The upgrade is significant: It boosts the front electric motor from 221 to 259 hp and the rear from 470 to an astounding 503 hp. Musk said the new mode delivers 1.1Gs during acceleration and called it “faster than falling,” which we’d rather not test ourselves, at least with our own bodies.
“It’s like having your own private roller coaster,” Musk said.
The Ludicrous Speed Upgrade, like the Model S itself, doesn’t come cheap at $10,000. Current Model S P85D owners can upgrade for $5,000 for the next six months. Musk says a similar upgrade will also be available for the upcoming Model X crossover, albeit with somewhat less punch thanks to that model’s higher weight.
Aside from Ludicrous mode, Musk also added an upgraded 90kWh battery back option for $3,000 and introduced a 70 KWh rear-wheel drive Model S at $70,000. Not only that, but Musk also said they’re going to bring back a new version of the Roadster in four years — the Roadster being their first model ever, and the one that really got people to sit up and take notice, as it delivered 4-second 0-60 times and 200 miles of range back when no other EV came close. No one still does, in fact, except for Tesla’s own products.
More than any other manufacturer, Tesla Motors has seemingly perfected the art of the over-the-air software update — at least for the auto industry. Usually, manufacturers have to retool and redesign a car’s driveline, change the gearing, or perform some other engineering wizardry to increase the speed of an existing model. Tesla has even done this once before already with Insane Mode (which delivered a 3.2-second 0-60 time) –although in this case, there’s some hardware involved as well as new software. The company couldn’t change the gearing if it wanted to; there’s no gearing.
The Tesla Model S P85D starts at $105,670 without the $10K Ludicrous Speed Upgrade. But if you’re already spending that kind of dough for Tesla’s top-of-the-line electric sedan, it’s a safe bet you want it. By this point, charging is becoming a bit easier; there are well over 100 supercharging stations that can deliver 150 miles of range with just 20 minutes of plug-in juice. No word yet on what the upgrade does to the car’s ultimate range on a full charge, but we wouldn’t expect a huge hit.
As for us, we can’t wait to see the first real Model P85D-versus-Hellcat video. (There’s one out there already, but whoever drove the Hellcat spun its wheels to kingdom come and lost miserably. That’s not how you do this.)
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