Tesla Model S Plaid laps Nürburgring in 7:30.909, production electric record
A Plaid Tesla Model S has set a new electric lap record at the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife racetrack in Germany, with a laptime of 7:30.909. This beats the Porsche Taycan’s time by nearly 12 seconds, and is quite competitive with the gas-powered competition as well.
Nürburgring Nordschleife, also known as “The Green Hell,” is one of the most famous racetracks in the world, known for its exceptional length and technical difficulty. While most race circuits are 2-4 miles long per lap, the Nordschleife (“North Loop”) is nearly 13 miles long per lap. The track winds through Rhineland forests on roads that are less flat and well-maintained than modern race circuits, with a combination of every type of corner you can imagine (and lots of graffiti from the locals).
As a result of this, and its location in Germany, it gets used by many manufacturers to test the capabilities of new cars, to shake down vehicles and see if they can handle the extreme stresses of racing – and to brag about their car’s capabilities.
Tesla has been at Nürburgring for the last couple weeks testing their new product and doing record attempts, so we were expecting news soon. Their achievement was announced today on Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s twitter account with a partial photo of the time slip:
This photo doesn’t include a lot of information, but shows the most important parts: the laptime and average speed.
The Nurburgring track has multiple configurations, and by looking at the time slip we can tell that this record was set on the longer 20,832m configuration. This configuration is only used in closed sessions, with most laps being set on the 20,600m configuration which is a few seconds faster. For public driving sessions, the track uses the “bridge-to-gantry” configuration which is 19,100m long.
In comparison to other vehicles, the Model S Plaid’s 7:30.909 lap stacks up very well. There are always arguments over what constitutes a record in a particular car segment – whether a car is actually a production car, whether it was modified from stock, and so on – but the Plaid is in the same ballpark as the fastest comparable vehicles, gas or electric.
The 2020 Porsche Panamera Turbo set a 7:29.81 last year on the same longer configuration, which puts the Model S just 1 second behind the 4-door model from one of the world’s most respected racing marques. At the time this was a record for a production full-size car (also known as “E-segment” in Europe or “executive car” in the UK), but later that year the Mercedes AMG GT63 S set a 7:27.80 lap time. A second means a lot in racing, but on such a long lap as this, these times are virtually identical.
There is one 4-door still faster than each of these, the Jaguar XE Project 8, but it does not have rear seats, so doesn’t really fit into the same category.
As mentioned above, the Plaid Model S also beats the fastest electric competitor, the Porsche Taycan, which previously held the fastest production electric 4-door record. Though that was set with the Taycan Turbo, rather than the Turbo S, so Porsche might still have a little extra time in their pocket.
Getting out of the 4-door category, the Model S Plaid’s lap even matches some sportscars which it has no business competing with. For example, the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8 set a 7:29.90 – but we believe that was on the shorter 20,600m configuration, which would put the Tesla ahead by a second or two.
And finally, there are other electric cars which have lapped faster than this. The $1.48 million NIO EP9 set a 6:45.90 back in 2017, which was faster than any production car ever made at the time, gas or electric – though we can debate whether or not the EP9 counts as a “production” car when only ~20 units were built. And the fastest electric car ever to lap the track was the Volkswagen ID.R with a 6:05.336.
It looks like the Tesla did two laps, as well. We don’t know if these were done back-to-back or with a cooldown period inbetween, but there’s only a 5 second difference between them. This is relatively good consistency (on such a long lap), particularly considering electric cars have had difficulties even finishing a single lap before. We saw this early on with a Tesla Model S back in 2014 which couldn’t complete a single lap under full power, and even the Porsche Taycan overheated on their second lap of the Nordschleife. If the Plaid saw only a 5 second variation between laps, that’s not much power loss at all.
This may not be the last we see of Tesla at Nürburgring. Previously, while testing the Plaid powertrain, a modified Model S set an unofficial time of 7:13. Tesla even thinks a time as low as 7:05 would be conceivable. So it must be possible to get an electric sedan to go faster around the track than today’s Plaid record, but we’ll see if Tesla, or anyone else, puts the updates or modifications into place that might facilitate even faster lap times.
