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Porsche Taycan’s repeatable performance claims put to the test by veteran drag racer
When Porsche launched the Taycan last year, its message was clear. It’s an all-electric performance car built for the track. You can take it with a battery half charged and you’ll still get the same level of performance you’d expect at full charge. At least that’s what Porsche promises.
DragTimes YouTube channel host and Tesla owner Brooks Weisblat recently put the Taycan Turbo’s repeatable performance claim to a real-world test. He took a Taycan Turbo and the more powerful Turbo S out on the track to see how they would perform launching from 0 to 60 mph and covering the 1/4 mile.
Weisblat specifically asked the engineers at Champion Porsche in Pompano Beach, FL to have both cars ready at full charge. However, while the Turbo had a 91% charge when he arrived, while the Turbo S was only at 57%. This presented a unique opportunity to test just how well the vehicles performed with such discrepancy in their battery levels.
At just a little bit more than half charge, the $185,000 Turbo S went from 0 to 60 mph in 2.67 seconds and ran a quarter-mile at 124 mph. It’s impressive for an all-electric vehicle but not so much for one housing the world’s first two-speed gearbox in an electric car.
“I kind of expected it to be a little better especially given it having the transmission,” Weisblat says. “I was expecting track speeds near 130 mph. The launch I wasn’t so sure because Porsche’s claiming it does 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds.”
Previous testing done by DragTimes shows the Tesla Model S with a 96 percent charge can go from 0 to 60 mph in 2.45 seconds. That’s a couple of tenths of a second faster than the Turbo S, which has acceleration and speed advantages due to its two-speed transmission.
The Turbo, which has 90 less horsepower than the Turbo S, went from 0 to 60 mph at 2.8 seconds. It’s not as fast as the Turbo S but it’s nothing to scoff at. But here’s the kicker. After the first 60 mph, the Turbo S didn’t have much of an advantage over the less powerful Turbo. If the state of charge doesn’t matter as Porsche says, the Turbo should have at least similar or less performance.
But Weisblat’s testing shows the Turbo at 91% charge went from 60 to 100 mph in 8.41 seconds and took the 1/4 mile at 127 mph. That’s a whole 3 mph faster than the Turbo S, which was at 56% charge when testing began. Had both cars been raced against each other, the Turbo would have won hands down over the Turbo S. Weisblat also says that both Turbo and Turbo S used up about 2% of the battery after each 1/4 mile.
“State of charge does matter with the Porsche. There’s no question about it. Because the Taycan Turbo S sitting at 56 percent is tracking at 124 mph. The Turbo at 91 percent is going 3 mph faster. For those of you who don’t know about road racing or drag racing, that is a significant difference,” he said.
The results would have been different had both cars been charged fully. Weisblat estimates the Turbo S could go the 1/4 mile at 130 mph and launch from 0 to 60 mph at around 2.5 seconds so that it’s right in line with the Tesla Model S. However, he believes that the Turbo S would further drop to 7 seconds once it goes from 60 to 130 mph, just up to par with a Lamborghini Huracan. If so, he says the Model S could be “in trouble,” at least when you take it down to the race track.
To maintain these numbers, Porsche has to keep the Taycan’s battery at optimal temperatures using a unique battery thermal management system. Unfortunately, because the car relies purely on electricity, the Taycan uses up extra energy from the battery just to maintain its energy-intensive temperature control system.
It’s a double-edged sword, especially for an electric vehicle. Porsche had to sacrifice a few things in exchange for performance. A lot of people weren’t happy to hear that the EPA gave the Taycan Turbo S a range rating of 192 miles. The Taycan Turbo didn’t do much better at 201 miles, which is 182 whole miles less than the 373 miles of the Model S Long Range.
But then again, the Taycan isn’t exactly made for most people. In fact, with a six-figure price tag and the Porsche logo on its hood, it’s not even made for mainstream EV buyers. And it’s a good thing for the electric car market as a whole.
