Lifestyle
Tesla Racing Tips: Your First Track Day
Track days are one of the most exhilarating activities one can experience. It’s a chance to take your favorite car to a real race track to see what it’s capable of. See how you fair as a driver, learn firsthand about the culture of motorsports, and experience what performance driving is really like. We’ll be providing an overview of what to expect along with some Tesla specific tips for your first track day.
How Does it Work ?
Track days are set up by independent motorsport event organizers that make arrangements with various race tracks. There are usually several of them covering each state. Examples:
- Speed Ventures in Southern California
- NCRC in Northern California
- NASA throughout US
Each company will have 3 or more groups separated by driver experience. For example,
Blue – beginner
Purple – intermediate low
Black – intermediate high
Red – advanced
You start in the beginner group, and as you build your experience you move up to the next level.
How Much does it Cost ?
Depending on the track, the cost can be as low as $100 and as high as $400 per day. The average is usually around $200, but be sure to also include the following:
- travel/lodging costs
- track gate fee, around $15
- helmet rental if you don’t have your own, around $30
- about $60 per session if you want an instructor
- RV spot rental for charging, around $20 per day
- professional photos from the track (highly recommended), around $40
- participation in competition or ‘challenges’.
If you continue your racing adventures, over time you will want to get your own equipment such as a helmet, racing suit, racing tires and a professional camera.
Is it Real Racing ?
Technically speaking, racing refers to competition racing, also known as wheel to wheel racing. Open track racing competes for best lap times where as competition racing usually competes for best positioning (ie. the first one at the finish line wins). Motorsports groups such as Speed Ventures make it a fun experience by structuring the open track events to resemble competition with qualifying sessions and pre-grid positions.
Will My Car Get Damaged?
With competition racing, your objective is to win by any means necessary, which can include risking damage to your car as well as the competitor’s. In open track racing, the objective is to have fun, learn performance driving, be competitive, but walk away with your car intact. Safety should always be kept in mind and any risk-taking should be weighed against its consequences. The beginner group will consist of those who have never been on a race track before so exercise as much caution as possible when racing in this group.
Will my Insurance Cover Track Days?
In most cases, the answer is no. Your regular car insurance does not cover anything that happens on the track. Also keep in mind that car manufacturers, including Tesla, will not cover any warranty items that may have incurred while racing. A dedicated track insurance policy can be purchased for the Model S for approximately $400 a day, but that figure can vary greatly depending on how much coverage you’re looking for.
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What is the Racing Format Like ?
The day starts with a driver’s meeting where you learn the rules for the event, but also given the opportunity to ask any questions you may have. Typically there are 4 or 5 20-minute racing sessions per day. So a group races for 20 minutes, then waits for about one hour while other groups race, and then the cycle repeats. It’s important to charge your Tesla during down time. Track driving consumes a lot of power so recharging in between sessions will ensure your Tesla Model S to have enough juice for three full sessions or four or five partial sessions.
ALSO SEE: The Tesla Racing Series
In the beginner group, the first one or two sessions are set up as a lead-follow exercise, where you follow an instructor. It’s an excellent opportunity to learn the proper racing lines.
What if I Have No Prior Racing Experience ?
It’s a good idea to get an instructor even if it’s only for one session. They can help you understand how to configure your steering and seating position as well as teach you driving techniques as you navigate the course. Lead-follow sessions are definitely a must for everyone. Another technique that is helpful is to follow a more advanced driver around the track and try to mimic what they are doing (if you can keep up).
Do I Need to Worry About Charging ?
Yes, you do. You will use approximately 4 miles of charge per 1 rated mile. Meaning if you have 200 rated miles, it will be enough for 50 actual racing miles. A typical track is about 2.5 miles, so 200 rated miles will get you 20 laps. Each session is approximately 10 laps. Without recharging you are good for about 2 full sessions. Charging at the tracks is usually done with NEMA 14-50, which gets you 4 hours * 30 miles per hour of charge = 120 extra miles, which is good for about another full session. Due to Tesla’s power limiting feature, we found it to be better to just run half sessions
Will the Tesla Model S go the Distance ?
The Model S is not built for racing. It overheats after one lap of hard performance driving. When that happens, power limitation kicks in to protect the car. A yellow dashed line on the power consumption gauge appears on the dashboard. The longer you go, the more severe power limitation gets. It’s a great safety feature as it lets you push the car as hard as you want without having to worry about car damage.