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Entertainment
Kate Nash says selling photos of her bum on OnlyFans paid for an extra tour crew member
Davina McCall has said her short-term memory is “a bit remiss” as she recovers from brain tumour surgery.
Speaking from her bed, the visibly emotional TV presenter posted a short video updating her Instagram followers on her condition, saying it had been a “mad” time.
She expressed an “enormous heartfelt thank you” to people who had messaged her after she revealed this month she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.
Looking bright, but with a visibly bruised left eye, McCall said: “My short-term memory is a bit remiss.
“But that is something I can work on, so I’m really happy about that. I’m writing everything down, to keep myself feeling safe.”
She added: “It’s been mad, and it’s just really nice to be back home, I’m on the other side.”
In a message posted with the video, she reiterated her thanks for all the support she has received, adding: “Had a great night’s sleep in my own bed. Have a couple of sleeps during the day which keeps my brain clear… Slowly, slowly…”
When she first shared her diagnosis, she said chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.
The 57-year-old star said support from her fans had “meant the world”.
She said she was being “brilliantly looked after” by her partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and her stepmother, Gabby, who she calls mum.
Becoming tearful, the presenter said: “I’d quickly like to say big up the stepmums. I don’t really say thank you to Gabby enough. She’s been an amazing rock my whole life.”
McCall was estranged from her birth mother, Florence McCall, who died in 2008.
McCall with 2002 Big Brother winner Kate Lawler. Pic: Rex Features
With a catch in her voice, McCall went on: “I’ve got a massive dose of vitamin G – I’m just really grateful. I’ve always been really lucky in my life, but I feel unbelievably grateful right now. So, thanks for everything, all of you.
“I’m on the mend, I’m resting and sleeping loads and I feel really good. I’m just very lucky.”
Stars including presenter Alison Hammond, singer Craig David and radio host Zoe Ball quickly shared their delight at the positive update.
McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.
McCall with her MBE, alongside her partner Michael Douglas and her daughter Holly Robertson. Pic: PA
She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, the most recent being ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.
Last year, McCall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.
Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.
She has lived with Douglas since 2022, and they present a weekly lifestyle podcast together, Making The Cut.
Barbara Taylor Bradford, the bestselling novelist who wrote A Woman Of Substance, has died at the age of 91.
The Leeds-born author, who sold more than 90 million books, died peacefully at her home on Sunday after a short illness and was “surrounded by loved ones to the very end”, a spokeswoman said.
Taylor Bradford, who was often labelled “the grand dame of blockbusters”, hit the big time when A Woman Of Substance was published in 1979, making her an overnight success.
The story sold millions of copies and traced the journey of Emma Harte from life as a servant in rural Yorkshire to heading a business empire.
The rags to riches story was followed by many other successful books with the author’s works being published in more than 40 languages across 90 countries.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
The author on her 21st birthday. Pic: Bradford Enterprises/PA
Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of publisher HarperCollins, said the author was a “natural storyteller”, adding: “Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first book, the international bestseller A Woman Of Substance, changed the lives of so many who read it – and still does to this day.”
Taylor Bradford, who was made an OBE in 2007 for services to literature, wrote a total of 40 novels during her career – her most recent was The Wonder Of It All, published last year.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
Taylor Bradford with her husband Robert in 1993. Pic: PA
Born in May 1933 as the only child of Winston and Freda Taylor, she worked as a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post before becoming a reporter and then the paper’s first woman’s editor.
At the age of 20, she moved to London and worked in Fleet Street for Woman’s Own and the London Evening News.
She met her husband, American film producer Robert Bradford, in 1961 and they married in London on Christmas Eve in 1963 before moving to New York the following year.
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The couple were married for 55 years until he died from a stroke in 2019.
Following a private funeral in New York, the author will be buried alongside her late husband at the city’s Westchester Hills Cemetery.
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