SpaceX’s Raptor engine family has steadily increased sea-level thrust while simultaneously reducing mass, turning iterative engineering gains into substantially higher performance for the Super Heavy booster. CEO Elon Musk shed more light on how powerful Raptor 4 will be, and it’s pretty crazy.
Raptor 1 delivered 185 metric tons of thrust at roughly 2,080 kilograms, while Raptor 2 raised that to 230 tons while cutting mass to about 1,630 kilograms. SpaceX data for Raptor 3 lists a target of 280 tons at 1,525 kilograms (with further reductions in associated vehicle hardware), while operational flight ratings have been cited near 250 tons.
This morning, Elon Musk stated that Raptor 4 is expected to reach 300 tons of sea-level thrust at roughly the same mass as Raptor 3. Across these versions, thrust has risen by more than 60 percent from the first engines while engine mass has fallen, producing a sharp improvement in thrust-to-weight ratio. This is a true testament to how great SpaceX engineering has been:
🚀 Elon says Raptor 4 will make 300 tons of thrust at sea level at roughly the same mass as Raptor 3.
How far Raptor has come:
Raptor 1: 185 tf, 2,080 kg
Raptor 2: 230 tf, 1,630 kg
Raptor 3: 250 tf, 1,525 kg
Raptor 4: 300 tf33 on Super Heavy = ~9,900 tf, nearly 3x Saturn V https://t.co/HQDswZhyvL
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 26, 2026
With 33 engines on SuperHeavy, the jump from earlier versions to a 300-ton Raptor 4 would produce roughly 9,900 metric tons of total liftoff thrust, nearly three times the Saturn V’s approximately 3,400 metric tons from its five F-1 engines.
This is not just a larger number on a data sheet, either, as sea-level thrust is the force available the moment the vehicle leaves the pad. This is when it is heaviest and still deep in Earth’s gravity well and dense atmosphere.
Higher levels of sea-level thrust directly improves the initial thrust-to-weight ratio of the full stack. A higher ratio produces faster acceleration off the pad, which shortens the time the rocket has to spend fighting gravity, and gravity losses during the first minute or two of the flight are a major drain on total available delta-v. Every second shaved off of that early climb preserves more propellant energy for reaching orbital velocity or for carrying extra payload.
Because Super Heavy’s engine count is constrained by vehicle diameter and packing density, increasing thrust per engine is the most straightforward way to raise total liftoff performance without redesigning the booster structure or design.
The same-mass target for Raptor 4 is equally important. Holding engine mass roughly constant while raising thrust improves the engine’s own thrust-to-weight ratio and reduces the structural and propellant mass fraction that must be carried solely to support the engines.
Earlier Raptor iterations also simplified or eliminated extensive vehicle-side hardware such as heat shields. These gains compound: more force for less installed mass leaves additional capacity for propellant, payload, or operational margins such as engine-out capability.
For Starship’s architecture, the practical effects are large. Greater liftoff thrust supports heavier vehicles, larger propellant loads, and higher payloads to low Earth orbit, figures SpaceX has targeted in the 100-plus-ton reusable range. That capacity underpins orbital refueling, lunar missions, and eventual Mars cargo and crew flights.
Continued growth in sea-level thrust therefore tightens the gap between theoretical rocket performance and the high flight rates and reusability needed to make large-scale space transport practical.
Tesla has expanded its Tesla Assisted Driving (TAD) suite to its tenth European country, as Latvia joined a growing list of European Union member states authorizing the company’s advanced driver assistance technology.
Tesla Europe announced this morning that the system is now approved in Latvia, with a software rollout to begin soon.
The approval and rollout follow recognition of a provisional European type approval originally granted by the Netherlands’ RDW authority on April 10.
🚨 Latvia has just received approval for Tesla Full Self-Driving (Supervised)
This is the 10th country in the EU to gain approval:
1. Netherlands — 10 April 2026 (original RDW approval)
2. Lithuania — 20 May 2026
3. Estonia — 29 May 2026
4. Denmark — 9 June 2026
5. Belgium — 10 June 2026
6. Slovenia — 7 September 2026
7. Czechia — 21 September 2026
8. Croatia — 29 September 2026
9. Slovakia — 16 October 2026— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 26, 2026
Latvia’s Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD) evaluated the Dutch documentation, coordinated with the other national authorities, and reviewed updates from Tesla. These included tightened limits on speed offsets, automatic resets of any manual speed adjustments after each trip, and stronger driver monitoring.
