[00:02] confidently State they claimed a cybertruck could beat a Porsche 911 in cybertruck could beat a Porsche 911 in the4 mile while towing a Porsche 911 I made a video stating that it could not and guesstimated the cybertruck's actual
[00:14] quarter mile time to be about 12.84 seconds and here's the receipt from the drag strip actually testing it and wow how lucky am I it did it in 12.84 seconds but I do mean lucky because the Tesla is actually capable of
[00:30] going faster but can it go fast enough to beat the Porsche let's back up a second Tesla said they could do it I said they couldn't then a Tesla engineer said they could in fact do it but never actually attempted the full quarter mile
[00:43] test suggesting it wasn't worth testing from a safety perspective well guess who's self-employed and doesn't have a legal team putting safety constraints on them yeah it's worth mentioning that we used the exact same trailer as Tesla
[00:58] used I don't know what tires they were using that were only rated for 80 mph but the stock tires that the trailers are sold with are rated for 112 mph so we weren't concerned about tires now that's not to say that I wasn't anxious
[01:13] in fact I was very nervous for my first run my heart was pounding you see I don't have much Towing experience sure I've done it but only very rarely I've also never done it on a drag strip where you have limited stopping distance I've
[01:27] never towed above 80 mph and here we be pushing over 100 mph with a trailer that vehicle it was carrying and it's carrying a Porsche that is rear heavy
[01:39] the engine's in the back so the weight is at the back of the trailer a recipe for trailer sway at speed which could be quite dangerous if I'd had my way I'd probably put the Porsche on the trailer backwards but that's not how Tesla did
[01:52] it so that's not how we did it on top of this I had zero practice runs why because we wanted the battery at as high of a state of charge as possible and without the battery getting too hot so after the drive to the track we had a
[02:07] battery charge high so that the conditions for the first run were ideal which was ran at 94% state of charge it was in fact my best run and a huge shout out to Motor Trend who did all the real
[02:21] work in setting up and executing this test they are the best in the business and I was stoked to work alongside them so for this video I want to answer four questions first is it even possible for the cybertruck to win we're going to
[02:35] take a first principal approach Tesla's a big fan of first principles so am I we'll do the math next why am I confident that the cybertruck is not going to win third how's my math we're going to fact check my math from the
[02:48] previous video and finally was Tesla right in other words what actually happened in the drag race all right starting off is it even possible for the Cyber truck to win so why do I ask this question well a 911t with a manual
[03:02] transmission can do 0 to 60 in 4.3 seconds that's within average acceleration of 64 GS so if the Cyber truck's going to win this race it's where it has the advantage at the launch and can accelerate quicker from a dig
[03:17] all right well in order for it to do that it means it needs to be able to accelerate faster than 64 GS is that possible now normally if you're not towing anything all of the Cyber truck's weight is resting on wheels that are
[03:30] front has two Motors in the back so it can accelerate with both axles and thus can accelerate at maximum potential now there's a trailer connected to it so all of this weight cannot be used to accelerate which means its peak
[03:44] acceleration is now limited so you can look at the weights of the different components here involved and you can find that about 66% of the vehicle's weight including 10% tongue weight from the trailer is
[03:58] resting on the drien wheels so that's the potential that we have to work with tires it means you have a maximum acceleration possible of about 73 GS now there were VB boxes on these vehicles to actually measure what these Peak
[04:13] acceleration forces were and for the cybertruck towing with the trailer it was 72 so very close to its maximum potential and critically its maximum potential and critically its maximum potential 73 G's is greater than 64 GS
[04:27] and thus yes it is possible for the Cyber truck to win this race if the Cyber truck has unlimited power now just for fun if we're to do that same exercise with the Porche 91 it of course is rear wheeel drive which means it can
[04:40] only accelerate with that rear axle which has about 61% of the vehicle's weight including the driver resting on it now that is less than you'll see this 66% number for the cybertruck however as this Porsche
[04:55] to have load transfer to that rear axle meaning the acceleration potential will be greater as it starts to move along now if you assume similar tires to the Tesla and do the math that gives you a maximum acceleration of about 81 G's and
