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nein. The EV weight is BELOW the axles MASKING the heft quite nicely... EVERY journalist, youtube influencer, tear down reverse engineer and especially race car drivers says so...and quite frankly, physics... Low center of gravity greatly improves handling and a skateboard EV platform is just that. Very low center of gravity no matter the weight. And because the motors are directly connected to the driving wheels with no transmissions and driveshafts to contend with, your talk is simply bullshyte.... why do you insist on spewing garbage talk. Should I start calling you Alex Jones?

To boot The CS loses MORE weight. Carbon fibre hood, etc. to lose an extra 250 pounds or so. Weighs in at a svelte 4000 lbs for a midsized, 4 door family hauling sedan. The Plaid simply doesnt care to shed ANY additional poundage. A carbon fibre hood, trunk, bumpers could eliminate some weight, but Tesla didnt do carbon fibre anything on the Plaid.. Tesla didnt build the Plaid to specifically go fast aound the 'Ring like BMW did the CS. Tesla just wanted to show Porsche and the world that an EV CAN go fast around the 'Ring.

suspension symmetry or asymmetry, dampening rates, the kind of dampers to begin with, suspension travel. How low the car is to the ground, overall weight, weight distribution, center of gravity, how well the motor or engine transfers the power and torque to the wheels, wheel cambers, all just some of the factors that are involved in tracking... Some of those factors are equal and same solutions to both EVs and ICEs and some of those are advantageous or disadvantageous to each differently and separately but could use any and either factor in that track equation to compensate for the disadvantage. At the end of the day, a Model S Plaid, as a heavy Hellcat Charger do an excellent job at handling street legal speed cornering and do inspire confidence in accident avoidance maneuvers. However, they do the job somewhat on a track, but they aint the right tool to conquer the track races as both vehicles were NOT ENGINEERED TO DO ANY TRACK WORK. THEY BOTH LACK THE NEEDED HARDWARE, THE PROPER TRACK SUSPENSIONS... And quite frankly, the heft issue on both the Plaid and Hellcat could be overcome without even eliminating the heft part just by utilizing the necessary hardware. Of course knocking off 500-600 lbs on either would benefit them for plenty of things, not just tracking. Im not denying that. Its just that heft is NOT the deterrent its spoke of by SMK aka Alex with a skateboard platform EV...

It's not that difficult at all but some folks lol.

yes. and nobody, me, is not saying otherwise. hence the word choice of masking the heft. But weight, *sigh* for the umpteenth time *sigh* is but 1 factor regarding handling. *sigh* The skateboard platform allows for all the heft be BELOW THE AXLES MAKING A VERY VERY LOW CENTER OF GRAVITY FAVOURING HANDLING AND TRACKING. plus the weight is so evenly distributed along the length and side of the vehicle all that is left to do is just an easy calibration of the suspension not having to factor for up front engine heft in a front engined car. even in a rear mid-engine car, the weight is still ABOVE the wheels instead of below. Traction is compensated by having the electric motors directly engaged to the driving wheels be it 3 or even 4. Software programming even allows for torque vectoring on ALL 4 wheels if all 4 wheels are able to be torquing..... Heft is just a factor in a myriad of factors in a tracking formula... yes, heft is a detriment to performance. NOBODY is denying that. Its just that a skateboard platform EV isnt really phased by that. An ICE track car has many more deficiencies that an EV has as an advantage... yes yes yes heft aint onee of them But HIGHER center of gravity and heft to where it aint optimal for an engine to be are what favours the EV... *phoque me its such a difficult concept to understand???*

@oldshurst442 Thank you for posting, Randy Pobst has again proven my point way back at the beginning about Engineering. It is never the weight, but engineering to tune an auto to perform it's best and a tune of Suspension parts for track make that difference as you, @surreal1272 and myself keep saying. Since Olds brought it to our attention and everyone deserves a special day. @smk4565 Happy Birthday, I hope you have an enjoyable day whatever you choose to do.

I agree to everybody's dislikes about this car.. I do like the colourful motifs in the interior though if not for the material choices. Cars are supposed to be fun. Cars have gotten depressing and drab. Lets get back to fun.

7:42 EV Porsche Taycan Turbo and NOT the Turbo S HP for Taycan Turbo 670. Turbo S @ 750 Plaid @ 1020HP weight for the Taycan 5200 lbs versus the Plaid @ 4700 lbs for reference how a track specific ice car handles on the Nurburgring versus another that is not But the suspension is track specific. Watch the video and see how the Taycan is smooth on the track versus how rough the Plaid Tesla is. The Taycan is planted while the Model S is bouncing up and down and side to side sloppy all over the place. The Taycan IS heavier by 500 lbs. And still, the Model S Plaid was faster because of the HP difference. But the track suspension makes us see the difference between the two... But Porsche decided to use a less powerful Taycan... That is interesting... https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a29088855/porsche-taycan-turbo-s-nurburgring-lap-time/#:~:text=While the Turbo S makes,616 horses after that interval. for reference how a track specific ice car handles on the Nurburgring versus another that is not. The instructor in the Hellcat knows the track quite well and does and fantastic job communicating with the driver what to do, and ANYBODY that says the Hellcat cant handle twisties is just ignorant AF, but you could see the Hellcat is out of its element. But the Hellcat does NOT have track specific suspension... watch and analyze all videos @smk4565. You will learn something and will make you stop spewing garbage. It is your birthday TODAY. So HAPPY BIRRTHDAY. I give you the gift of knowledge!!!

