Tesla Model 3 Performance Holds Its Own Racing BMW M3 CS, Mercedes C63 PHEV

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The Tesla is the cheapest out of the three cars and the quickest to accelerate without using launch control.

• Tesla Model 3 Performance is quick enough to match and even surpass two of the world's most powerful performance sedans.
• It comes second to the M3 CS with launch control and it beats the BMW when it's not used.

Performance electric vehicles are known to be quick in a straight line but heavier and more expensive than an equivalent combustion model. The Tesla Model 3 Performance is none of those things, and it can hold its own in a drag race against the world’s fastest compact executive sedans, the BMW M3 and the Mercedes-AMG C63.

Hagerty’s Jason Cammisa put these three vehicles head to head to see which was the quickest in a quarter-mile dash, and the results were eye-opening. These are three different cars with electric, plug-in hybrid and pure combustion powertrains, yet they are about as close as direct rivals get.

The $85,050 Mercedes-AMG C63 S E Performance has both a combustion engine and a battery pack and electric motor combo, which is why it’s the only one of the vehicles that exceeds two tons. Its official weight is just over 4,600 pounds, but it’s also the most powerful car with the most torque of the trio.

Mercedes’ decision to remove the much-loved twin-turbo V8 from the C63 is unanimously hated by enthusiasts, even if the new plug-in hybrid has a peak output of 671 horsepower and 752 pound-feet of torque. It can easily accelerate to 60 mph quicker than the 3.3-second claimed time, but it’s no match for the other two cars.

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Cammisa chose the more extreme, powerful and lighter M3 CS for this drag race, which is also the most expensive of the three cars, with a starting price of $118,700 (considerably more than the base M3, which costs $76,000). It weighs 3,915 lbs and has 543 hp from its twin-turbocharged straight-six, which thanks to all-wheel drive allows it to dip below the claimed 3.2 seconds to sixty.

With 510 hp, the Model 3 Performance was the least powerful of the trio and in the middle in terms of weight with its 4,054 lbs. It accelerates to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds, and unlike the other two, there’s no need to enable launch control to achieve it.

During the first drag race, the two combustion vehicles used launch control to get off the line as quickly as they could. This resulted in the M3 CS sprinting ahead and staying there for the entirety of the race, completing the quarter-mile in 10.9 seconds at 126 mph. The Tesla was about a car length behind and achieved a time of 11 seconds flat at 122 mph. The Mercedes was two-tenths behind with a trap speed of 120 mph, although it seemed slower than that in comparison with its two rivals.

For the second drag race of the video, they don’t use launch control and simply floor the gas off the line without building boost. The Tesla is unaffected by this and it shoots off ahead of the other two cars, followed by the Mercedes and the BMW. The M3 takes the longest to build boost, but it does manage to catch the C63 before the end of the run and finishes second.