Brave New World

Tesla’s EVs have been winning YouTube drag races for several years now. Can the new Model 3 Performance offer something for drivers who enjoy corners too?

- Adam Towler

IT’S A CURIOUS SOUND. COARSE, RIPPING; abrasive like a charmless traffic warden having a bad day. It’s the sound of Michelin Pilot Sport 4 Ss being tortured by torque, smearing across the road’s surface and leaving a little bit of themselves behind, but without any of the accompanying racket of an internal combustion engine being worked to its limits. And it’s weird.

But then this whole experience is a bit odd. I’m in a car badged ‘Performance’, and yet so many of the elements that mark out a performance car in the traditional sense are absent; the reference points that reassure our brains we’re sitting in something fit for the task to prepare us for a G-force onslaught. With the Tesla Model 3 Performance, there’s no warning that I’m sitting in a vehicle that allegedly offers the same horsepower as the Ford Mustang GT I drove to the airport last night. More torque, too, so they say; much more in fact, and available instantly and from zero rpm, along with the ability to power oversteer on-demand with no safety net.

There’s no aggressive aero kit (just a tiny sliver of a carbon fiber boot spoiler), or garish graphics. No figure-hugging Recaros (the seats are covered in a rather synthetic-to-the-touch white leather, and curiously spongy). There’s no racy instrumentation, gear lever or fancy titanium paddles. The press blurb has no mention of upgraded engines. In fact, it doesn’t even quote power and torque figures, and what little dynamic changes have taken place are limited to different wheel design, that 4 S rubber and some lower springs. I can’t even quote what the engineers are telling me because Tesla won’t allow that. It seems only Elon Musk is allowed to speak for Tesla, literally.