A head-to-head race with a 2014 Corvette Stingray Z51 reveals that the executive sedan’s performance — as well as its powertrain — is electric. On paper there shouldn’t be any doubt. The current Corvette is one of the fastest home-grown production cars currently on sale in the US. It boasts a 0-60mph (100km/h) time of 3.8 seconds and over 400hp on tap for when needs arise.
The Tesla Model S on the other hand is a car for eco-minded executives that worry more about the effects of burning fossil fuels than of the ability to burn rubber. Even in its more performance-orientated guise, the SP85, the car is first and foremost a luxury cruiser, not a track bruiser.
Yet when the two cars met at a drag race, the Tesla beat the Corvette over the standing quarter-mile track by 0.235 seconds, achieving a speed of 116 mph in the process. Watch below:
Luckily enough, for the Corvette owner’s pride, in the rematch, later the same day, the Tesla was knocked into second place, but only by 0.0774 of a second.
As well as a drag race victory, Tesla is this week celebrating the completion of its US supercharging network. It means that a Tesla owner can now drive from LA to New York and then along the coast to Florida for free using nothing more than Tesla-supplied electricity.
In honor of the achievement, the company is on Thursday undertaking what it calls the Coast to Coast Supercharger Rally. A car will set off from Tesla’s design studio in Hawthorne, Los Angeles and attempt to get to New York by Sunday. In the process it hopes to set a new world record for the lowest charge time for an electric vehicle traveling across the country.
