Tesla Model S P85D In Pictures

Photos by Ronnie Fung and Jonathan Yarkony

Okay, let’s just get this out of the way up front: Insane Mode is insane. Ridiculous. Ludicrous. Mad. Bonkers. It will rewire your entire sensory matrix about what it is to accelerate.

But you know what the insane thing is? So will plain old Sport Mode. You see, despite the increased responsiveness of the throttle in Insane Mode, the truly mind-warping part of the P85D’s acceleration is the near-silent feeling of switching speeds. It’s like you are not accelerating at all, but rather simply changing speeds. Rolling along at 80 km/h, stuck in the middle lane, you see a gap between fast-lane cars approaching. Even in the fastest-accelerating internal combustion cars, the engine needs to drop gears (which, granted, can be done in advance), then engine revs build as you rocket up to speed. The Tesla just steps out, whizzes its magical spinning motor into the nth dimension, and presto, you are doing 120. Freaky.

Anyhow, flip through gallery below for some epic shots of the Tesla and what makes it whirr.