Tesla has confirmed that the Model S is now the fastest 4-door sedan to lab Laguna Seca.
On Wednesday, Tesla CEO tweeted out that a Model S had set a lap record at Laguna Seca Raceway in Texas, but didn't provide much else in terms of details. Just that a video would be forthcoming. On Thursday, Tesla released that video showing a Model S lap the track in a blistering 1:36.55 minutes.
Tesla says this beats the previous record for a 4-door car by a full second.
This move appears to be a response to Porsche's record at the Nurburgring last August when they took a production-model Taycan Turbo S and set a new lap record for a 4-door EV. While Musk praised the Taycan's design and achievements, he also poked a bit of fun at the name, saying that "Turbo" appears to be misused in the Taycan.
Musk also said that the Model S is currently at the Nurburgring following his announcement on Laguna Seca, but then followed it up to say that it won't be setting a lap record there. Subsequent tweets revealed that Tesla had failed to secure the track for a record attempt and that the Model S was still being reviewed and tuned for the Green Hell.
We know very little about what was done to the Model S to set the record at Laguna Seca. Comments on the YouTube video indicate that the Model S' steering wheel was replaced with a Model 3's, but beyond that, we can't seem to spot any differences between a standard Model S and the one that set the lap record.
Tesla did say in a subsequent tweet that the driver is an "amateur" on the Tesla development team. Setting a lap record as an amateur has got to be the highlight of this engineer's career.