Drag race time from Flying H Drag Strip

[DeBergo]

Cybertruck runs some consistent 10.9’s on the AT tires.

10.887 was the lowest time and 119.27 fastest mph.

Ordering some Micky Thompson ET Street Ss tires this week that are 2” shorter and see if it can drop a couple of tenths.

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[TyPope]

Nice. Someday, someone is going to invent a method to film horizontally so entire cars will fit on the screen and that day will be glorious.

 

[Black306]

1.6X 60-foot is crazy to think about for a ~7k lbs truck.

Nice. Someday, someone is going to invent a method to film horizontally so entire cars will fit on the screen and that day will be glorious.

We're in an Instagram world.

 

[ABILISK]

NICE. Best I’ve gotten is a 10.850 on the Pirellis.

 

[A-AY-RON]

At only 119mph is crazy work!

 

[GnarlyDudeLive]

I’ve always wondered what a complete reskin of a Cyberbeast where all of the stainless body panels where replaced with carbon fiber and how it would perform on the drag strip. ChatGPT indicates that it could shave off 600lbs and .35s off of a quarter mile.

 

[HaulingAss]

Nice. Someday, someone is going to invent a method to film horizontally so entire cars will fit on the screen and that day will be glorious.

Horizontal filming method has already been invented, but I think you must have to pay a royalty to the person who patented it (otherwise everyone would be doing it).

 

[HaulingAss]

I’ve always wondered what a complete reskin of a Cyberbeast where all of the stainless body panels where replaced with carbon fiber and how it would perform on the drag strip. ChatGPT indicates that it could shave off 600lbs and .35s off of a quarter mile.

TLDR: The choice of materials adds very little weight, it saves weight over a mild steel exoskeleton that would be much less damage resistant.

The Tesla haters have come up with ridiculous weights for the cold-rolled stainless steel panels. Using 47 sq. feet of doors at 1.8mm thick and 62 sq. feet for the remaining exterior panels, I come up with around 300 lbs. total weight of cold-rolled stainless steel panels. This doesn't include the weight of the brackets and bolts used to bolt it to the rest of the chassis. It doesn't include the weight of the inner door panels. I could be off by 20% in either direction as I only took rough measurements of irregular shaped panels.

Using a density of 2.95 lbs. per sq. ft. for the 1.8mm doors and 2.30 lbs. per sq. ft. for the 1.4mm bodywork, gives an outer door panel weight of 139 lbs. and the remaining panels weighing 143 lbs. or a total cold-rolled steel weight of 282 lbs. If I underestimated the square footage by 20%, that would be 338 lbs. total.

Using carbon fiber doors would require the addition of side crash intrusion protection bars in every door, adding perhaps 24 lbs. (6 lbs. per door). Keep in mind that carbon fiber is not very strong in compression, a huge net negative for the rear sail panels that stiffen the rear of the chassis around the bed area. It would mean much thicker carbon fiber would be needed there. Even if 150 lbs. of carbon fiber panels (in total) were sufficient for the necessary structural loads (doubtful), and reasonable strength in other areas to withstand common light bumps and impacts, that would be a total weight savings of only 188 lbs. (not counting the required addition of side impact anti-intrusion beams). Granted, this ignores the weights of the steel brackets, bolts and structural adhesive used to affix the stainless steel to the rest of the chassis, but a method would need to be devised to affix the carbon fiber sail panels to the chassis in a manner that could carry the same loads (unless one was willing to give up some chassis rigidity and nerf the 2500 cargo capacity).

One downside to this relatively small savings in weight would be that the carbon fiber would require UV protection in the form of some kind of paint. The Cybertruck would go from being the toughest, most damage resistant truck on the market, to the most fragile truck ever built. Your quarter-mile time would improve in a manner that could only be detected by accurate timing instruments. Bullets would go right through the truck. When off-roading in mud and brush, the carbon fiber and paint (or protective clearcoats) would take a real beating. Door dings would be a thing again. Crash safety would need to be re-engineered to not suffer. Time spent maintaining the exterior would skyrocket. All for an imperceptible increase in 1/4 mile times and a miniscule increase in efficiency. You might even save $100 per vehicle, if painting costs didn't totally wipe out any savings (much like carbon fiber, that stainless is not cheap to buy or work with).

