You Need The World's Most Powerful Ferrari To Beat The Tesla Model X Plaid

EVs like the Tesla Model X Plaid are becoming the way to win drag races these days. It's pretty obvious why. Hefty curb weights aside, a lack of gears to change and instant torque adds up to ridiculous trap speeds. To that point, you need an awful lot of Ferrari to out-drag a Model X Plaid. At least as far as price goes, you need roughly five times the car. The SF90's $566,000 price tag is nearly five times as much as the Plaid's MSRP.

Let's get specs out of the way now. The Ferrari SF90 Stradale in Drag Times' video weighs 3,920 lbs and has 986 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque spun up via an 8-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. It also has uber-sticky Toyo R888 tires. The Model X on the other hand, packs 1,020 hp through a single-speed transmission and weighs an astonishing 5,333 lbs. Put in perspective, that's an awful lot of car needed to out-drag what is ultimately a very heavy family car.

You'll note that the tires were omitted from the Plaid's list. We don't know what it was running, but let's assume them to be nearly as aggro as the R888s. Maybe that's ultimately what lost the Model S Plaid the first of its 3 races against the Ferrari. Timing and tires make or break drag races, especially when the time slips are so close.

It looks to us like the Plaid jumped the lights a bit on the second run, but as they say, a chase is a race. And the Ferrari lost that one. However, the SF90 managed to come back for the win, beating the Plaid by under half a second in the final race.

That comes down to a multitude of factors. First, yes, the tires. Had the Plaid not jumped the lights, we think those R888s would have had enough temperature in them to keep up with the Tesla. Of course, much of this also comes down to skill, and the man running the drag racing YT channel has probably run a few races in his time.

At the end of the day, much of this comes down to your typical EV's torque curve. Electric motors tend to die off at "the top-end," meaning they can feel as if they've started to run out of torque. The motors can only output so much power through the driveline for so long, and that's the result. It's also why typically netted the Ferrari the win.

Even when running extremely close, the Ferrari is able to keep its acceleration up for longer as the two cars travel down the strip. We have no doubt it would've been a sweep on a longer half-mile drag strip. Still, it goes to show just how insane fast EVs are. For a fifth of the money, you get a 5-seat family hauler that'll keep up with a Ferrari. If you need to beat one in a quarter-mile, just jump the lights like a true drag racer.