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Tesla Model S Plaid racecar bares its fangs by overtaking hypercars in Laguna Seca
This weekend’s Hypercar Invitational at Laguna Seca was, for the most part, an opportunity for professional racecar driver Randy Pobst and Tesla tuning house Unplugged Performance to test out how their race-spec Model S Plaid performs on the track. The Model S Plaid did not disappoint, and it did not shy away from baring its fangs either. Over the course of the weekend, the modified four-door family sedan overtook some of the world’s most iconic hypercars around one of the world’s most iconic race tracks.ย
Unplugged Performance is no stranger to Teslas, having been a dedicated tuning house since the days of the Model S P85+. Pobst is no neophyte with Teslas either, finishing Pikes Peak’s Exhibition Class last year in second place in a Model 3 Performance that was rebuilt within days of a major crash. For both Unplugged and Pobst, however, the Model S Plaid, which would be used for this year’s Pikes Peak Hill Climb, proved to be a very pleasant surprise.ย
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- Credit: Unplugged Performance/Twitter
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- Credit: Unplugged Performance/Twitter
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- Credit: Unplugged Performance/Twitter
The Model S Plaid racecar featured a stock powertrain from Tesla, though its interior was fully stripped out to save weight. A roll cage and a racing seat with six-point seatbelts were placed in the interior as well. Outside, the Model S Plaid was fitted with a massive adjustable rear wing. The vehicle also retained its factory air springs, though it used custom Unplugged Performance/Bilstein dampers and a three-way adjustable rear anti-roll bar. The car also rode on Yokohama Advan slick tires on forged aluminum wheels.ย
https://twitter.com/TeslaRep/status/1403913191311101956?s=20
Ultimately, the Model S Plaid did not only prove that it was worthy of being on the same track as hypercars like the McLaren P1 and the McLaren Senna; the family sedan showed that it could actually dominate its internal combustion-powered counterparts. This was shown in a video shared online, which featured the Model S Plaid casually overtaking the McLaren Senna and P1 with ease. Later comments from the driver of the McLaren P1 noted that the Model S Plaid was so fast, it almost felt like the other vehicles were standing still.ย
Watch the plaid model s take over all the cars that lead it initially. Itโs a beast on the track. @elonmusk ๐ธ@omg_tesla cc @UnpluggedTesla @RandyPobst @FromWhereICHG pic.twitter.com/gjw1Q4v5Wq
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) June 13, 2021
But perhaps the most notable observation from both Unplugged and Pobst was just how well the Model S Plaid maintained its power during its laps. At one point, Pobst remarked that the Model S Plaid, which only had 34% charge remaining then, felt just as quick as it did when it still had a full charge. In a statement to Teslarati, Unplugged Performance CEO Ben Schaffer added that the Model S Plaid’s capability to maintain its power despite its battery charge was incredibly impressive.ย
“With every generation of Tesla, we’ve experienced significant progress in sustainable power delivery and thermal capacity. In simple terms, this means your can drive faster (and) longer. The new Model S Plaid continues this trajectory of improvement, and during our shakedown runs, the car illustrated almost no perceptible power loss as the battery state of charge decreased. Our driver Randy Pobst said the car felt just as fast at 35% SOC as at 100%,” he said.ย
The Tesla Model S Plaid is poised to take on the Pikes Peak Hill Climb later this year.ย
Do you have anything to share with the Teslarati Team? We’d love to hear from you, email us atย tips@teslarati.com.
Tesla is dominating in the United Kingdom so far through 2025, and with about two weeks left in the year, the Model Y and Model 3 are leading the way.
The Model Y and Model 3 are the two best-selling electric vehicles in the United Kingdom, which is comprised of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and it’s not particularly close.
According to data gathered byย EU-EVs, the Model Y is sitting at 18,890 units for the year, while the Model 3 is slightly behind with 16,361 sales for the year so far.
The next best-selling EV is the Audi Q4 e-tron at 10,287 units, lagging significantly behind but ahead of other models like the BMW i4 and the Audi Q6 e-tron.
GOOD NEWS ๐ฌ๐ง Tesla is absolutely crushing the UK electric vehicle market in 2025 ๐ฅ
The numbers are in, and the dominance is clear. With an impressive amount of 42,270 vehicles delivered year-to-date, the brand now commands a solid 9.6% market share of the total auto market ๐โฆ pic.twitter.com/dkiGX9kzd0
โ Ming (@tslaming) December 18, 2025
The Model Y has tasted significant success in the global market, but it has dominated in large markets like Europe and the United States.
For years, it’s been a car that has fit the bill of exactly what consumers need: a perfect combination of luxury, space, and sustainability.
Both vehicles are going to see decreases in sales compared to 2024; the Model Y was the best-selling car last year, but it sold 32,610 units in the UK. Meanwhile, the Model 3 had reached 17,272 units, which will keep it right on par with last year.
Tesla sold 50,090 units in the market last year, and it’s about 8,000 units shy of last year’s pace. It also had a stronger market share last year with 13.2 percent of the sales in the market. With two weeks left in 2025, Tesla has a 9.6 percent market share, leading Volkswagen with 8 percent.
The company likely felt some impact from CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration and, more specifically, his role with DOGE. However, it is worth mentioning that some months saw stronger consumer demand than others. For example, sales were up over 20 percent in February. A 14 percent increase followed this in June.
