Steve Cropley: Modified Tesla Model 3 thrills on track

This week, Steve's been racing a Tesla against the clock and saying hello to a new car.

Saturday

Good and bad on the electric car front this week.

Best news first: I did far better than expected at the wheel of a modified dual-motor Tesla Model 3 in a competitive sprint at Abingdon airfield, west of Oxford. If I tell you I posted the 13th-fastest time in a 90-car field, you might be impressed. When you hear that my car was the slowest of four competing Teslas, the achievement will probably seem less stellar. But there’s much more to tell, which I will bung into a full feature soon.

One thing was well and truly proven: these Teslas are staggeringly fast cars for the short and sharp codes of motorsport. I’ve never previously driven one as fast as it would go: the experience of arriving at the first turn (a narrow, bumpy 90deg right) at 100mph will stay with me. People still pooh-pooh electric motorsport. I do wonder why?

Tuesday

The government has killed its £1500 grant for purchases of new electric cars costing less than £32,000, which was so damn predictable. The incentive was always on borrowed time; motoring organisations and green lobbyists have been preparing to whinge for ages, which makes complaints now seem depressingly toothless.

The logic of the removal is clear enough: electric cars are selling like gangbusters, only a few cost less than £32,000 anyway and the Treasury needs the money. But it’s still a depressing signal from the government.

Its next move will surely be to boost the tax take on charging. EV owners should concentrate on enjoying cheap power while they can.

Wednesday

Today, a nice ICE interlude. The Steering Committee is away, so I pinched her prime Mini Cooper S for a rapid return trip to London, and it was quite a treat. The car cruises on long legs, courtesy of its relatively big and torquey engine, but it still zips through obstacles with ease, not so much because it’s tiny (which it isn’t) but because it’s low, the driver’s seat is exactly located between the front and rear wheels and the steering is accurate and quick.