Burnout: Tesla Model S vs. Pontiac Firebird 400

While you’d think that a burnout might not be achievable in an electric car, you’d be wrong. In the interest of “science,” William Hawkins decided to put his 2013 Tesla P85 Model S up against his 1968 Pontiac Firebird 400 convertible and see how they’d compare. Yes, we love that the same guy owns these two diametrically opposed cars too.

The Tesla does manage to crank out some short, smokey burnouts, but it required that he had to turn off traction control, deactivate various safety systems and even yank a fuse that ended up disabling both his power steering and power brakes too.

Both cars perform admirably thanks to the generous amounts of rear wheel-drive torque, though we’re not sure if we could ever get used to the nearly silent burnouts of an electric motor. What do you think?