Current: Tesla Roadster races through Nürburgring in AI simulation – Porsche 919 remains faster

Image: @m_lubieniecki

Since the advent of electric cars, Germany’s Nürburgring, with its challenging North Loop, has increasingly set new speed records. Initially, Tesla and Porsche competed there, with the Model S and Taycan repeatedly breaking each other’s records, until Xiaomi’s SU7 Ultra stepped in. This year, Porsche once again set the fastest lap time on the North Loop using a Taycan equipped with a Manthey kit as a production electric car. According to a AI simulation, the new Tesla Roadster is expected to far surpass all these times — though it would still be slower than an older hybrid Porsche.

Tesla Roadster Holds Its Own

After a long hiatus following the first unveiling of its new roadster in 2017, Tesla presented the supercar again in early October. It is now optionally equipped with SpaceX’s pneumatic engines, which allow the roadster’s most extreme version, the Rocket, to hover in the air for a few seconds and perform rotations. Even the base version, the Roadster Performance, is said to use powerful fans to grip the ground, enabling higher acceleration and cornering speeds.

According to Tesla, the Roadster Performance can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 1.6 seconds even without SpaceX technology, and it weighs around 1700 kilograms empty. Based on such data, some assumptions, and a computer-generated exact replica of the Nürburgring, a model specialist from Poland has now simulated the performance of such a Roadster on this German racing track. According to the simulation, the Tesla equipped with standard intake technology and active aerodynamic elements would be by far the fastest electric car on the track.

Roadster faster than Taycan and ID.R

Its simulation showed a 5 minutes and 41 seconds lap time for the Tesla Roadster Performance, @m_lubienicki wrote on X at the end of October. The rapid drive can be viewed in a stylized form as a red dot covering the approximately 20.8 kilometer course at an increasing distance ahead of a blue dot (representing the Xiaomi SU7). Alternatively, 3D views from inside the Roadster’s cockpit or just behind it are available online (see above), both showing instruments such as speed and downforce.

The Tesla Roadster could complete a lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife in under 6 minutes: at least 30 seconds faster than the AMG One’s record of 6:29. My model estimates it at 5:41, likely between 5:36 and 5:58.

How I arrived at that figure:

• Optimal-control lap simulation: a two-track car model (four… pic.twitter.com/O0fZmmGlqe
• Marek Lubieniecki (@m_lubieniecki) October 21, 2026

At 5 minutes and 41 seconds, the new Tesla Roadster is about 15 seconds faster on the Nordschleife in simulations compared to the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT with Manthey Kit, which set the electric car record with a time of 6:55.5 this April, surpassing the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra with Track Package. These figures refer to production vehicles. Among electric prototypes, the VW ID.R was even faster back in 2019, completing the lap in 6:55.4. Like the Tesla Roadster Performance, it features active aerodynamics but no downforce system (which is banned in most racing categories).

Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo remains unbeaten

With the time now simulated, the Roadster would not only surpass the ID.R prototype but also beat all of the current production internal combustion engine records set at the Nürburgring — including the 6:29 time achieved by the 2024 Mercedes AMG One plug-in hybrid. However, a Porsche from the prototype class was already faster in 2018 than the Roadster, which Tesla claims will go into production starting in 2028: the 919 Hybrid Evo completed the Nordschleife in 5 minutes and 19.5 seconds.