However this same protection mechanism has a drastic impact on the overall racing experience. You can start off as being one of fastest cars on the track on your first lap, to becoming the slowest car on the track in the subsequent laps.
Do I Need Racing Tires ?
On your first track day, no. Whatever standard tires you have on your car, they’ll work fine, as you won’t be setting any records on your first day. It’s only as you start getting more competitive and push the car harder, will you need to get tires that are more suited for racing. Bring a tire pressure gauge or a compressor if you have it. Your tire pressure should not be above 40 psi cold. Meaning, check your tire pressure in the morning before you get on the track. It should not be more than 40.
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Is it a Strenuous Physical Activity ?
Yes it is. Performance driving for 20 minutes straight is a lot of work. Be prepared for that. Especially if you come from a drag racing or autocross background where racing sessions last under a minute. You will get used to it with time, but the first few times can be quite exhausting. Make sure to stay well hydrated, especially in the summer. A lot of tracks are in desert areas with hot temperatures and very low humidity. Drinking water is important to feeling well throughout the day.
Should I turn Traction Control and Regenerative Braking Off ?
Traction control will help you stay on track if you lose control, so leave it on. Regen braking improves stability during braking, especially at higher speeds, but it’s mostly a personal preference.
Is it OK to Capture my Track Experience with an Action Camera ?
Absolutely. GoPro is everyone’s favorite. It’s always nice to get GPS data readouts and overlays as well. Garmin VIRB is a leader in that area among consumer cameras in the $400 range, but they have serious accuracy issues. Professional action cameras such as AIM SmartyCam will be the best, but its high cost may not be for everyone.
Be safe and have fun on your first track day!
Elon Musk
India tells Elon Musk’s X to “Follow the Law” in latest censorship update
Elon Musk says X now exposes government censorship, but India’s secrecy laws complicate that promise.
Elon Musk’s promise to make government censorship requests on X “clearly visible” is running into a wall in India, where the law forbids the very disclosure Musk is promising.
On August 15, Musk responded to an update from X’s open-source algorithm team by writing “Any censorship required by governments is now clearly visible.” The claim referred to a change X pushed two days earlier to its public xai-org/x-algorithm repository, which now includes a controversial filter written directly into the code. The filter suppresses posts from 665 accounts flagged by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court from appearing in the For You feed of any viewer located in Brazil, unless the viewer already follows the account. The election tied to the filter is scheduled for October 4.
India’s government wasn’t as impressed, and responded on Monday that “X will have to follow the law of the land,” in response to Musk’s transparency push covered by the Times of India. The problem is structural rather than political. India issues content blocking orders under Section 69A of its IT Act, and Rule 16 of the accompanying 2009 Blocking Rules requires those orders to stay confidential. Publishing an India equivalent of the Brazil filter, naming specific accounts and citing specific government orders, would itself violate Indian law. Government use of Section 69A has grown from roughly 6,000 orders a year between 2018 and 2023 to about 24,300 in 2025, according to a Tech Times report.
The contrast puts Musk’s transparency pledge in an odd spot. It works largely as advertised in Brazil, where electoral law requires disclosure and X can point to specific account IDs and a specific court order in public code. It cannot work the same way in India, where the law requires the opposite. X users in India will keep seeing content disappear from search and their feeds without any public accounting of why, even as X tells the rest of the world that its censorship compliance is now inspectable.
This isn’t the first time X’s fights with a national government have shaped how the platform operates. Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered X to suspend the accounts of sitting lawmakers and journalists in 2024, a standoff that cost X its Brazilian revenue for months and froze Starlink’s local accounts before the investigation into Musk and X was closed in March with no evidence of wrongdoing found. X also sued California over a state law requiring moderation disclosures, arguing the mandate itself violated the First Amendment.
Whether India’s government pursues anything beyond a public statement remains to be seen. For now, the mismatch between what X can legally publish and what different governments legally allow it to publish is the real story behind Musk’s seven word claim.
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Lifestyle
Tesla’s driverless Cybercab just passed a big test with State Governor
Florida’s governor rode Tesla’s Cybercab at a closed test track and called the experience impressive.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rode in a Tesla Cybercab on a closed test track this week and came away impressed, posting on X that the vehicle “successfully navigated all hazards — a kid running into the street, a crash with police stopping traffic, a Model S cutting us off, etc.” He called the ride “impressive.”
