How Tesla misled us with viral Cybertruck and Porsche 911 drag race

Remember when Elon Musk said the new Cybertruck Cyberbeast is faster over the quarter mile than a Porsche 911… even if it’s towing a Porsche 911? Turns out that might not be true.

Tesla showed a video of the fastest Cybertruck racing a Porsche 911 (it appears to be a Carrera T, with a manual based on the numbers) at a Californian drag strip.

In the video, a Cybertruck with another green 911 riding on a trailer behind it beats the German sports car in a eighthmile drag race, before Tesla flashes up an impressive sub-11s quarter mile time for the electric ute and Porsche-laden trailer.

As Engineering Explained host Jason Fenske points out in the video above, it’s “misleading” to show a quarter mile time after a video of an eighth-mile drag race – but not as misleading as Tesla boss Elon Musk claiming the Cybertruck can “tow a Porsche 911 across the quarter mile faster than the Porsche 911 can go by itself”.

To put Mr Musk’s claim to the test, Mr Fenske counted the frames in the Tesla video and worked out that the Cybertruck did the eighth mile in 8.25 seconds. That’s compared to the 6.94 seconds it took to cover the eighth mile unladen.

It’s unlikely the gap between the Cybertruck and 911 combination wouldn’t continue to grow between the eighth- and quarter-mile markers, but if they were to maintain the same gap Mr Fenske calculates the big Tesla could have at best done a 12.3-second quarter mile.

By using more detailed maths, he calculates the towing Tesla would’ve likely done a 12.8-second quarter mile. That’s still impressive, but it’s slower than 12.2-second quarter various US outlets have managed in a manual Carrera T.

That’s before we delve into the fact Tesla has chosen the slowest (a dual-clutch is quicker in a straight line than the manual) and lightest (ideal for towing) version of the 911 for its test…

MORE: Everything Tesla Cybertruck MORE: Everything Porsche 911