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!
Elon Musk
Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration
Tesla is now shipping Cybercabs from Giga Texas with Starlink hardware built in as standard.
Tesla’s Cybercabs are now leaving Gigafactory Texas with Starlink hardware on the rear hatch in significant numbers, according to drone footage captured Tuesday by longtime Austin drone observer Joe Tegtmeyer. Production at the factory ramped back up after the Labor Day weekend, and his flyover of the outbound lot showed rows of gold Cybercabs alongside Model Y Long Wheelbase units, many carrying the satellite module for the first time as standard equipment rather than a one off retrofit.
Giga Texas today is busy with production coming back up following the long weekend. Of interest today in the outbound lot is the appearance of hundreds of Mode; YL’s and many more Cybercabs and for the 1st time equipped with the Starlink module one the hatch in big numbers.
At… pic.twitter.com/G9yl6s51m4
— Joe Tegtmeyer 🚀 🤠🛸😎 (@JoeTegtmeyer) September 8, 2026
Tesla first showed Starlink built into an actual Cybercab on August 10, when the Robotaxi account posted images of a single gold unit with the antenna integrated into the roofline above the taillights and called it the first Cybercab with Starlink integration. That followed a July reveal where Tesla and Starlink jointly posted a cutaway diagram of the antenna placement without a working vehicle to back it up. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI software, said at the time that the connection isn’t required for the car to drive itself. It exists mainly for navigation, customer service and keeping tabs on the fleet.
Musk has made a different case in public. During Tesla’s Q2 earnings call, he said the company can’t afford robotaxis stranded in what he called “Bermuda Triangles of lack of cellular connectivity,” and he separately claimed on X that Starlink will eventually reach every Tesla built, calling it the only way to deliver high bandwidth to billions of vehicles. He has also pitched the antenna as an entertainment upgrade, telling riders they would be able to stream 4K video or play games during a trip.
The rollout has moved fast since. Robotaxi service opened to the public in Austin on September 3, and Cybercabs had already been spotted with Starlink hardware in Houston and near Miami International Airport in the weeks before Tuesday’s factory footage showed the module shipping at volume rather than on scattered test units. Whether the satellite link earns its keep is still an open question. Tesla’s unsupervised service currently runs in dense metro geofences in Texas and Florida, markets where cellular coverage is already strong, which is not where the rural dead zones Musk describes tend to show up.
Lifestyle
Tesla Cybertruck targets job site crews with new Tailgate Utility Track and Bed Gear Box accessory
Tesla launched a $350 tailgate track and a $985 lockable Bed Gear Box for Cybertruck.
Tesla’s Cybertruck team added two more items to the Tesla Shop, targeting job site crews and owners who use the truck bed for actual work rather than just showing it off. The official Cybertruck X account posted the Tailgate Utility Track and the Bed Gear Box within minutes of each other, part of a five item batch that also included a reflective jacket, a spray paint hat and an updated reflective tee.
The Tailgate Utility Track runs $350 and turns the folded down tailgate into another mounting surface. It’s a single aluminum track with a T-slot for sliding accessories and two L-track attachment points, plus two load stops included in the box. The pitch is straightforward: strap down oversized cargo, like lumber or a cooler, that hangs off the back of the bed without it sliding out mid-drive. It bolts onto the existing tailgate and works on every Cybertruck trim.
Tailgate Utility Trackhttps://t.co/PCAYXlFBvS pic.twitter.com/sCV2NVxf1W
— Cybertruck (@cybertruck) September 3, 2026
The Bed Gear Box costs $985 and is a different kind of accessory. It’s a lockable aluminum storage box, 55.78 inches long, 19.8 inches wide and 7.79 inches tall, that mounts to the bed’s L-track rails and comes with two internal bins for smaller items. According to Tesla, at just over 57 pounds empty, it’s meant to stay in place rather than come in and out with each trip, giving owners a factory-fit alternative to loose totes for tools, recovery gear or emergency supplies. Tesla’s listing notes that Long Range and Dual Motor AWD Cybertrucks need the L-Tracks accessory installed separately before the Gear Box will mount, since L-tracks come standard only on certain configurations.
Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory
Both accessories lean on the idea Tesla has been building toward since Elon Musk first described the Cybertruck’s third-party attachment strategy at the 2023 shareholder meeting, when he said the truck would ship with mounting points so outside companies, and Tesla itself, could keep adding gear without redesigning the bed. That’s the same L-track backbone underneath the tailgate shield and jumpseats Tesla launched last year, and the off-road armor package that arrived through the same X account in 2025.
Owners looking to round out the rest of the L-track ecosystem, cargo dividers, MOLLE panels, bed racks and similar gear, can find a wider range of options through our Cybertruck accessories collection.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk says he knows how to save Earth for a billion years
Elon Musk says sentient AI satellites launched from the Moon could keep Earth livable forever.
Elon Musk spent part of his weekend describing a plan to keep the planet livable for roughly a billion years, and it starts with satellites that can think for themselves.
In a post on X, Musk argued that swapping fossil fuels for solar and wind power will not be enough to protect humanity from what he called extremely severe extinction events, the kind that occur roughly every 100 million years. His fix is what he called sentient satellites, or solar-powered satellites, controlled by AI, that would sit in a fixed spot between Earth and the Sun after being launched off the Moon using a giant electromagnetic catapult instead of rockets.
The satellites’ onboard AI would make continuous, small adjustments rather than waiting on human instructions. The mass driver is Musk’s proposed way of getting the raw material there cheaply by using an electromagnetic launch track built on the Moon, where lower gravity and no atmosphere make it far easier to fling cargo into space than it is from Earth.
But we do need to act much faster than that if people still want to live where the beach is today. We have about 50 years or so to take action, which should be more than enough time for the space satellites to solve any heating problems. https://t.co/xhrVQALwQw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 30, 2026
Musk shared a Grok generated estimate suggesting roughly 5 percent of Florida’s land, or about 1.68 million acres, could face regular flooding by 2070 under a high sea level rise scenario, and said humanity has about 50 years to act before coastal living looks very different than it does today.
This is not the first time Musk has floated the idea. He raised a similar concept in November, describing a solar powered AI satellite constellation that could make tiny adjustments to incoming sunlight to fine tune Earth’s temperature. Musk has also tied planetary risk to his broader vision at SpaceX, where his compensation package is explicitly linked to establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, one he has described as an insurance policy against the kind of extinction event he referenced this weekend, and where he has said humans could set foot within five to seven years.
Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration
Elon Musk hints at Tesla Cybercab’s next market
