetrack. The two electric sedans were seen flying around various sections of the track, and based on the observations of a Tesla fan sitting trackside, it looked like they were attempting to beat the lap record set by the Porsche Taycan in 2019.
Shortly after the video was posted, CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to confirm one of the cars officially broke the lap record for a production electric car, setting a time of 7:30.909. The previous record was held by the Taycan, which completed the notoriously long and difficult track in 7:42.
Tesla Model S Plaid just set official world speed record for a production electric car at Nurburgring. Completely unmodified, directly from factory. pic.twitter.com/AaiFtfW5Ht
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 9, 2021
Since this record was set with a stock production car, Musk added that their next attempt will be with a Plaid modified for the track “with added aero surfaces, carbon brakes & track tires.”
After a nearly two year absence, Tesla returned to the Nürburgring in July with a stock red Model S Plaid. That car ended up crashing a few weeks later, but it appears it wasn’t a major accident and is already fixed up and back on the track, and could have been the car that set the new record.
We will have to wait until Tesla releases some footage of the record run, but until then you can see some of the action in the video below.
