Nismo's COTW Reviews!!!
Episode 31: 2012 Tesla Model S
"Zero Emissions".... Unless you have no TCS!
Oooh, goody! A Tesla! The manufacturer that now boasts the pace to outdo even the ultimate hypercars! My girlfriend and her family love Teslas, mainly for their technical innovation and rapid acceleration. She even got a ride in the first Tesla in New Zealand this week, so from her raving I had pretty high hopes for the Model S...
I only got a couple of races in on Tuesday, and I pretty much wasted them sliding around with Vic. Still, his amazing reverse entry at Madrid...
Back it in!
...and aggressive Corkscrew slide...
Two storey drop... sideways!
...were truley sights to behold!
Anyways, I was a tad more serious on Saturday. I wanted to really give the Tesla a solid run, maybe a longer race to mix things up...
For starters, Vic and I were the only ones in the lobby. So we duelled at Apricot Hill. My Tesla however, was a lot slower than Vic's, I had trouble keeping in on the track, and generally fell off the pace like a newb. It's RR and over 2 tonnes, neither of these facts helping me exactly.
This wasn't a great start to my night...
All night I just couldn't get to grips with the Model S. I was always either getting caught easy as, or embarrassingly far behind.
And I couldn't blame it on not having an oil change, because it's a EV. I seemed to be the only one experiencing these problems, as Baron, Vic, Ash and the rest of the lobby seemed to have no real issues with it. (Or if they did, they were far less obvious than mine!) Straight line performance was fine, but as soon as I hit a corner... Off the track, bye bye everyone!!!
This wasn't a great middle to my night...
The only times I got decent results were when I finally ditched my stupid Tesla and went back to good old ICE's! (Internal Combustion Engines) I found a Honda S2000 LM Race Car that had the exact same PP as the Tesla, and duelled with Vic again at Laguna Seca..
Ha-haaa, you're not gonna shake me this time!
Less power, but substantially less weight meant I was right on top of him the whole way. Didn't get past him, but I didn't fall away either. Which leads me to my next problem with the Tesla. After driving it, the game switches your transmission to Automatic. I had to do that race in auto, which is a problem for me because I use my gears in a way very different to the game's A.I. Anyways, my switch to ICEs sparked an "EV vs ICE" battle. There would always be at least one EV and one ICE in the race to see who was supreme.
For the next race, I decided to use a GT300 spec RX-7, which won that race, tying the score at 1-1.
Whaatt, Barrooonn!!! I can't hear you over the sound of my screaming rotary!!! 
Eventually, others started ditching the Tesla and trying out other ICE cars, all but Vic, who was defending the Tesla all the way, and doing a solid job, too...
A variety of contenders to go up against the Model S
The final score when I left was EVs: 4 ICEs: 2
Which proved that it wasn't the Tesla at fault for its shoddy performances in my hands, it was me.
Which is fine, everyone has cars that they struggle to get to grips with. But as Brad mentioned in the intro to this week, it's essentially an oversized gokart. You'd think it'd be easy to drive fast...
But this is not the case. May I remind you that this Model S was built for saving the planet while doing your city runabouts. This means a soft, comfortable suspension setup instead of a track tuned, firm type. Sure, it can drag race with supercars, but it's not really built for lap records. It's also got under average brakes, although I suppose when the car weighs 2 tonnes, any kind of brakes would struggle!
The battery runs out quite quickly, even quicker if you're racing at night or in the rain and require headlights or windscreen wipers. (Or both...) Which was no biggie for us COTW drivers, but anyone who for some reason wants to take it and enter it into the 24 minutes of Le Mans, (Why would you even do such a thing?!) might want to take note.
The Tesla keeps up with the GT300 RX-7, but has too much weight to keep up with it through corners.
It does have good power. And off the line, it's torque is instant. So it does have some merits. It's also on sport hard tyres, a trait that is quite simply the easiest to address, so if you're able to bolt on the RS tyres (You know you can!) then the Tesla becomes quite fun! Still heavy, but at least the grip helps in clinging to the track when you really need it!
However my main purpose for my Tesla isn't racing as such.. it is, in fact, drifting!
The torque, the weight, the drivetrain, all of that screams out "DRIFT!!!" to me, and that's the reason I bought my Tesla, all those months ago (Yes, the Tesla I used this week was the same one I used back in Touring Car Lovers).
Oh, and the fact that my girlfriend loves them. That too.
All this has me thinking though, GT needs to add the ultimate EV... The Rimac Concept One! THEN you'll see what an EV can really do!
The Tesla, however, I'm calling it Neutral. 👎👍
It is a brilliant drifter, I'll give it that! It may be heavy, it may have treated me poorly this week, it may have been deserving of a beater status, but noone can deny it's drift-ability. Case closed.
"So, Jeff, who's driving your Tesla in this race?"
"Itself!"
I still have no internet 
but i would like to participate in the TT´s 
I guess it´s not possible offline right?
