A Miata can smoke a Tesla in a drag race – an electric Miata, that is

Doesn’t everyone love a Mazda Miata? The inexpensive champion of driving fun is legendary among car lovers and racers. One Miata owner took the bold step of converting his roadster to a battery electric vehicle with a repurposed forklift motor for each of the rear wheels and a lithium-ion battery pack.

The result? A virtual electric rocket that can leave the highest-spec Tesla Model S in the dust.

We encourage you to just watch the video for yourself on Road Test TV. It will suffice to say that the Miata handily achieved the difficult task of making a Tesla P85 look like your sister’s Camry.

The Model S P85 performance-spec stock model, which puts out 416 horsepower and is capable of reaching 60 mph in 4.2 seconds, completed the quarter-mile in 12.72 seconds and crossed the finish line at 102 mph. The electrified Miata, on the other hand, posted a blazing 9.27 quarter-mile time and reached 140 mph by the end of the run.

This video provides further proof that electric vehicles love the drag strip, particularly electric vehicles that have been...ahem...worked on a bit. The Miata is toy-sized next to the Tesla, which gives it a huge advantage once the stock disparity in power output is negated. It makes for a car that is a joy to watch on the drag strip.