Lifestyle
Tesla Model S P100D and Model X P100D battle BMW M5 in tense 1/4-mile races
There are very few gas-powered sedans that are capable of standing toe-to-toe against the Tesla Model S P100D and the Model X P100D. Over the years, Tesla’s P100D twins have established themselves as formidable forces on the drag strip, with a long line of supercar victims under their belt. That said, when faced with Germany’s monster of a sedan — the 2018 BMW M5 — could the Model S P100D and Model X P100D still maintain their place as drag racing royalty?
Such a race was recently featured in YouTube’s DragTimes channel. The 2018 BMW M5 is pretty much the Model S’ gas-powered equivalent in the way that it is large, fast, and incredibly powerful. The M5 is equipped with a 4.4-liter V8 Twin Turbo engine that generates an impressive 617 hp and 553 ft-lb of torque. The car could be bought in either RWD or AWD configurations, though the vehicle in DragTimes‘ recent video was the all-wheel-drive version. The BMW M5 is pretty beefy at 4,370 lbs, but it is still quick, capable of going from 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds. The M5 is listed with a top speed of 155 mph, but with the optional M Driver’s Package, the vehicle’s top speed gets raised to 189 mph.
In contrast, the Tesla Model S P100D is fitted with all-electric dual motors that produce 588 hp to its wheels and 920 lb-ft of instant torque. The electric car is AWD as well, and is quite hefty at 4,900 lbs. Thanks to the instant torque from its two all-electric motors, the Model S P100D is capable of sprinting from 0-60 mph in ~2.3 seconds with Ludicrous Mode, though its top speed is software limited to 155 mph. The Tesla Model X P100D, on the other hand, might be an incredibly heavy vehicle at 5,700 lbs, but it is still quick off the line. Thanks to its twin electric motors that produce 588 hp and 920 lb-ft of instant torque to its wheels, the Model X P100D is able to hit the 60 mph mark in 2.9 seconds.
The 2018 BMW is actually a very well-balanced car, but as shown in DragTimes‘ video, the vehicle fell just a little bit short in its attempts at taking down the P100D twins. It ran one race with the Model X P100D, where it finished the quarter mile in 11.35 seconds while traveling at 123.53 mph. Unfortunately for the M5, the Model X P100D was slightly quicker, crossing the quarter-mile mark in 11.33 seconds at 116.84 mph.
The 2018 BMW M5 competed against the Model S P100D twice, and on the first run, the gas-powered sedan actually managed to get a jump on the all-electric supercar killer. That said, it didn’t take long before the Model S’ instant torque allowed it to catch up to the M5 and maintain a slight lead until the end of the race. The first bout between the Model S P100D and the 2018 M5 was close overall, ending with the Tesla completing the race in 11.06 seconds at 118.86 mph and the BMW finishing the run in 11.27 seconds at 123.77 mph. The Model S P100D dominated the second race, crossing the quarter-mile mark in 10.98 seconds at 119.08 mph compared to the BMW M5’s 11.46 seconds at 120.94 mph.
The P100D twins are still Tesla’s quickest vehicles when it comes to straight-line races. That said, the Model 3 Performance, the latest iteration of the company’s midsize electric sedan, is looking to be formidable in an area where the Model S and X are still lacking — the track. The Model 3 Performance is even set to receive a dedicated Track Mode, an option that Elon Musk describes as an “Expert User Mode” for the vehicle.
Watch the Model S P100D and Model X P100D battle it out with the 2018 BMW M5 in the video below.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s answer to Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey got way more specific
Elon Musk escalated his monthslong feud with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this week, pledging that his own AI video tool will produce a competing version before the year is out. Responding to a fan-made, AI-generated clip of the ancient epic, Musk wrote on X, “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”
In June, Musk quoted an xAI-shared trailer built entirely with Grok Imagine Video 1.5, a two-minute-plus reimagining of The Odyssey styled after a 1970s classical Hollywood epic, and predicted “full movies by the end of the year,” as Teslarati reported at the time. That trailer, built from 36 consistent shots by a single creator, was Musk’s proof of concept. This week’s pledge turns that prediction into a specific commitment, tied directly to Homer’s text rather than a generic demo.
Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer https://t.co/bVHzUmY9WN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
When a fan separately proposed that Musk fund a live-action alternative, to “give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek,” Musk replied with two words: “I’m down.”
The Grok Imagine pledge lands as the tool’s underlying infrastructure has changed hands. Grok is no longer a standalone product, it folded into SpaceXAI after SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI closed in February, meaning the compute behind any Odyssey production traces back to the same Colossus supercomputers now bundled into SpaceX’s pitch to investors. Musk has separately said SpaceX’s own engineering data is being fed into the next major Grok training run, a two trillion parameter model he’s called the “2T run.”
Whether Grok Imagine can sustain a feature length narrative, rather than a series of impressive individual shots, remains the open question.
Cybertruck
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.
Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.
The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”
The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.
Elon Musk
Tesla Diner is throwing a birthday party with a Franz-signed special treat
Tesla Diner turns one on July 21 with Optimus, roller skates, and a Franz-signed hat.
Tesla is throwing its Hollywood Diner a first birthday party on July 21 and the celebration comes with a guest list of unique items, including a limited run of Tesla Diner birthday hats personally signed by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen for the first 50 customers who place an in-car order at midnight.
One year after lines wrapped around the block on Santa Monica Boulevard for a diner that most of the restaurant industry did not take seriously, Tesla is making the case that the concept was worth the years it took to build. The concept had been in Musk’s head since at least 2018, when he floated the idea of “an old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant” on X, describing it years later as “‘Grease’ meets ‘The Jetsons’ with Supercharging.”
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
What made the diner genuinely different from any restaurant that came before it was not the menu or the nostalgia. It was the ordering model. Tesla owners could place food orders directly from their vehicle’s touchscreen before arriving, a small feature that hints at something much larger on the horizon. As the Cybercab and unsupervised FSD expand across major cities, the diner model becomes a template for an entirely new kind of commerce. A robotaxi pulling in to charge does not need a human to walk up to a counter. The vehicle places the order, the food is ready on arrival, and the passenger never interrupts the experience of being driven somewhere else. It is the first glimpse of what drive-through commerce looks like when the car is doing the driving.
As Teslarati has reported, Musk signaled immediately after opening that the Hollywood location was only the beginning, posting that Tesla would expand the concept to major cities worldwide and along Supercharger corridors on long-distance routes if the first location proved successful. One year in, the birthday celebration on July 21 makes a strong case that it has. Tesla announced a full day of events including a Cybercab on display, a birthday menu, Optimus in attendance, face painting, a photo booth, roller skating servers, a light show, a Skypad DJ, and complimentary collectibles.
If Musk’s ambition holds, the Hollywood diner is year one of something much bigger. The birthday party is the proof of concept. The robotaxi fleet is the business model waiting behind it.
Tesla Diner is turning 1 on July 21st, so we’re throwing a party
Come swing by for a day full of fun:
– Cybercab on display
– Birthday menu
– @Tesla_Optimus
– Face painting for kids & adults
– Photo booth
– Servers on roller skates delivering your order
– Light show
– Skypad DJ… pic.twitter.com/TD8pOjihYs— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) July 18, 2026