Tesla’s 'Insane' Button Doesn’t Disappoint

The new $120,000 Model S P85D boasts a 221-horsepower front motor and a 470-horsepower rear motor that packs a punch. The car is able to go from 0-60 MPH in just 3.1 seconds … quietly.

Sylvie Barak

January 30, 2015

2 Min Read
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Tesla. The car’s very name inspires one to think of insanely good design; insanely great engineering; a founder so insanely amazing at innovation, he’s leading the industry, not just in the realm of electric vehicles, but also when it comes to opening up patents and pushing for Mars missions. And now Tesla can add another “insane” to that list, and it’s actually a built-in feature of its new Model S P85D.

The new $120,000 electric beast boasts a 221-horsepower front motor and a 470-horsepower rear motor that packs such a punch, the car is able to go from 0-60 MPH in just 3.1 seconds … quietly.

And how does one do that? By pressing the honest-to-goodness-it’s-designed-in “insane” button, which engages both motors simultaneously and causes any unsuspecting passengers to scream like kids at an amusement park.

Filming a clip for automotive website DragTimes, Brooks Weisblat plasters guest after guest to the back of their seats from the car’s crazy (I can’t keep using the word “insane”) G-Force.How strong is that force? Strong enough to knock a teenager’s cell-phone from their hands … that’s how strong!

The following video contains some strong language, but I guarantee you’ll want to watch it more than once:

Apparently, according to Weisblat, while the experience looks terrifying (in a fun way), it isn’t too dangerous. "It's very safe, the car has all-wheel drive and is very stable the entire time," he said in an interview with Mashable. Weisblat even said his crew had attained 0-60 mph in 3.3 seconds in the rain “with no tire spin at all."

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Perhaps the only disappointing aspect of “insane” mode is that it doesn’t quite launch the driver into orbit, but I’m sure Elon Musk is working on that already.

Would you test drive a Tesla to try out “insane mode”? Would you have the stomach for it? Let us know in the comments section below.

Design engineers and professionals, the West Coast’s most important design, innovation, and manufacturing event, Pacific Design & Manufacturing, is taking place in Anaheim, Feb. 10-12, 2015. A Design News event, Pacific Design & Manufacturing is your chance to meet qualified suppliers, get hands-on access to the latest technologies, be informed from a world-class conference program, and expand your network. (You might even meet a Design News editor.) Learn more about Pacific Design & Manufacturing here.

A regular speaker on the tech conference circuit and a Senior Director at FTI Consulting, Sylvie is an authority on the electronics space, social media in a b2b context, digital content creation and distribution. She has a passion for gadgets, electronics, and science fiction.

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