Tesla Video Showing Cybertruck Beating Porsche 911 While Towing Porsche 911 Was a Lie, Independent Test Demonstrates

Victor Tangermann
·2 min read
11

Rigged Race

In December, Tesla released a promotional video showing a Cybertruck beating a Porsche 911 in a quarter-mile race — while towing a different Porsche 911.

And while we've already had our doubts about the validity of the unusual matchup, MotorTrend finally settled the debate, showing once and for all that the stunt was rigged.

MotorTrends took the "slowest new 911 you can buy" and a top-trim Cyberbeast variant of Tesla's pickup to a dragstrip. The team even invited Jason Fenske from the YouTube channel Engineering Explained, who did a thorough takedown of Tesla's promo video back in January.

And the results speak for themselves. The towing Cybertruck was inched out by the Porsche 911 in most of the runs after just an eighth of a mile. By the quarter-mile finish line, the 911's lead widens substantially to just over half a second — which is a considerable margin on the dragstrip.

"No matter how you slice it, present it, or asterisk the claim, Tesla and Elon Musk’s big brag doesn’t hold up," MotorTrends' Eric Tingwall concluded. "There’s no scenario where the Tesla Cybertruck Beast pulls a fully functional Porsche 911 Carrera T across the quarter mile before the Porsche 911 Carrera T gets to the finish line."

Cyberfooled

To be clear, as MotorTrends was quick to point out, the Cybertruck is still screaming fast, accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in a dizzying 2.5 seconds. Without a trailer, the Cybertruck would "absolutely decimate" the sports car, as Tingwall noted.

However, Tesla's misleading advertising went way beyond that claim — a pattern that's increasingly well-established for the braggadocious Musk.

Worse yet, Tesla quickly walked back its assertions made in the original promo video, with Cybertruck lead engineer Wes Morrill coming up with an unusual excuse shortly after Fenske shared his video in January: the team only ran the eighth of a mile race and assumed the result would be close at the full quarter mile race. They didn't even bother completing the full quarter mile because "we opted to call it a day before someone got hurt."

It's not just the 911 video. Tesla also released a video of a Cybertruck pulling an F-150 uphill back in 2019. In a recent rematch involving a diesel Silverado pickup, set up by YouTube channel Cyber Hooligan, the Cybertruck simply gave up right out of the gate, allowing itself to be dragged helplessly.

More on the Cybertruck: Maine Man Alarmed When Everybody Mocks His Cybertruck, Flips Him Off