Every year, the fastest and craziest cars in the world assemble at Pikes Peak, a three-mile hill climb in the Rocky Mountains. Among the cars on show this year was something unusual — a Tesla Model S, technically a “production” car, but completely stripped out and turned into a lean, mean, racing machine.
The car was driven by Blake Fuller, CEO of GO Puck, and set a record for the fastest production electric vehicle (although “production” was pretty loosely defined).
DON’T MISS: Would you rather a black or blue iPhone 7? This is what they’re going to look like
A “production” car is supposed to be one that’s only modified enough to make it safe for racing, by changing seats, removing airbags, installing a rollcage and the like. Fuller’s Tesla did all of that, but the questions seem to be over the battery pack.
According to Jalopnik, the battery pack has been modified to put out more power, at the cost of range and long-term battery life. Does that count as modifying the car so it’s no longer production? Well, parts-wise, no, but you’d struggle to take this particular Model S on a road trip any more.
In any case, the modifications were enough to do an 11:48 run, comfortably the fastest (sorta) production electric vehicle. It wasn’t the fastest electric vehicle overall, though: Pikes Peak always sees an assortment of prototype and one-off cars trying their luck, and Rhys Millen’s eO electric vehicle clocked in at 8:57.118.
Just in case you’re wondering what it looks like to charge up a desolate mountain road full-throttle in a modified electric vehicle, there’s video. It’s scary. Really scary.
