Musk Wants A Smaller Cybertruck And A Nurburgring Record

In a recent podcast episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Tesla founder Elon Musk explained how he wants the Tesla Roadster to hover off the ground. That grabbed the headlines, but he outlined a broader goal for some of his other products too, indicating that he wants his cars to be the best. Remember the Cybertruck? Well, that’s still on track, and due to its overwhelming size, some revisions have been made to the design. Musk also spoke about the exhilarating new Model S Plaid, and explained what kind of time he expects the insane EV sedan to set at the Nurburgring.

Let’s start with the Cybertruck. No new images of the blocky, futuristic truck have been revealed, but Musk did explain that it won’t look vastly different from what we’ve already seen. “That’s pretty much what it [the Cybertruck] will look like, with very small differences. You know, we adjusted the size a few percent. Like around 3% or smaller. You don’t want it to be a couple of inches too big for the tunnel.” We’ll have to wait to hear more from the electric entrepreneur, but Musk did confirm that limited production is on track for a late 2021 start, with en masse manufacturing coming in 2022.

And now for the bit you’ve been waiting for: the 1,000+ hp Model S Plaid is set to travel to the Nurburgring in search of a sub-seven-minute lap time. Considering that Musk says the car can do 0-60 mph in 1.96 seconds, acceleration certainly won’t be an issue. “Every millisecond really matters when you’re going that fast”, said Musk. With early prototypes of the Plaid and a handheld stopwatch, Tesla managed a time of 7:13. Musk continues: “We’re trying to get to, on the Nurburgring, get to the low-7-minute mark. And then, with further improvements, I think we could bust 7 minutes on the Nurburgring, which would be a pretty wicked act on its own.” It sure would be and would make the Model S Plaid even more of a bargain considering its existing performance credentials.