Tesla's Model S takes on the Summernats
We turn up at the holy grail of internal combustion in an electric car.
As athletes from 206 countries descend on Rio De Janeiro to find out who is the best in the world in 306 events, we have decided to see which cars would win gold, silver and bronze if they competed in some of the events on offer.
The 100 metre sprint is quite possibly the marquee event of Olympic Games and one of the key indicators for a car's performance is its ability to sprint from 0-100km/h in just a few seconds. While the results will end in a dead heat, we'll pick the three best of the cars on sale in Australia today.
Gold medal - Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 2.9 seconds
The Lamborghini Aventador, the Italian brand's ultimate supercar, first went on sale sale locally towards the end of 2011, but it still holds the title of Australia's fastest car.
The motoring world's equivalent of Usain Bolt is powered by a staggeringly big 6.5-litre V12 that produces 515kW and 690Nm of torque is enough for it to sprint from 0-100km/h in just 2.9 seconds.
The all-wheel drive dynamo's structure is made entirely of carbon fibre to help increase rigidity with the aim of making the car as fast as possible, it also features F1-style suspension and monstrous carbon-ceramic brakes with enough stopping power to hold back a raging bull.
However, all this comes at a cost, with the price starting from more than $750,000 before on-road costs.
Silver medal - 911 Turbo S with Sports Chrono in 2.9 seconds
The Porsche 911 Turbo S has been the pinnacle of sports cars for a long time, its ability to stay at the top of its game for decades has made it the benchmark in many regards, including straight line acceleration.
While its claimed 0-100km/h time of 2.9 seconds is the same as the Aventador, we've placed it in the silver medal position because it needs the addition of Sports Chrono Package, which helps the Turbo accelerate faster, to reach that time. Without the Sports Chrono pack it is still timed at a mentally fast 3.0 seconds.
Porsche leverages its twin-turbo 3.8-litre flat six to produce 427kW and 700Nm, with an extra 50Nm available during overboost.
While it is a photo finish the Lamborghini just pips the 911 Turbo S at the post.
Bronze medal - Tesla P90D with Ludicrous Mode in 3.0 seconds
The Bronze medal could have gone to quite a few cars including the Ferrari 488 and McLaren 650S to name a few, we've picked the Tesla Model S P90D with Ludicrous Mode to round out the competition.
While all are insanely fast, and the Tesla needs an option to reach that speed, it's a point of difference to the regular large displacement combustion engines that dominate the high speed circuit.
Its twin electric motors - one located over each axle - combined with a 90kWh battery produce a combined 568kW and a whopping 967Nm all delivered instantaneously.
Its acceleration cannot be denied, Drive recently took the Tesla P90D to Summernats to compete in the Go to Whoa, where it recorded the fastest acceleration time out of all the modified and stock cars that competed.
What makes it more impressive is that it is a full-sized luxury sedan, with all the latest mod-cons and weighs a lot more than your regular carbon fibre-clad supercar, and all the while producing zero emission.
This is all good enough for the Bronze medal in the Motoring Summer Games's 100km/h sprint.
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