Watch us pit three Model S sedans against a Taycan, RS6, and a 911 Turbo.
After Motor1.com Italy drag raced all generations of the Fiat 500 in a four-way duel, our colleagues from Turkey organized an even bigger showdown by lining up no fewer than six cars. In a battle of electric versus combustion engine as well as America versus Germany, three Tesla sedans had to fight three fast cars from the Volkswagen Group.
In the electric corner, we have the Model S P85D, P90D, P100D, and the Porsche Taycan going up against the Audi RS6 Avant and Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet in the ICE corner. As you have probably figured out by now, the cars equipped with combustion engines are not the latest models, but both Ingolstadt’s super wagon and Zuffenhausen's fabric-roof machine remain impressively fast to this day.
The drag race goes to show that the quickest car off the line doesn’t necessarily win in the end. All three Teslas managed to pull ahead at the beginning but ultimately lost to the two Porsches which were actually the slowest at the start. Even though it wasn’t the range-topping Turbo S (well, some would say it’s not a real Turbo either), the Taycan won by a significant margin.
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The 997-generation 911 Turbo S Cabriolet had to settle for second place, and it had a bit of a problem coming to a full stop as the Bursa Yunuseli Airport’s runway in Turkey wasn’t long enough for the flat-six Porsche to reach a full stop on the tarmac. The VW Group occupied the entire podium as the RS6 C7 claimed the third spot.
It’s worth pointing out this wasn’t a standard-issue quarter-mile drag race as the distance from start to finish was considerably longer, at one kilometer or 0.6 miles. Interestingly, the P90D ended up faster than the beefier P100D, while the P85D was dead last.
Motor1.com Turkey moved on to a rolling race from 37 mph (60 km/h) and the end result was nearly identical, with the only change being the P100D and P90D switched places. The comparison ended with a brake test from 81 mph (130 km/h) down to 0 in which the Taycan was the worst performer while the P100D needed the shortest distance to come to a full stop.
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