News
Tesla Insurance officially expands to new U.S. state
Tesla’s in-house Insurance program first launched back in late 2019, offering a new way to insure the vehicles that was potentially less expensive and could alleviate a lot of the issues people had with claims, as the company could assess and repair the damage itself.
Tesla Insurance has officially expanded to a new U.S. state, its thirteenth since its launch in 2019.
Tesla has confirmed that its in-house Insurance program has officially made its way to Florida, just two months after the company filed to update its Private Passenger Auto program in the state. It had tried to offer its insurance program to drivers in the state back in 2022, but its launch did not happen.
Instead, Tesla refiled the paperwork back in mid-October, which essentially was the move toward initiating the offering this month.
BREAKING: Tesla Insurance has just officially launched in Florida.
This is the first new state to receive @Tesla Insurance in more than 3 years. In total, Tesla insurance is now available in 13 U.S. states (map in thread below of all the states).
Tesla Insurance in Florida usesโฆ pic.twitter.com/bDwh1IV6gD
โ Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) December 17, 2025
Tesla’s in-house Insurance program first launched back in late 2019, offering a new way to insure the vehicles that was potentially less expensive and could alleviate a lot of the issues people had with claims, as the company could assess and repair the damage itself.
It has expanded to new states since 2019, but Florida presents a particularly interesting challenge for Tesla, as the company’s entry into the state is particularly noteworthy given its unique insurance landscape, characterized by high premiums due to frequent natural disasters, dense traffic, and a no-fault system.
Annual average premiums for Florida drivers hover around $4,000 per year, well above the national average. Tesla’s insurance program could disrupt this, especially for EV enthusiasts. The state’s growing EV adoption, fueled by incentives and infrastructure development, aligns perfectly with Tesla’s ecosystem.
Moreover, there are more ways to have cars repaired, and features like comprehensive coverage for battery damage and roadside assistance tailored to EVs address those common painpoints that owners have.
However, there are some challenges that still remain. Florida’s susceptibility to hurricanes raises questions about how Tesla will handle claims during disasters.
Looking ahead, Tesla’s expansion of its insurance program signals the company’s ambition to continue vertically integrating its services, including coverage of its vehicles. Reducing dependency on third-party insurers only makes things simpler for the company’s automotive division, as well as for its customers.
News
Tesla Full Self-Driving gets sparkling review from South Korean politician
“Having already ridden in an unmanned robotaxi, the novelty wasnโt as strong for me, but it drives just as well as most people do. It already feels like a completed technology, which gives me a lot to think about.”
Tesla Full Self-Driving got its first sparkling review from South Korean politician Lee So-young, a member of the country’s National Assembly, earlier this week.
Lee is a member of the Strategy and Finance Committee in South Korea and is a proponent of sustainable technologies and their applications in both residential and commercial settings. For the first time, Lee was able to utilize Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology as it launched in the country in late November.
Her thoughts on the suite were complimentary to the suite, stating that “it drives just as well as most people do,” and that “it already feels like a completed technology.”
๋๋์ด ์ค๋, ์์ธ์์ ํ ์ฌ๋ผ FSD ์ฒดํ ํ์ต๋๋ค.
JiDal Papa๋์ ๋ชจ๋ธS ํ์ฐฌ์ ํ์ ์ด^^ ํํ๋ ์ ๋ง ๊ฐ์ฌํฉ๋๋ค.
๊ตญํ -> ๋ง์์์ฅ -> ํ์ต๋ -> ๊ตญํ ๋ณต๊ท ์ฝ์ค์๊ณ ์.
์ด๋ฏธ ๋ฌด์ธ ๋ก๋ณดํ์๋ฅผ ํ๋ด์ ๊ทธ๋ฐ์ง ์ ๊ธฐํจ์
๋ํ์ง๋ง, ์ฌ๋งํ ์ฌ๋๋งํผ ์ด์ ์ ์ํ๋ค์.์ด๋ฏธ ์์ฑ๋ ๊ธฐ์ ์ด๋ผ๊ณ โฆ pic.twitter.com/8pAidHBpRG
โ ์ด์์ ๊ตญํ์์ (Soyoung Lee) (@im_soyounglee) December 17, 2025
Her translated post says:
“Finally, today I got to experience Tesla FSD in Seoul. Thanks to the Model S sponsored by JiDal Papa^^, Iโm truly grateful to Papa. The route was from the National Assembly -> Mangwon Market -> Hongik University -> back to the National Assembly. Having already ridden in an unmanned robotaxi, the novelty wasnโt as strong for me, but it drives just as well as most people do. It already feels like a completed technology, which gives me a lot to think about. Once it actually spreads into widespread use, I feel like our daily lives are going to change a lot. Even I, with my license gathering dust in a drawer, donโt see much reason to learn to drive a manual anymore.”
Tesla Full Self-Driving officially landed in South Korea in late November, with the initial launch being one of Tesla’s most recent, v14.1.4.
It marked the seventh country in which Tesla was able to enable the driver assistance suite, following the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, China, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand.
It is important to see politicians and figures in power try new technologies, especially ones that are widely popular in other regions of the world and could potentially revolutionize how people travel globally.
Tesla dominates in the UK with Model Y and Model 3 leading the way
Tesla Insurance officially expands to new U.S. state
