It’s foretold that in the coming electric cataclysm, drifting will be pushed into extinction. Gone the way of the giant ground sloth Megatherium. Life, however, always finds a way and those hoons who’ve embraced electricity show a future rife with tire smoke, as proven by YouTuber Drifts N’ Lifts and a very sideways Tesla Model 3.
First and foremost, Tesla makes it very difficult to drift your car. Unlike the company’s other touch-screen party tricks, turning off traction and stability control requires halting its OTA data link and then pulling the ABS fuse in the right front wheel well. This is not something we recommend.
As for actual drifting, when the YouTuber finally gets behind the wheel, the Tesla Model 3 does an admirable job at lighting up its rear tires and getting itself sideways. In an electric whir, and painful tire screeches, the Model 3 might as well be a slightly heavier Camaro or 240SX, though transitions seem more difficult than those lighter drift cars.
And it may not feature the aural delights of V8s, turbocharged inline 6s, or the twin-supercharged fire of a Ferrari V12, but the Model 3’s electric motors more than makes up for it in instantaneous torque, as the YouTubers—and the big donuts and drifts—prove. These are still the early days of electric drifting where enthusiasts are still working out the kinks, though there are some projects aimed at proving its viability that have us eagerly waiting for more information and video evidence.
What this drifting Tesla Model 3 video does is give us hope for the future. That we hoons won’t be relegated to the confines of a museum, our bones and shredded tires on display for generations to come and ogle, point, and laugh at our prehistoric enthusiasm. We’re still weirded out by the lack of engine noise but hot damn does sliding a Tesla look like fun.