In Europe, the feature is marketed as Tesla Assisted Driving after a recent rule change that labeled the name “Full Self-Driving” as misleading.
The system remains an SAE Level 2 driver assistance tool, not unsupervised autonomy. It can control speed, steering, braking, lane changes, and intersections while following a navigation route. Drivers need not keep their hands on the wheel at all times, yet they must continuously monitor the road and be prepared to intervene immediately.
The sequence of EU recognitions began with the Netherlands in April and continued through Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Belgium, Slovenia, Czechia, Croatia, and Slovakia. Most have relied on mutual recognition of the single Dutch provisional approval rather than independent national testing.
These national clearances do not yet constitute bloc-wide authorization. An EU-wide decision requires a qualified majority in the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles: at least 15 of 27 member states representing 65 percent of the EU population. Larger markets, like Germany, France, and Italy, remain under review, and a vote is expected this December.
However, for Latvian Tesla owners with compatible vehicles and software, the imminent rollout expands access to the supervised system while underscoring that attentive human oversight remains essential.
Tesla expanded its Robotaxi geofence in Houston, Texas, today, enlarging the service area and drawing a new rocket-shaped boundary across the city’s northwestern and central parts.
Although CEO Elon Musk said it was just a coincidence, the expansion seems to be an ode to SpaceX and its potential merger with Tesla.
🚨 Tesla has just expanded its Robotaxi geofence in Houston
It looks a lot like a rocket — we all remember the shape in Austin 🤣 https://t.co/cFOPEuiJ4u
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 26, 2026
The official Tesla Robotaxi account announced the change with the lines “Houston, we have liftoff” and “Bigger service area now live,” pairing them with a map overlay.
The prior white geofence, roughly 25 square miles covering Jersey Village, Harvest Bend, and the Willowbrook corridor along U.S. 290 and State Highway 249, now sits inside a larger blue zone that stretches southeast toward Bellair and closer to central Houston.
Houston’s Robotaxi service launched on April 18, 2026, the same day as Dallas, as Tesla’s first unsupervised public expansion beyond Austin. From the start, the vehicles were Model Ys running without anyone in the front seats, booked through the dedicated Tesla Robotaxi app and open to the public inside the geofence.
Trackers measured the initial zone at about 25 square miles; by late September it had not grown substantially. Community and registry data indicated a modest local fleet of unsupervised Model Ys, while dozens to nearly 200 Cybercabs, the purpose-built, steering-wheel-free two-seaters, have been spotted staging and testing in Houston lots, though public Cybercab rides remain limited to Austin for now.
Across the broader Robotaxi program, Tesla began public Robotaxi rides in Austin in June 2025, as a small geofence and vehicles with safety monitors became available for a ride-hailing service. Later on, Tesla removed the monitors and steadily expanded the service area until it covered most of the Austin metro area.
Unsupervised Robotaxi services now run in six cities: Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa. Cumulative driverless miles reported by the company have reached several million. The Cybercab entered public service in Austin in early September 2026 and has scaled rapidly there. The company has also said that Dallas is next for Cybercab rides in November, with further cities and 24/7 hours targeted by year-end, plus fleet-operator sales of the vehicle.
Waymo also operates a fully driverless service in Houston, which has been open to the public since August of this year.
The Houston expansion continues Tesla’s pattern of starting with tightly controlled validation zones before widening coverage as real-world data accumulates, while the rocket motif on the map underscores the company’s habit of injecting visual flair into its autonomy rollout.
Riders inside the new boundary can request unsupervised Model Y trips in the Robotaxi app; exact operating hours and further Cybercab availability remain subject to app updates and company statements.
How SpaceX Is raising Raptor’s sea-level thrust while holding engine mass steady
Tesla Assisted Driving expands to tenth EU country