The stop was part of a broader event Monday at SunTrax, a 775 acre state owned proving ground in Auburndale that Florida built specifically to test autonomous and connected vehicles before they reach public roads. Standing next to a gold Cybercab, DeSantis described the car in plain terms: “You go in there and you just sit. You have a screen. There’s no steering wheel, no pedals. Clearly these things could be very beneficial.”
We took a ride on a robotaxi on the Suntrax course and it successfully navigated all hazards — a kid running into the street, a crash with police stopping traffic, a Model S cutting us off, etc.
Impressive! https://t.co/FVAkzFLz3r
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) August 11, 2026
DeSantis paired the praise with a caveat that has followed autonomous vehicles since the category existed. “You don’t want to be in an autonomous vehicle and it drives you into a ditch. That would not be good,” he said, framing safety validation as the gate before wider deployment.
SunTrax, the 2.25 mile oval which the state calls the only high speed autonomous vehicle test track in the Southeast, can simulate rain, pedestrian crossings, hills and crowded urban conditions at highway speeds, letting companies push a car past what an early public rollout would risk. Tesla, Waymo and Beep all use the facility, and Florida’s regulatory approach, among the most permissive for autonomous vehicles in the country, doesn’t require a human operator inside a fully autonomous car.
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Tesla has reason to want the blessing of Florida and states beyond, as the Cybercab entered volume production at Gigafactory Texas this spring and has since self certified as SAE Level 4 under Texas law. Public road testing so far has kept a safety monitor in the passenger seat, and Florida is where Tesla has been expanding its existing Model Y based Robotaxi service instead, adding Miami in July and then Orlando and Tampa two weeks later. A closed track endorsement from a sitting governor doesn’t change any of that, but it does put Tesla’s newest hardware in front of a state that has already shown it will move fast on rules.
Elon Musk
The real reason Elon Musk wants every car connected to space
Elon Musk says all cars will eventually need Starlink to handle massive AI bandwidth demand.
Elon Musk is making the case that satellite internet, not fiber or cellular towers, will end up wired into every car on the road. In a string of posts on X, the SpaceX CEO wrote that all cars will have Starlink in the future and called satellite connectivity the only way to get super high bandwidth to billions of vehicles.
The posts started with Musk endorsing a Cloudflare forecast that traffic generated by autonomous AI agents will soon dwarf traffic generated by humans browsing the internet, a shift he described as not a close call at all. From there he narrowed the argument to infrastructure, writing that the only system that can support the insanely fast bandwidth growth needed by AI is Starlink, before extending the logic to cars specifically.
AI agentic Internet traffic will obviously VASTLY exceed human usage. Not a close call at all.
Cloudflare’s forecast is accurate. https://t.co/VztgrinN5k pic.twitter.com/Wo4FiRKjPU
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 9, 2026
The timing lines up with Tesla’s own hardware decisions. On July 20, Tesla confirmed the Cybercab would ship with a Starlink V5 terminal built into its roof, the first time the company had put satellite hardware in a production vehicle. A day later, Tesla’s head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, explained the connection wasn’t there for safety and that Cybercab’s driving stack runs entirely on onboard cameras and compute, while the satellite link exists for navigation, customer service, and fleet management instead. Musk followed with his own post about the feature, saying riders would be able to watch 4K streaming video during rides.
By July 22, Musk had already said Starlink would extend beyond Cybercab to Tesla’s full lineup. Sunday’s posts push that same logic outward again, this time framed as a requirement across the industry rather than a feature specific to Tesla, and tied directly to the bandwidth AI systems are expected to consume.
SpaceX’s newest Starmind will make earth data centers obsolete
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The AI argument has been building on SpaceX’s side for months. The company has an FCC filing pending for a third generation Starlink constellation, and it has separately proposed Starmind, a constellation of up to a million satellites designed to run AI computation directly in orbit rather than just relay data. Musk has said he expects space to become the cheapest place to deploy AI compute within two to three years. Starlink and Starmind serve different jobs inside that vision, one moving data and the other processing it, but Sunday’s posts treat vehicles as one more category of hardware that will eventually need both.
None of this changes anything for Tesla owners today. Cars already on the road keep running on LTE and Wi-Fi, and Tesla hasn’t outlined a retrofit path for existing vehicles. The July 22 commitment applies to future production, not the fleet already delivered. What Musk added on Sunday is the reasoning: satellite connectivity isn’t a Cybercab novelty, it’s a bet that ground based networks won’t keep up with how much data cars, robots, and AI systems are about to generate.
Tesla Semi gets its largest order yet
India tells Elon Musk’s X to “Follow the Law” in latest censorship update
