Tesla has recently launched a new Track Package for the Model S Plaid, which comes with a few goodies such as improved brakes, new 21-inch wheels, track-ready tires, and a modified firmware that unlocks the car’s 200-mile-per-hour top speed, as well as offering several new options in the vehicle’s settings page.
The whole kit costs between $15,000 – $20,000, depending on whether you want the wheel/tire combo or not, but whatever you choose, the maximum top speed is unlocked nevertheless.
But considering the tires offered by Tesla – Goodyear Supercar 3R – aren’t street legal in the European Union because of their similarity to slicks, is this expensive Track Package worth it?
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It’s a question to which TopGear tried to find an answer, with veteran automotive journalist Tom Ford taking a Tesla Model S Plaid with the aforementioned optional kit on the Paul Ricard circuit in France, where the Formula 1 French Grand Prix was run intermittently, including in 2022 (not this year, though).
In the video review embedded at the top of the page, Ford details everything that’s new with this latest pack of goodies, adding that an owner of such a vehicle would have to be pretty committed to his purchase, considering the illegality of the Goodyear tires on the public roads of the EU. That presumably means leaving them at the track in a rented facility or hauling them to the circuit and changing them on the spot, which is admittedly a bit of hard work.
Then again, one could simply go for a set of street tires, but those won’t offer the same level of performance when pushed hard.
As for the 200 miles per hour (322 kilometers per hour) top speed, well, you can see for yourself in the TopGear review if the Model S Plaid is capable of reaching it, but as a bit of a spoiler, the straight section was too short for a full speed run. Nevertheless, the electric sedan proved once again it can effortlessly accelerate to 150 mph (241 kph) in less than ten seconds.
As always, we’d like to know what you think about this, so after watching the video, scroll down to the comments section to tell us your thoughts on the new Tesla Model S Plaid Track Package.
