Elon Musk released the Cybertruck in December 2023 with an incredible claim: The 845-hp Tesla Cybertruck Beast can tow a Porsche 911 down the drag strip quicker than a 911 alone can make the run. The video was a brilliant stunt to showcase the Cybertruck’s awesome power
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MotorTranscript
00:00 Ok boys, this is it. Get ready, eyes up.
00:03 Great, but that's a good car.
00:13 Oh boy, oh boy.
00:15 You've already seen this race before.
00:20 Tesla's wild 845 horsepower cyber beast
00:24 towing a Porsche 911 down a drag strip faster than the 911 can make the same run.
00:29 At least that's how it goes, according to Tesla.
00:33 It can tow a Porsche 911 across a quarter mile faster than the Porsche 911 can go by itself.
00:40 However, it wasn't long before people called BS.
00:45 And then, a very persuasive man with a whiteboard and some advanced algebra skills
00:49 backed those claims of BS up with cold, hard facts.
00:53 But whiteboards are one thing, and drag strips are another.
00:58 The Porsche 911, the Cybertruck, weighing a little under 7,000 pounds, 845 horsepower
01:04 versus the 911, we're a little over 3,300 pounds.
01:08 So, we're going to put Tesla's and Jason's claims to the test
01:14 by recreating the Cybertruck versus 911 drag race exactly as Tesla presented it.
01:20 Only this time, we're giving you all of the details.
01:23 Lots of math, no BS. Let's do this.
01:26 Could you move that, please? Engineers.
01:29 Hey, Eric, can I just get a ride with you? Is that cool?
01:32 Was Tesla's video legit? Did the Porsche driver throw the race?
01:37 We've been testing cars and fact-checking automakers for 75 years at Motor Trend.
01:43 And as far as we're concerned, there's only one way to be sure who really wins this race.
01:47 Run it ourselves.
01:49 So, Eric, you're our testing director. Let me ask you this.
01:52 Millions of people have already seen this race. We know how this ends.
01:56 Why are we taking the time and the money and the effort to run it again?
02:00 It's pretty simple to me. The Cybertruck makes about two times as much power as a 911 Carrera T.
02:05 But in this configuration, with this trailer, it's more than three times as heavy.
02:10 It just doesn't pass the sniff test to me.
02:13 Nice of you to join us.
02:15 I was trying to get a ride, but anyways, it doesn't matter.
02:18 So, OK, what I was trying to say, if you compare the 911 to a dual-motor Cybertruck,
02:24 we've got 8.7 pounds per horsepower. Lower number equals better.
02:29 With the dual-motor, we're at 11.2 pounds per horsepower.
02:32 Regardless, their quarter-mile times are very similar.
02:35 12.2 in the quarter for the 911, 12.4 for the dual-motor Cybertruck.
02:40 For our Cybertruck tri-motor, towing a 911, we're adding an additional 4,452 pounds,
02:48 but we're only gaining 252 horsepower. That's a bad deal.
02:52 So it means we're only getting a power-to-weight ratio, or weight-to-power ratio,
02:58 of 13.2 pounds per horsepower.
03:02 How does this number increase and this number go down?
03:06 That doesn't make any sense.
03:09 So tell us about the Cybertruck, Eric.
03:11 Yeah, this is a privately-owned Cybertruck from our friends at Out of Spec.
03:14 We tested it earlier this week, and it did 0-60 in 2.5 seconds,
03:18 which is even quicker than what Tesla claims.
03:20 That's impressive. So it's a privately-owned truck, we feel good about that,
03:24 we know for a fact that Tesla haven't had their hands all over this one.
03:27 Yes, not a little extra boost in power, perhaps.
03:31 So what about this great spectacle?
03:34 We are using the same trailer that Tesla used in its video.
03:38 This is a Futura Club Sport trailer.
03:40 It's about 971 pounds, which makes it the lightest car hauler trailer on the market.
03:46 But it's not actually rated to carry this car.
