Lifestyle
Choosing the Perfect Tesla Model S Performance Racing Tire
Finding the perfect tire is a never ending pursuit in the world of racing. For those taking their Tesla Model S to the track, the most frequently asked questions are around tires. What tires support the weight of the Model S and performs the best on a race track? Having gone through several tire configurations in our Tesla racing conquests we can now provide some answers to that question.
Your choice of tire really depends on what you are trying to achieve with the Model S. We’ve broken it down to three usage categories as follows:
- If you track your Model S very infrequently (ie. once a year), then any tire will work. Tracking in the beginner’s groups won’t stress your tires since most of the time you’ll be driving at lower speeds while learning racing best practices.
- If you do it frequently and/or do performance driving (usually in the intermediate groups) softer compound performance tires would be your best choice.
- If you are racing your Tesla in the advanced group where ever millisecond counts then racing tires are a must.
We will review performance vs. racing tires in detail, and outline the pros and cons of each.
Performance Tires
Usually found under Performance Summer (Extreme/High/Max) category at retailers like Tire Rack. Our choice of performance tires is, 265/35ZR-20 BFGoodrich G-Force Rival, grade 200. While they very slightly exceed the spec for front wheels, rubbing is very minimal, only when tires are new, and only on full lock. We found it to be a non-issue fot track use and daily driving. This is how the tires look like on a race track:
Pros:
- The tires can be used for both race track and daily street driving. We did not find them consuming substantially more energy. They are fully street legal, comfortable to drive on, and they don’t wear out nearly as much as racing tires.
- On the track the tires provide an excellent balance between traction/grip and slide/drift, allowing for an easy, controlled drift through turns (as much as stability control will allow).
- You can achieve a fairly steady 0.9 to 1.0 lateral G through the turns, with occasional spikes to 1.1 and as high as 1.3.
- At $260 per tire, they are very economical and versatile. Overall, fun tires to use on the track.
Cons:
- These are not meant for all out racing. The edges of the tires will get torn up if you drive very aggressively on them.
- Using a higher tire pressure will alleviate some of the wear but it will ultimately succumb to the car’s weight. Some feathering is normal, but as shown on these photos, these tears are deep and often go down all the way to the cord. Move to racing tires if this is happening to you.
Racing Tires
Racing tires can be found under the Racetrack / Competition Only category at online retailers such as Tire Rack. Our choice of racing tire is the Toyo Proxes R888 @ 285/35ZR-20, grade 100. Finding racing tires for the Tesla Model S can be challenging mainly because of the car’s heavy weight, something not all tires can support. It’s not everyday that you see a 4600+ “race car” tearing it up on the track. There’s only two or three racing tire choices that fit the bill. Of the two choices available, 285 wide 20″ vs. 265 wide 19″, the bigger tires are our favorites. This is what they look like mounted on the car:
The larger tires work extremely well for racing purposes but be mindful that minor rubbing against the inner plastic fender can occur at approximately 3/4th of the steering wheel turn. It’s not an issue for racing applications because most turns are less than 1/4th of steering wheel turn.
This picture to the right was taken after driving slowly with the steering wheel turned to full lock.
The overall tire diameter is almost the same as the standard Model S tires. There are sufficient horizontal and vertical clearances with the suspension set to Standard.
Pros:
- One of the benefits of having a larger racing tires is that the steering wheel lockup issue during banked turns is eliminated. Based on our experiences the Model S steering wheel locks up under high G and until the forces are reduced. Examples of where this has occurred are Fontana turn 1, Laguna Seca turn 9, Sonoma turn 1. We’ve been in contact with Tesla about the issue, but understandably addressing it is low on the priority list since this issue only occurs under extreme driving forces.
- Softer and wider tires provide better traction because of the grippier compound. However a stiffer suspension is usually needed to be able to fully realize the potential. We did not find an improvement in lateral G, but we did notice a longer duration for holding the G.
- One of the main advantages of these tires vs. performance tires is race track durability. They are capable of handling the grueling conditions of racing especially including the heavy weight of the Tesla.
Cons:
- While they are technically street legal (barely), the tires resemble slicks and not suitable for daily driving.
- Parking becomes a difficult task especially if you need to make a full turn.
- Racing tires are very noisy because of the increased friction against ground surfaces.
- Racing tires are not designed for wet conditions. They did surprisingly well on a wet race track surface, but do not repeat our mistake and try driving through standing water.
- And lastly, while these softer, wider, and grippier tires improve traction on a race track, more energy is needed to move rotate them. How much more? A whopping 20%. We registered 390 Wh/mile of street driving using the racing tires vs. 320 Wh/mile when using standard tires.
- The tires need to be transported to the track.
- At $380 per tire, racing tires are much more expensive than performance tires. They also tend to wear down much faster.
We’ll be gathering some more track data over time using our racing 285/35ZR-20 Toyo Proxes R888. We’ll be monitoring the effects these racing tires have on energy usage, lateral Gs and of course our lap times!
Lifestyle
Tesla hit by Iranian missile debris in Israel
A Tesla in Israel absorbed a direct hit from missile debris, and the glassroof held.
On March 30, 2026, Lara Shusterman was in Netanya, Israel when Iranian ballistic missiles triggered air raid sirens across the city. While she remained in safety, her 2024 Tesla Model Y did not escape untouched. A heavy piece of missile debris struck the car’s massive glass roof, leaving a deep crater but without shattering. In a Facebook post to the Tesla Israel community the following morning, Shusterman described what happened: “The glass did not shatter into dangerous shards. She stopped the damage and pushed the metal part to the ground.” She closed by thanking Elon Musk and the Tesla team for building what she called “security and a sense of trust even in extreme situations.”
