The Tesla Model S Plaid is a pure performance machine and certainly the fastest straight-line car you can buy today. That said, a recent video on YouTube brings up its share of questions regarding the other technical elements of the Plaid at the performance level.
The PlaidAF team wanted to verify the effectiveness of the brakes on their Tesla Model S Plaid by evaluating the performance over a sequence of ten hard brakes from 100 mph to 20 mph.
The idea was to see how much the brakes were losing their effectiveness and to measure the temperature after ten tries. The test also sought to track the time it takes for the brakes to cool down after the ten tries.
However, they were never able to complete all 10 tests. After three tries a disturbing smell came from the brakes and after five tries the Model S Plaid issued a brake temperature warning in the dashboard.
After eight tries, the smell of the brakes was too intense and the evaluators decided to stop testing. They then noticed a flame in one of the calipers and the temperature reached nearly 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
It is clear that the base Model S Plaid brakes are not suitable for prolonged track or high-speed driving. However, Tesla will offer a ceramic brake option on its Model S Plaid to remedy the problem. If you are going to be doing a lot of track driving with your Plaid, these brakes are absolutely necessary.