[05:10] maximum acceleration of about 81 G's and measured on the vbox we saw 79 G so very close to that now just because the Porsche has a greater maximum potential doesn't mean that it will win this race because it only has 379 horsepower so
[05:23] basically once you're out of first gear it's anyone's guess who's going to actually be accelerating quicker now an important disclaimer about this drag race the Porsche on the trailer being pulled is a 911t however it does have a
[05:37] dual clutch transmission which weighs more so to compensate for this we took Parts out of the 911t that was being towed on the trailer and we remove fuel from it so that the weight difference between the Porsche on the trailer and
[05:50] the one going down the drag strip was 35 lbs in favor of the Tesla now not only that I was driving the Tesla versus the driver for for the Porsche 911t was 40
[06:02] lb heavier than me so a net 75 lb Advantage given to the Tesla to ensure this is a fair race okay fair probably isn't the best word because we're giving Tesla an advantage to ensure that the results cannot be objected so number two
[06:16] why am I so confident that Tesla is not going to win this race okay this is super simple Porsche 911t can do the quarter mile with a manual transmission quarter mile with a manual transmission in 12.2 seconds a dual motor cyber Tru
[06:30] by itself can do the quarter mile in 12.4 seconds if we take a trotor cyber truck which has more power yes but is towing a Porsche on top of a trailer that now has an even worse weight to power ratio than the dual motor cyber
[06:46] truck so it's got added weight it's got increased rolling resistance it's got increased aerodynamic drag a worse power to weight ratio how is that ever going to get a better quarter mile time it won't okay so this leads to number three
[07:00] how's my math all right time to find out if I suck at math so in my previous video I guesstimated that the Cyber truck could do it in about 12.84 seconds and the receipt I showed you was real on my third run the cybertruck did it in
[07:14] 12.84 seconds however that was extremely lucky now why well in the previous video we know that cybertruck's first Eighth Mile we know how much time it takes because Tesla shows us the whole video however we don't know what that
[07:28] other words how much total time would it take for the quarter mile so I went with the Assumption of linear acceleration for that final Eighth Mile this is not an accurate thing to do because your resistive forces build as your speed
[07:42] increases that's because aerodynamic drag is a function of velocity squared so a linear assumption is not accurate the reason why I did it is because once I knew it was going to be slower than 12.2 seconds I didn't really care about
[07:55] accuracy I just wanted to get something that was slightly more realistic than saying hey I know it's slower and it's not going to win what would it be close to so a quick little guesstimate some napkin math nothing too serious but
[08:08] so if you're actually accelerating it will be quicker in the beginning and then slower at the end which means it's going to take less time as you can see with this simple speed versus time plot so reality is the cybertruck is capable
[08:22] of doing it faster than 12.84 seconds now I realize no one is going to believe me here because I'm telling you after the fact but the night before the drag race I sat down and I thought I need to come up with a correction factor in
[08:35] guesstimate of what I think the cybertruck is going to do in that quarter mile and I have the sheet of paper right here from the night before sat down in the hotel at 10 p.m. and said I got to come up with a better
[08:47] number so once I applied my correction factor I came up with a time of 12.76 seconds and here you can see my best quarter mile time in the Cyber best quarter mile time in the Cyber truck 12 . 749 seconds I was off by 1
[09:03] 100th okay so first of all how cool is math but second of all again I got lucky math but second of all again I got lucky so in reality the Tesla cybertruck was one10 of a second faster in the first Eighth Mile than I predicted and it was
[09:18] oneth slower in the second Eighth Mile than I predicted those ended up canceling out and so I got to be very close in my prediction of what that time would be my best run being 12 .75 seconds so we get to question number
[09:32] seconds so we get to question number four was Tesla right and one final point before we get started Elon made it seem like they just casually got a random Porsche 911 from a dealer for the drag race there are 25 different types of
[09:46] race there are 25 different types of Porche 911s all 25 Porche 911 variants will absolutely Stomp The cybertruck in this Towing comparison with The Single exception of the manual transmission variant of the 911t which is the