Netanya is a coastal city in central Israel, roughly 18 miles north of Tel Aviv and has been among the areas most frequently struck during Iran’s ongoing missile campaign, following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian military infrastructure. Falling shrapnel from intercepted missiles is a common occurrence.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
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- A piece of Iranian missile debris that struck Lara Shusterman’s Tesla Model Y in Netanya, Israel on March 30, 2026, after being intercepted by Israeli air defenses.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
Source: Tesla Israel Facebook Group
The incident is a testament to Tesla’s structural engineering. Tesla’s glass roof is designed to support over four times the vehicle’s own weight. That strength has shown up in real-world accidents too. In 2021, a Model Y in California was struck by a falling tree during a storm, with the glass roof holding firm and the cabin remaining intact. In another widely reported incident, a Tesla Model Y plunged 250 feet off the cliff at Devil’s Slide in California in January 2023, with all four occupants, including two young children, surviving.
Disturbing details about Tesla’s 250-foot cliff drop emerge amid initial investigation
Tesla officially launched sales in Israel in early 2021 and captured over 60 percent of Israel’s EV market in the first year. The brand’s foothold in Israel remains significant. Tens of thousands of Teslas are now on Israeli roads, making incidents like Shusterman’s easy to corroborate. On the same week her Model Y took the hit, the U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $178.5 million contract to launch missile tracking satellites, a separate but fitting reminder of how intertwined the Musk ecosystem has become with the realities of modern conflict.
Elon Musk
NASA sends humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972 – Here’s what’s next
NASA’s Artemis II launched four astronauts toward the Moon on the first crewed lunar mission since 1972.
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket launches carrying the Orion spacecraft with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist on NASA’s Artemis II mission, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Operations and Support Building II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis II mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft launched at 6:35pm EDT from Launch Complex 39B. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA launched four astronauts toward the Moon on April 1, 2026, marking the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center aboard the Space Launch System rocket at 6:35 p.m. EDT, sending commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the far side of the Moon and back.
The mission does not include a lunar landing. It is a test flight designed to validate the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems, navigation, and communications in deep space with a crew aboard for the first time. If the crew reaches the planned distance of 252,000 miles from Earth, they will set a new record for the farthest any human has ever traveled, surpassing even the Apollo 13 distance record.
As Teslarati reported, SpaceX holds a central role in what comes next. The Starship Human Landing System is under contract to carry astronauts to the lunar surface for Artemis IV, now targeting 2028, after NASA restructured its mission sequence due to delays in Starship’s orbital refueling demonstration. Before any Moon landing happens, SpaceX must prove it can transfer propellant between two Starships in orbit, something no rocket program has done at this scale.
The last time humans left Earth’s orbit was 53 years ago. Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 were the final people to walk on the Moon, a record that stands to this day. Elon Musk has long argued that returning is not optional. “It’s been now almost half a century since humans were last on the Moon,” Musk said. “That’s too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the Moon.”
The Artemis program involves 60 countries signed onto the Artemis Accords, and this mission sets several firsts beyond distance. Glover becomes the first person of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American astronaut to reach the Moon’s vicinity. According to NASA’s live mission updates, the spacecraft’s solar arrays deployed successfully after liftoff and the crew completed a proximity operations demonstration within the first hours of flight.
Artemis II is step one. The Moon landing and the permanent lunar base come later. But after more than five decades, humans are heading back.
Elon Musk
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
Tesla’s Optimus robot left the Hollywood Diner within months of opening. Now Musk is planning its return with a bigger role and a major Gen 3 upgrade underway.
![Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/tesla-optimus-gen3-diner.jpg)
Tesla’s Optimus robot was one of the most talked-about features when the Tesla Diner opened on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood on July 21, 2025. Dubbed “Poptimus” by Tesla fans, the Gen 2 robot stood upstairs at the retro-futuristic, drive-in theater and Tesla Supercharging station, scooping popcorn into bags and handing them to guests with a wave.
The diner itself had been years in the making. Elon Musk first floated the idea in 2018 with a tweet about building an “old-school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant” at a Hollywood Supercharger. What eventually opened was a unique two-story neon-lit space, with 80 EV charging stalls, and Optimus serving as a live demonstration of where Tesla’s ambitions were headed.
If our retro-futuristic diner turns out well, which I think it will, @Tesla will establish these in major cities around the world, as well as at Supercharger sites on long distance routes.
An island of good food, good vibes & entertainment, all while Supercharging! https://t.co/zmbv6GfqKf
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2025
But Optimus did not stay long, and was gone by December 2025.
Now, the robot is set to return with a more demanding job. Musk has ambitions for Optimus to take on a food runner role in 2026, delivering meals directly to cars at the Supercharger stalls. While the latest Gen 3 Optimus is likely to initially take on its previous popcorn-serving role, it wouldn’t be out of the question for Optimus to see a quick promotion. With improved hand dexterity that features 50 total actuators and 22 degrees of freedom per hand, and significantly more powerful processing through Tesla’s latest AI5 chip that includes Grok-powered voice interaction, Musk described Optimus at the Abundance Summit on March 12, 2026, as “by far the most advanced robot in the world, Nothing’s even close.”
Back to work
See you at Tesla Diner tomorrow pic.twitter.com/H3tTajrUbu
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) March 30, 2026
That confidence is backed by a major manufacturing shift. At the Q4 2025 earnings call in January, Musk announced Tesla would discontinue the Model S and Model X and convert those Fremont production lines to build Optimus. “It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end,” he said, calling for a pivot that reflects where the Tesla’s future lies.
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