All-electric kit car with Tesla drivetrain runs a quarter-mile in 10.1 seconds

Earlier this summer, we reported on an Ottawa-based car tuner, Eurodyne, and a local car shop, Tapp Auto, building an all-electric kit car with a Tesla drive unit and two Chevy Volt battery packs. The team is now back with an updated version of the car and it’s ridiculously fast.

The vehicle was already a ’10-second-car’ but barely with a 10.98 secs time earlier this summer. A similar time to what Tesla owners have been getting with Model S P90D Ludicrous and barely slower than Tesla’s new Model S P100D Ludicrous – also known as the ‘quickest production car in the world’.

Now it can run a quarter-mile in just 10.1 seconds and the team is confident they will be able to tune the vehicle to make it into the 9s.

They achieved that by swapping the RWD drive unit of a Tesla Model S 85 that they were using in the 818 kit car with the performance motor of Tesla Model S P85.

That’s a significant upgrade: 362 hp (270 kW) to 416 hp (310 kW).

Here’s the video of the run:

Of course, it’s a kit car which means that it’s ridiculously light and easier to focus on performance when safety is not a factor. But’s also a good benchmark to see what can be done with a Tesla drive unit and Volt battery modules.

It’s also encouraging for Jason Hughes’ idea to build a car from not one, like Eurodyne’s car, but two Tesla performance drive units, a few Tesla battery modules and two full Chevy Volt battery packs.  I can’t wait to see what he can get out of those drivetrains.