[10:01] variant of the 911t which is the absolute slowest 911 by some margin if absolute slowest 911 by some margin if Tesla had simply purchased a base 911 the absolute cheapest 911 offered the Cyber truck would lose by over a full
[10:14] second it is unbelievable how cherry-picked Tesla's statement is it's they could accurately predict the Cyber Trucks towing time and then only show
[10:26] you the receipts that conveniently match the numbers they gave wait so what actually happened let's compare the Cyber truck's best quarter mile time out of six runs versus the 911 T's best quarter mile time out
[10:40] of six runs so we're going to analyze the entire run at different critical points where things happen so just starting off with the quarter mile in fact my time was not the best I was surprised to learn that later in the day
[10:54] after I had already left another Motor Trend driver actually got the best quarter M time of the day for the Cyber Tru at
[11:06] 12.73% mph now it's only 200s of a second faster than what I did he had a very slightly better launch and that resulted in the slightly quicker time but regardless that was the quickest so that
[11:19] will be the run that we analyze versus the 911 T's quickest run which yes as the 911 T's quickest run which yes as you can see is 12.17 seconds at 116 mph you can see is 12.17 seconds at 116 mph so over 10 mph faster and over half a
[11:32] second quicker than the cybertruck in this stunt very clearly the cybertruck is not going to win this competition but there's some interesting things that Porsche 911t 6 seconds to travel the first 7 ft
[11:48] of the drag race it takes the Tesla just .59 seconds to travel those first s ft so for the first 7t of this drag race the Tesla is in fact winning however once you get to 8 ft they're tied and they remain tied up until 16 ft
[12:05] where the Porsche takes the slight Edge taking .98 seconds versus .99 seconds to travel those first 16 ft if you look at the 0 to 60 time the Porsche does it in the 0 to 60 time the Porsche does it in 4.27 seconds or 3.93 seconds if you
[12:20] include 1T of roll out for the Tesla those numbers are 3.99 and those numbers are 3.99 and 4.31 and so from 6 15 ft onward until the end of the race the Porsche has the lead and holds the lead even with
[12:34] shifting with the manual transmission and not having acceleration for those moments The Eighth Mile comes for the Cyber Tru in 8.11 seconds at Cyber Tru in 8.11 seconds at 86.6 milph versus the Porsche 7.94 at
[12:51] 86.6 milph versus the Porsche 7.94 at 91.4 mph so very clearly no Tesla does not win this drag race now as far as testing methodology you might wonder matting the pedal as you see me doing here we tried both methods with three
[13:06] runs each and did not notice a significant difference the prepped surface had a ton of grip so wheel slip really wasn't an issue and launches were similar with or without launch control now one final disclaimer for complete
[13:18] now one final disclaimer for complete transparency the Porsches were provided by Porsche now you might scream conflict of interest which is totally fair so allow me to explain why it doesn't matter first of all Motor Trend not
[13:32] Porsche was responsible for all the prep for this race motor trend's team is driving the car not Porsche and the Porsche did the quarter mile in 12.2 Porsche did the quarter mile in 12.2 seconds at 116 mph this is the same time
[13:44] that has been verified by multiple Outlets the Porsche is simply doing what it has always done it's there to add visual drama not to prove anything because the real question was whether Tesla could beat 12.2 seconds the
[13:58] already established Benchmark by the Porsche and it could not and again this was with giving the Tesla a 75lb weight Advantage rather than having both Porscha weigh the same amount now if you spend way too much time on the Internet
[14:12] you may now have an objection and you might say wait a minute that 8.11 seconds is significantly slower than Tesla's fastest claim of 7.8 seconds in the 8th mile now we don't actually know that it did this Tesla didn't provide
[14:26] video Tesla didn't provide the data for it but they did claim it on Twitter so let's just assume that it actually did do this even if it did the eth in 7.88 do this even if it did the eth in 7.88 MPH the 911 is still already traveling
[14:39] faster in the Eighth Mile and it's only down by a 10th so comparing the Porsche's best run to Tesla's claimed best run the Porsche will still win in the quarter mile because the 9/11 is so strong in the final Eighth Mile both
[14:53] math and real world testing fall in favor of the Porsche it simply has too high of a top speed in the final eighth for the Tesla to win though it certainly would be a closer race okay but how was Tesla able to achieve that 7.82 8 Mile
[15:08] when we could not I chatted with Wes moral the lead cybertruck engineer who drove the truck in Tesla's test to find out there were numerous differences between our runs first off Tesla had the Porsche positioned slightly further