Elon created a real thing here, a truck that doesn't just claim to be tough. The extra-hard stainless steel comes at a higher dollar cost, but given that a truck like this could easily last 20 years or more, it could easily save money in the long-term. It doesn't come with a big weight penalty because the materials engineers at Tesla worked hard on the metal specifications, and they way they further harden it as it comes off the roll in their factory, to reduce the metal thickness from 3mm down to 1.4-1.8mm, while still essentially meeting their original design goals (except for cost). It's a material well-suited to it's application of building a tough truck.

For comparison, let's look at the lightweight aluminum bodied F-150 Lightning Platinum with 300 miles of EPA range:

It has no tonneau weight (as opposed to the included motorized hard tonneau that vanishes from sight when it's not needed). That alone probably adds 200 lbs. of non-structural weight to the Cybertruck. But the Ford is still heavier:

curb weight of 6,893 lbs. (vs. 6,669 lbs.)
the range is less at 300 miles with All-Season radials (vs. 320 with All-Terrain 35" tires)
and the payload capacity is only 1,800 pounds (vs. 2,500)

Faster, stronger, tougher, more agile, and more efficient. More bed volume, more features (like four wheel steering and fully adjustable suspension with up to 16" of ground clearance and active dampers), etc, etc, etc. All of these things add weight, yet the Cybertruck is still stronger and lighter. This advantage is due to better engineering and using the right materials for the design requirements.

Carbon fiber for a pickup truck?

 

[DeBergo]

NICE. Best I’ve gotten is a 10.850 on the Pirellis.

The core wheels and pirelli tires cut probably close to 15 # per wheel. That’s next for me too

 

[CyberGus]

 

[RoboTaxi]

I’d be interested in the 1/4 time with custom settings of higher ride height with beast mode acceleration. I’d also be interested in 1/4 for the truck in chill mode.

 

[DeBergo]

Some random person took that video and was nice enough to hunt me down so they could get my number and send it to me. Otherwise I wouldn’t of had a video. Pretty grateful they did it vertical or horizontal lol

 

[GnarlyDudeLive]

TLDR: The choice of materials adds very little weight, it saves weight over a mild steel exoskeleton that would be much less damage resistant.
......
Carbon fiber for a pickup truck?

I sent you down a rabbit hole my friend. My apologies. You are correct in that it absolutely makes no sense for the functionality of a truck to do such a thing. My perspective was more along the lines of what folks do when they gut out a Model S Plaid to squeak out every last bit of performance just for track runs. Folks do a lot of irrational stuff just for an end result and sometimes I like to watch, LOL. I suppose I should have added a bit more context to my statement.

 

[Mikec3399]

Is this a AWD or a Cyberbeast? Cyber wheels and Good year wranglers? Definitely interested in your results. Did you pre heat pre condition in launch mode?

 

[DeBergo]

Is this a AWD or a Cyberbeast? Cyber wheels and Good year wranglers? Definitely interested in your results. Did you pre heat pre condition in launch mode?

Yep, CyberBeast Foundation on Cyberwheels and the Goodyear AT tires. The first pass I was able to do about 20 minutes after charging so the battery was still up to temp.. 2nd pass we had to wait because there was a crash on the track then a couple of gas cars dumped antifreeze and they had to dry the track so the battery cooled down. 3rd pass I preconditioned for 10-15 minutes . I ran the first pass with the tonneau open. 2 nd with it closed and 3rd with the tonneau and tailgate open. . 1st pass was a 10.969 ET @ 118.89 mph. 2nd pass was 10.963 ET@ 119.27 MPH. 3rd pass was 10.88 ET @ 118.88 MPH.
I’m trying to figure out now if there is a way to recalibrate the speedometer for 32” tall tires since that’s the tallest drag radial you can buy right now. Otherwise Im worried dropping to a smaller tire will give me a better launch, but without the speedo being corrected I’d hit the 130mph limiter before the end of the 1/4 and likely run the same time due to the limiter. 32” tall tire would read about 10mph on the truck speedo uncalibrated.. it’s $2k for drag radials so I don’t want to buy those until I’m sure I can get the speedo corrected.

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