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Watch Tesla’s new Model S Plaid hit 147 mph at Laguna Seca Raceway

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Check out Tesla’s new Model S Plaid tearing around the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California, last weekend.

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The company posted a couple of videos — one of them in-car — shortly after Tesla boss Elon Musk unveiled the new electric vehicle at a special event on Tuesday, September 22.

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Tesla’s Model S Plaid can go from 0 to 60 mph in under 2 seconds and offers a range of more than 520 miles.

In the videos above, the new car reaches 147 mph as it hums around the track, though it is capable of hitting 200 mph.

The Model S Plaid finished the lap in an impressive 1:30:3, beating the vehicle’s own best time of 1:36:56 set last year, and, if verified, snatching the lap record for an electric vehicle of 1:33 claimed recently by Lucid’s Air test vehicle.

The unofficial all-time lap record for any motor vehicle currently stands at 1:05:8 (Ferrari F2003-GA), with the official record clocked at 1:07:7 (Reynard 2KI). The McLaren Senna holds the current production car lap record, clocked at 1:27:6.

Musk said on Tuesday that he believed a few more seconds could be shaved off the Plaid’s lap time, and insisted the new Tesla car would eventually achieve “the best track time of any production vehicle ever, of any kind, two-door or otherwise.”

The $140,000 Model S Plaid is available to order now and will be shipped by the end of 2021, later than originally expected.

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Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
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