Funny you mention that I did another OTA update last night and the stability control behavior changed again! Its now dialed back again and is back to understeering. You can choose if you want to apply OTA updates, it will ask you to download and install it. There's no auto-update thing happening.

Long-term wise I think this is a great package to be honest. Its definitely the first of a new breed of sports sedans and it still has some flaws. But man for being the first legitimate EV (sports) sedan its really good. I could see myself keeping this car for a while and modding it to a high level. The battery modules all things considered are not THAT expensive if/when you toast them with a few years of abuse. About 5-8k each and there's a very small chance that all 4 need replacing simultaneously, the cells die at different rates. Track people usually spend that much in engine rebuilds. The dyno mode is actually a really awesome feature and key to this being a great car. I just tested it today and it just keeps a constant split of power (rear motor is ~50% more powerful) and turns off all the nannies EXCEPT ABS. The only thing it now needs is LSDs front and back and it could be a real killer.

Oh yea its performance in the cold sucks. If its below freezing the range drops 30%, and if its -40 that drops 50% effectively. This is partly battery chemistry but also because of the heater and it can use as much regen. The better way to think about the range in day-to-day driving is the 80-20% battery range since you don't want to routinely have a high state of charge or start to get anxious with it being too low. That translates to 210 miles in good weather, which is not bad. But thats only about 100 miles in severe weather or 160 miles in freezing weather. I'm sure as battery chemistry evolves that will get better.

 

Thanks for the info.

In my case, my wife and I would drive the Tesla around town 99% of the time. I do like to have the option of taking it to the track or an autocross though. I have the Evo for motorsports abuse and we have another vehicle we could use for road trips, so even 100 miles in severe winter weather is sufficient for us.

How do you keep it in the 20% - 80% charge range? Can you set an upper limit on the charging to keep it under 80%?

 

Yea that sounds like a similar to me and my wife's situation. It saves us a lot of money on gas actually. I think it will work well for you. :thumbsup:

There is a limiter you can set on the state-of-charge. You can plug it in and it will charge to that SoC at whatever schedule you set.

 

I test drove a 3 performance this weekend. I want one.

 

Tesla should offer an option in their updates for the driver to enable full time awd . I think that will be a big help with slippery conditions . Off course I do agree and would have loved for Tesla’s to come with rear and front LSD’s .

I wonder how much of a difference is the cost of just producing the cars with LSD instead of Open Diff? I just can’t imaging it would be that big of a difference to not want to spend the extra money on it. I understand that if it’s 200 difference it can add up if providing hundreds of thousands of cars. But they can just transfer that to MSRP and in my opinion it’s not going to be a noticeable difference to the buyer.

 

99.9999% of people that buy these cars think LSD is a drug... no point in doing something such a niche groupe of buys care about, especially something as expensive as an LSD.

 

How many of those 200,000+ Model 3s sold each year ever see any real performance driving? Straight line acceleration to impress your friends at stop lights doesn't count.

Limited slip diffs add extra cost and a small amount of driveline friction. Tesla optimizes first for wow factor, and then second for a mix of range of cost reduction. LSD doesn't fit anywhere in those priorities.

If Tesla really wanted to, I'm sure they could make an electronic LSD solution with the brakes that worked very well. I just don't see it as a priority for them, though.

 

A few cool youtubes to watch

 

I had a Model 3 Performance for about an hour today, and enjoyed the crap out of it. Stable, relaxing, and oh-that-point-and-go. It's so fun in traffic from low speeds. I rocketed by everyone and everything.
I had driven a Model S P100D before, and vastly preferred this. You can feel the fact it's 1000 lbs lighter. Great car, out of my price range with saving up for two kids for college.

 

Im full on into the Model3 Perf. Wife wants to get one ASAP which will be hopefully just months away when she starts working after finishing nursing degree. And I'd be using it to make parts on because I can.

 

Yessss! I will line up first for parts! Check out mountain pass performance. They already have custom control arms and suspension/brake parts. It's a lucrative market. There's already a Tesla Corsa challenge in Cali. MPP were also running second in last year's buttonwillow time attack before being DQ'd for illegal fuel. Electricity wasn't an approved fuel.

Also unplugged performance (off shoot of bulletproof automotive) has been making good body/aero/suspension/brakes products and are starting to prove it on the track:

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/ele...wn-mclaren-f1s

 

Funny thing with the model S is it's a 1 trick pony. Car and driver recently put it up against the taycan and basically after 1 launch in ludicrous plus mode it fell flat on it's face. By the 5th run it pulled a 16+ second 1/4 mile.... The model 3 is a bit slower at 3.2s 0-60 and 11.5 in the 1/4 mile but it can do that all day long. There are YouTubers that have tested that.

 

IMO, being a one trick pony is perfect for their target audience. I imagine most buyers just want to impress their friends from a stoplight occasionally and brag about the 0-60 times at parties.

As for the Model 3 Performance: How much tire can they fit? 4100lbs is still a heavy car for any motorsports work.

I saw a thread where Mountain Pass said they fit 275s all around, albeit with an 18% drop in range.

 

Lucas (English Racing) did something like 18 11.5-11.8 runs in a row last year in his. Super consistent

 

Seems like people are getting good results with it

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/ne...-way-top-rung/