[15:21] forward this causes a small increase in the tongue weight improving maximum acceleration potential Motor Trend put the Porsche as far forward as possible while still leaving about an inch gap between the top of the trailer and the
[15:34] scrape the trailer under braking but we're only talking several inches here as far as the difference second Tesla says they put the trailer hitch as low as possible again increasing the tongue weight whereas Motor Trend used the
[15:48] trailer's exact recommended hitch height for towing with these two changes we our time but third and very likely the largest factor Tesla was able to remove about 150 lb of weight from the trailer there's weight in at just 820 lb whereas
[16:05] motor Tren left the trailer completely stock with no parts removed at 971 lb so the advantages for Tesla are twofold here not only does this mean they had less weight to accelerate but it also means the percentage of weight on the
[16:20] driven Wheels in other words the Cyber Tru is greater these two factors probably played the biggest role in improving their time now I'm not not here to say that I set the rules on how marketing stunts should be performed the
[16:33] audience can decide that and I'm sure the comment section will have a healthy and very respectful discussion between opposing viewpoints if a Tesla engineer and myself can have a fun interesting civil conversation about this I'm sure
[16:45] that yeah no I expect nothing less than complete chaos in the comments but a big thanks to Wes at Tesla for providing additional information he didn't have to that's really cool personally I think Motor Trend testing was absolutely as
[16:58] Fair as possible no vehicle modifications no trailer modifications and a slight weight advantage in favor of the Tesla to provide a buffer so that the results don't have to be questioned the goal was to be impartial not to sell
[17:12] cyber trucks though I'm pretty confident both will happen because seeing the race end up this close is really impressive so can the cybertruck win in the Eighth Mile yeah there are scenarios where it can happen can it win in the quarter
[17:24] can happen can it win in the quarter mile tested confirmed no it cannot someone very wise once taught me that it doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile winnings winning regardless the Cyber tru's acceleration while Towing is
[17:37] Bonkers all right so reality as verified by a third party Tesla loses four out of the six drag races in the Eighth Mile Tesla loses six out of the six drag races in the quarter mile and if you compare the best Porsche Run versus the
[17:52] best Tesla run Tesla loses in both the eighth and in the quarter mile another point worth mentioning in all six of the runs that motor Tren did with this Porsche 911 it was never as slow as the Porsche 911 in the video that Tesla
[18:08] shared okay now allow me for a moment to get a bit gushy because I'm super proud to have been a part of this and I have a few compliments I need to hand out first off the biggest compliment I can possibly offer here goes to Motor Trend
[18:20] they made this test happen there is a ton of work that goes into something like this getting the track the vehicles fire and ambulance safety insurance if you're not in this industry you do not know how painful it is to get insurance
[18:34] for these kinds of things lawyers do not want anyone to have any fun and Motor want anyone to have any fun and Motor Trend made it happen huge respect second shout out to out of spec for Lending their cyber truck and their cybertruck
[18:47] was actually faster than Tesla's own 0 to 60 claims so you can trust this was a fair comparison test and third I genuinely owe Tesla some compliments here despite the unsubstantial marketing claims as someone who doesn't tow often
[19:02] it only took one run to be at complete ease while accelerating while driving over 100 mph and most surprisingly while breaking the Cyber Tru was absolutely stable and predictable that was impressive for me and yeah it's still
[19:17] running the quarter mile while Towing in the high 12s no it's not quicker than a 911 while Towing but it sure is quick and it Crush that 911t in a drag race without the trailer behind it okay and just one more compliment shout out to
[19:32] just one more compliment shout out to math math is incredibly powerful never yourself in the comfort of your own home with a whiteboard people love to hate on Theory just do it for real but Theory offers the power of prediction and that
[19:47] to me is the coolest thing ever and if you haven't yet you absolutely must watch Motor Trends coverage of the race which I will have a link to it is a phenomenal video that I have not actually watched because this was
[20:01] it out if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below comments feel free to leave them below thanks for watching