03:50 Its capacity is only 2,600 pounds.
03:52 We've been told by Futura that it is safe to tow at this weight at the speeds we're going to tow.
03:58 To recap, Cyberbeast, that is exactly as Tesla had it in the drag race.
04:02 Trailer, exactly as Tesla had it. What about this little beast?
04:05 Okay, so there is a difference. If you were to peek inside, you would notice some paddle shifters.
04:10 So this is the PDK, not the manual.
04:13 But we kept this in mind, and so we took some parts out, we took all the fuel out.
04:17 In fact, this car here weighs 35 pounds less than the manual transmission that's sitting over there.
04:23 So we have taken that into consideration, and it is actually lighter than the manual as it's configured.
04:29 So over here we have another 2023 911 Carrera T.
04:33 Why, Jason, is it significant that this is a Carrera T?
04:36 So we don't know for 100% certainty what they used in the video.
04:40 But you can look at the mirrors, and you can see that they're grey, which is a sign of the Carrera T.
04:45 And the Carrera T is the lightest. If a Cybertruck is going to tow it, you want the lightest one possible.
04:51 And the Carrera T with manual transmission is the slowest variant of the Porsche 911.
04:56 We chose the manual Carrera T because, as Jason explained in his video, that's what it looks like Tesla used.
05:02 One indication to me is that you can see a very noticeable lurch when the Porsche seemingly changes gears.
05:09 You can see the whole car heaves forward briefly.
05:12 So that bears mentioning, I think we are on a proper drag strip, a prepped surface.
05:17 This is the right condition for us to be running this race in.
05:20 It's not the same drag strip that Tesla used, but it is identical in its makeup.
05:24 What about driver skill? This is, of course, a manually shifted sports car.
05:28 We're going to need someone with some driver skill.
05:31 That's right. And we don't know who was driving in the Tesla video or if they were driving to the full capability of the car.
05:37 I've been testing cars for about 15 years, so I'm going to drive the 911 today.
05:42 Pretty much any idiot could drive the Cybertruck.
05:44 Of course. I guess I'll just be driving the Cybertruck.
05:47 Yeah, actually, it's because I weigh 150 pounds. So another weight advantage, 40 pounds less than Eric.
05:53 So we've got a 35-pound less vehicle. I weigh 40 pounds less as the driver and I'll be driving the Cybertruck.
06:00 So overall, 75-pound advantage we're looking at.
06:03 So we really are juicing the numbers for Tesla as much as possible.
06:06 We want this thing to prove us wrong. We want this thing to win. Do we think it's going to?
06:10 I don't think it will win. And I also don't want it to win because then I'm wrong.
06:14 Personally, I don't care who wins. I want to find the truth out here.
06:17 But I do believe that the 911 is going to win. And I don't think it's going to be very close.
06:22 Right. And of course, we're talking about the eighth mile and the quarter mile.
06:25 Right. That's something we haven't really broached yet. You, Jason, in your video came pretty quickly to the conclusion
06:31 that the footage we were seeing wasn't a quarter mile. It was an eighth mile.
06:36 But then when it threw back to Elon at the event, of course, all the subsequent numbers we see on the website,
06:42 those all claim to be quarter mile.
06:45 Yes. So he states in the launch event, hey, this is done in the quarter mile.
06:49 It's faster in the quarter mile while towing. Then you see the clip and it ends the drag race at the eighth.
06:54 And we're here, of course, to get to the bottom of it. So with that, boys, come on, let's do it.
06:59 Let's get in our cars. Let's run this race. I'm excited to see the truth.
07:03 But first, let's have Eric give you a detailed breakdown of the launch sequence for the Porsche.
07:08 Launching a modern Porsche can be a bit tricky. They often have more grip than power.
07:13 There's also a stationary rev limiter at 3500 rpm. So as you let the clutch out, the trick is to pause in the friction zone,
07:21 almost push it back in a little bit to prevent the engine from bogging.
