Tesla ‘Easter Egg’ Makes the World’s Fastest Car Even Quicker
The world’s fastest-accelerating car is about to get even swifter.
Tesla’s high-end Model S will soon be able to go from zero to sixty miles per hour in just Two.Four seconds, following a software enhancement next month that trims off a 10th of a 2nd. That’s a fresh threshold that distinguishes it from any other production car on the road.
Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk taunted the update in a tweet on Wednesday—but there’s a twist. When the switches are delivered wirelessly next month to all P100D Model S vehicles, the owners will have to figure out how to enable it. It’s what’s known in the tech industry as an “Easter Egg”—a hidden feature that requires a specific series of gestures to unlock.
These speeds are crazy rapid. For perspective, the Model S already outpaces sold-out supercars with little production runs, such as Ferrari’s $1.Four million LaFerrari, Porsche’s $845,000 nine hundred eighteen Spyder, and Bugatti’s $Two.Trio million Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse. Tesla’s seven-seat Model X SUV will also shed a 10th of a 2nd, putting it on a par with a $1.15 million McLaren P1.
Here’s a chart that shows how Tesla ranks in speed and price among the world’s elite. The latest Model S, however, is in a category all its own, especially when you consider it’s a spacious four-door sedan with two trunks. The Model X is the only SUV to make the list.
Speeds like this suggest more Gs than Earth, so the rate of acceleration is swifter than falling. It can feel difficult to support your head and shoulders if you don’t lean back on the headrest. And perhaps the strangest feeling of punching it on a Tesla is that, with two all-electric motors, the wheels don’t slip and acceleration is practically silent.
Previous Tesla Easter eggs have switched the car’s displays, but this is the very first time one will alter spectacle. For example, accessing the service login from the car’s 17-inch touchscreen and injecting access code “007” converts the Model S graphic on the vehicle’s control panel into James Bond's submersible Lotus from the one thousand nine hundred seventy seven movie The Spy Who Loved Me. (Musk bought the Lotus for $1 million and says he plans to make it functional some day.)   
Here’s a table of the world’s quickest cars. The acceleration times are provided by the manufacturers, however some cars have been clocked a bit quicker on the track. (Previous versions of Teslas have, too.) In addition to the improved zero-to-60 times, the Model S will be able to sprint a quarter-mile in Ten.6 seconds.  
Musk’s Easter eggs tend to have pop-culture references from his formative years. One turns the road into rainbows from Nintendo’s Mario Kart movie game. Others reference the one thousand nine hundred eighty seven movie Space Nut sack and Douglas Adams’s one thousand nine hundred eighty one book Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
A possible hint about the upcoming release came when a Twitter follower named @Locoboof wrote, “You mean to tell me as prompt as this thing is, the animal hasn’t been fully let out?” Musk responded: “Locoboof it is not actually left-handed.” That’s an apparent reference to a sword fight in the movie Princess Bride, in which Fear Pirate Roberts (as played by Cary Elwes) and Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) both expose midfight that they’ve been using their weaker sword palm to give their rivals a chance.
—With assistance from David Ingold in Fresh York.