This Is Probably the Quietest Race on the Nurburgring. Ever.

James Lee

9-9-2020

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Mention Nurburgring Nordschleife, and you’ll think adrenaline-inducing petrol smell and the loud and brawny engine roar and howls that reverberates throughout the entire vicinity. But with electric vehicles evolving to become more than just city runabouts, it’s just a matter of time before the atmosphere in the air that we all know and love so well get replaced by golden silence.

Well, not exactly pure pin drop silence, but just the soft hum of the electric motor and screeching tyre noise – just like this video clip of a Tesla Model 3 chasing after a Porsche Taycan around the Ring. Don’t get us wrong, it’s still breakneck speeds that they are doing, but the lack of noise is just a little bit off-putting for us. Here, have a look for yourselves:

https://youtu.be/Rnv_z6kJTDE

The Tesla model featured here is the Model 3 Performance, fitted with the Track Mode V2 Pack which allows the drivers to adjust the stability control and power delivery split between the front and rear wheels, allowing the drivers a whole lot of controls to personalise the handling performance on a track like this.

In this form, the Model 3 is powered by two electric motors – one on each axle – to send 450 hp and 637 Nm to all four wheels. Naught-to-100 km/h is achieved in a brisk 3.4 seconds.

Up in front, the Porsche Taycan here is the 4S version equipped with the Performance Plus battery pack, which makes 571 hp and 650 Nm of torque, sent to all four corners. Despite its edge on raw power, century sprint times is slightly slower compared to the Model 3, coming in at 4.0 seconds.

The YouTuber noted that both cars started the run at 95% battery charge, and after two laps around the Nordschleife with a few occasional slowdowns the Tesla ended the day with 53% of charge left in the bank. The Taycan on the other hand ends the day with 56% of battery power left – not a considerable difference.

He also noted that the Tesla Model 3 did get a reduction in performance on the second lap, while the Taycan is “a bit stronger” on the second outing. If conditions were optimal, he figures that both cars can achieve a Bridge-to-Gantry (unofficial lap times on the Touristfahrten layout) time of around 7:45, which is mighty impressive.

In case you haven’t been convinced that electric power is very much the future in automotive propulsion up until now, this video should really serve as a sign of what is to come in the near future. Not only are they efficient, they can handle themselves decently on “The Green Hell” too, one of the world’s most challenging and dangerous race circuits. For now, it’s really up to us to get use to the eerie silence from the cars of the future. Perhaps some fake exhaust note would be a much welcome feature.

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