07:25 As long as you've done that, you should get good power delivery. Take off like a rocket.
07:30 For the quickest possible launch, I'm going to put this Porsche in Sport Plus mode,
07:34 but then I'm going to switch the dampers to their softer setting for maximum traction.
07:39 That will let a little more weight shift to the rear. And then, of course, I'm going to turn stability control and traction control fully off.
07:46 In addition to the track timing, we're running these V-Box Touch data loggers. They use GPS recording at 25 hertz.
07:53 They're going to record all the data through the entire run.
07:57 All right, so we've got the V-Box set up in the Cybertruck as well.
08:01 We're going to put it in beast mode for the fastest acceleration.
08:05 And basically all I have to do is stick my foot down when I see the light and we're off.
08:11 Unlike typical most trend testing, the times and speeds we're going to talk about for this race have not been corrected for weather.
08:18 This is a heads up race. So as long as both drivers get a good start, it's first one to the finish line wins.
08:24 Let's do this.
08:27 [MUSIC]
08:31 [TIRES SQUEALING]
08:33 [MUSIC]
08:37 [TIRES SQUEALING]
08:57 [MUSIC]
09:00 [TIRES SQUEALING]
09:02 [MUSIC]
09:24 We wanted to be as thorough as possible, so we ran this race back to back three times.
09:30 Nicely done, Cyberboy.
09:33 Pretty dang close to what you were expecting.
09:35 So we just ran the race three times. There are tickets number one, two, and three.
09:40 So fully charged, first run quicker in the eighth.
09:45 Second run, it was 8,000ths slower in the eighth.
09:51 Honestly, though, I was very impressed every run.
09:54 It felt fast. It didn't feel like I was towing. That's what I didn't get.
09:58 And it's stable. Like, it never felt sketchy, even at speed. It didn't feel sketchy braking.
10:03 To the point of the consistency, you did three runs with the quarter mile within a tenth of a second.
10:09 So heat building up, battery state of charge falling didn't really have a significant impact.
10:15 And then to your credit, your times were also...
10:19 Yeah, I ran my first two quarter mile times exactly on top of each other, 12.5s.
10:23 And then I saved the best for last with a heater of a run, a 12.37.
10:28 So as to our predictions that we made earlier, can you guys recall the predictions we made, the numbers you guys gave?
10:35 We were chatting at lunch about what we thought the real number would be.
10:39 And I said 12.8, 12.7.
10:42 And how did that manifest?
10:43 It turns out to be 12.8, 12.7.
10:46 It's like that engineering degree is being put to work.
10:49 I'm happy for both parties because honestly, it's insanely fast.
10:55 Very impressive.
10:56 And I'm happy that my math wasn't wrong.
10:58 I had predicted it would be in the 13s, so I thought it was going to be a lot slower.
11:02 I still have to wrap my head around it.
11:05 It's so quick with 4,200 pounds on the back of it. I was totally not expecting that.
11:10 That said, the 911 pulled off two wins in the eighth mile, lost one of the three in the eighth mile, and won all three in the quarter mile.
11:17 So I think you can say it can beat a 911 in the eighth, tested by third party, but you can't say it in the quarter.
11:28 So pay up, Elon?
11:30 I know he's got the money.
11:33 I'm not asking. Staying out.
11:35 Don't sue me.
11:39 From the perspective that all press is good press, this marketing stunt from Tesla was undoubtedly a success.
11:45 But if that press comes at the expense of losing credibility with the general public, well then I'm not so sure it was worth it.
11:52 That doesn't take away from the fact that what the Cyber Beast can do while towing is pretty remarkable.
11:58 We just wish they'd have been up front about its limitations.
12:03 If you want even more detail on this drag race, we've got a full breakdown of weights, time slips, and all the data at MotorTrend.com.
12:11 If you want even more detail on this drag race, we've got a full breakdown of weights, time slips, and all the data at MotorTrend.com.
12:17 [MUSIC PLAYING]