Very cool to still watch for a street legal production car with street tires and suspension. For most people, 7 seconds is not identifiable unlike auto enthusiast.

you dont have a point. period. There is more to track times, than just overall weight being low. Low weight is just a single factor within a larger equation. One shortcoming could be overcome with another factor in the equation. And 1000 HP versus 600 HP is just one of those compensations. But you simply ignore the fact that the BMW M5 CS has actual steering, suspension and tires especially tuned for the track, and especially the Nurburgring as where the Plaid does not. The actual hardware, the steering and suspension, are not track specific engineered. To compensate, software programming does its best to make the Plaid handle the track cornering going in and out of and leading back unto the straights. Unlike the CS's hardware where the hardware is specifically designed to do so. On top of all that, the M5 CS is track tested specifically to run on the 'Ring to run fast times there. Which also means that the CS might not be so dominant on another track since different tracks have different characteristics. Anyways.... Also, the CS's tires are track specific tires. Th Plaid has go fast grippy tires for the street. And the result is ONLY a 7 second difference... Not much considering the Tesla's platform was primarily engineered to house a heavy battery and to be as efficient as possible for range, comfort, speed (in a straight line) for the street for daily driven purposes. The 5 Series BMW is a sports sedan known for cornering prowess. The M5 version of that is an even better sports sedan with even better cornering and the CS version is just a beast on the track because THAT is what its meant to do. All its hardware is meant to be a sports sedan for the street with very capable track prowess. The Plaid is simply NOT a track car. The Plaid is an EV to where most of the weight is perfectly and evenly distributed below the axles. A factor that benefits track racing. A skateboard EV platform allows for that. An ICE vehicle does not have that advantage. Weight is a disadvantage for an EV, but the skateboard platform, battery on the bottom, compensates for it. EV motors have instantaneous torque at any RPM, another advantage for EVs versus ICE. Easy horsepower for EVs is another advantage. The ONLY things that could be the same for both EV and ICE ARE the suspension and steering components. The BMW M5 CS chooses to have track oriented components while the Plaid does not. The 7 second difference does not come from the difference in weight of the two, its the track specific steering, suspension and tires... And possibly the engineering history of going fast around the track that BMW enjoys over Tesla. But not too shabby for Tesla's 1st attempt... You make it sound that EVs cant be competitive around the track because of heft, but the Plaid's 7:36 time around the 'Ring says otherwise...

"How can we get all of the electric stereotypes into one vehicle?" -"I got you, boss."

The weight matters, the Model S Plaid has over double the horsepower of a Corvette, does a 9.2 second quarter mile compared to the Corvette's 11.2 and the Corvette would beat it on any track in the world that has more than 1 corner and 1 braking zone. So if you make horsepower equal, say a Model 3 Performance vs a Corvette, I don't care what suspension parts they put on a Model 3, it isn't beating a Corvette on a track. And if Hyundai is going to make the N 74 or Ioniq 6 N handle like a sports car, how expensive is the suspension and brakes going to be to make that happen? And how many buyers are out there for a $75,000 Hyundai performance sedan? I don't see many Sonata N's out there and those are like $34,000 and they are killing the Sonata after this generation is word on the street. And thank you all for the birthday wishes.

So you are saying a Kia EV6 GT is a better handling car than a Cadillac CT4 Blackwing? Model S Tesla handles better than an CT5 Blackwing?

Which proves my point that these "performance" EV's have trash handling, the M5 is the only one that looks like it belongs out there, the rest are mess in the handling department. I want to see someone do a performance EV that isn't just rip your face off acceleration, and is actually a good handling car. On an ICE car, like a Camaro, you can keep the same engine, and upgrade to the 1LE suspension, get the better brakes, etc. On EV's the performance upgrade is bigger battery, bigger motor, penalize handling more for straight line speed.

Correct that Tesla chose not to make the Plaid have the upgraded brakes, suspension, tires, weight reduction etc. And that's their choice, but I wouldn't claim the Plaid as peak engineering since they just basically just added 1 motor and cranked up the voltage compared to the standard model. Tesla could offer a performance or track package and I'm sure people would buy it. But to Tesla (and other EV's) performance is 0-60 and 1/4 mile time and it isn't all straight line. And the Plaid is faster than the Taycan and e-Tron GT around the track, but the Panamera is faster than the Taycan, the Audi RS3 is faster than the e-Tron GT, within the same brand the ICE cars are still faster because of EV weight. Which I get eventually the batteries will get lighter and resolve a lot of that problem. But we are talking high end cars with the Plaid and M5 CS. What about a $40,000 sports car? Or $50,000? You won't get a fun to drive sports car, just a heavy EV that goes in a straight line, because they don't care about brakes, handling, suspension, etc, at least Tesla doesn't. And the rest of these guys like to copy Tesla. Final example, 184" L x 74" W x 60" H at 4800 lbs 187" L x 71" W x 56" H at 3860 lbs Both close in size, both cost in the high $60s, the Kia will easily beat the Cadillac 0-60 and 1/4 mile. But I am guessing the Cadillac with 1,000 less pounds of weight is a much better to drive car. And this is the EV problem, if Cadillac makes and Electric CT4, then it's a 4800 lb car that will handle like a 7-series or S-class, and the only thing the CT4 is good at is gone.

The Plaid has 1,000 hp. If you took a 600 hp Tesla and a 600 hp BMW and put them on a track the results for the Tesla would be embarrassing. Which is my point with EV performance. And why I don't see an affordable EV sports car showing up any time soon, definitely not in the sub $45k like Camaro, Mustang, BRZ, Miata Civic Type R, Golf R, Nissan Z, etc whether you want muscle car, hot hatch or sports car. I don't see an EV coming to take the place, This N74/Ionic 6 N are more powerful than the Corvette (6.2 V8) and would likely cost the same as a Corvette and it would have no where near the performance of a Corvette. Now one is mid-size sedan, not a lot of comps for non-luxury performance sedans except a Charger Hellcat.