Damon Lavrinc for Jalopnik, recounting his phone-destroying experience while reviewing the Tesla Model S P85D:
I was being so good, doing all the unglamorous car reviewer stuff. Driving in a congested area, inching through start-and-stop traffic, running over rough asphalt. After about 30 minutes I’d had enough. I switched the driving mode to Insane and mashed the throttle away from a deserted traffic light. Bad idea.
My phone shot out of the compartment below the massive display and slammed into the back of the center console, shattering the screen.
The D just killed my phone.
The P85D has a claimed 0-60 time of 3.2 seconds, soon to be 3.1 with an OTA update. I remember when the second-generation Corvette Z06 came out in 2006. It sported a 0-60 time of 4.2 seconds. Here we are, not even ten years later, and an all-electric car beats that feat of American engineering by a full second.
But it’s not numbers that makes the P85D such a great feat. It’s quotes like this one from Lavrinc:
I’ve experienced high-power drag launches before. This is different. You’ve got the enlarged rear motor putting out 470 HP and the front motor delivering another 221 HP. Stomping on the throttle – not pressing, stomping – puts all of that grunt to the wheels instantaneously. There is no wheel spin. There is no drama. From a standstill it’s epically violent; on the road, at speed, it’s merely completely fucking nuts.
In an age when petrol machines are dying a slow death, I’m not one for speeding up that process. Still, Tesla should be evidence enough that when a company can leverage technology to make things and help the environment, the world can change.