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By Jonathan Crouch

Tesla has brought us a more serious kind of Model 3 Performance. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 49

The Model 3 is one of Tesla's most significant cars and here, we look at the top Performance version, which now gets smarter look, an upgraded interior and considerably sharper handling. If your mid-sized executive EV saloon needs to be seriously sporting, then it's a car you can't ignore.

Backgroundword count: 247

You might find it quite a new experience; trying a full-EV that can really handle. Other zero emission battery models - including larger Teslas - go very fast when you stamp down your right foot and manage not to lurch about too much through the bends because of the low-down centrally-mounted placement of their battery packs. But as for cornering finesse, well forget it. There's a reason why most volume EVs designed to date have been either compact hatches or SUVs, market segments full of buyers with little enthusiasm for throwing their cars about. Few of the brands involved have yet dared to make an EV sports saloon - but Tesla's been selling one since 2019, this car, the Model 3 Performance. Five years on, this design was updated to create the car we look at here. The US brand is largely run by 'visionaries' who seem to prefer a future in which their owners weren't imposed upon to actually drive their cars at all, as the company continues its relentless pursuit of autonomous driving technology. Yet Elon Musk and his team clearly like a challenge, especially one so clearly shirked by the established brands who can no longer ignore the threat this Californian auto maker poses. So heads were hunted, test tracks were pounded and budgets broken in order to create the kind of Model 3 that would make competitors - and their buyers - sit up and take notice. This 'Performance' variant is that car.

Driving Experienceword count: 312

Quite a lot's different with this updated Model 3 Performance, which now produces 453bhp. There's a more performance-tuned chassis, with increased stiffness for improved handling. Tesla has also added upgraded stabiliser bars, springs and bushings. For the first time in a Model 3, there's also adaptive damping. And the added carbon fibre spoiler is supposed to 'optimise lift balance and high speed stability'. This top AWD 'Performance' derivative shares the surprisingly sharp handling of more standard Model 3 variants. More positives are accrued by the impressively well modulated throttle - though it's still prone to lurch the car forward like a startled rabbit if used without due care. If you were to mash it into the bulkhead of this top 'Performance'-spec variant, you'd reach sixty mph in just 3.1s en route to 163mph. Think M3s and C63s - or just see this Tesla as Ferrari-fast. This 'Performance' derivative is further embellished by larger 20-inch wheels shod with bespoke tyres and Brembo competition-style brakes. Also significant is the inclusion of an improved latest generation version of the company's 'Track Mode' system, which allows the driver to customise stability levels, handling balance and regenerative braking. 'Track Mode' activates a kind of torque vectoring set-up that shuttles torque between front and rear axles to offer either more or less cornering rotation as needed. Plus there's a dramatic increase in regenerative braking to capture extra energy more efficiently, aiding a range figure rated at 328 miles. 'Track Mode' also works with what the brand calls a 'Vehicle Dynamics Controller' that eases back the normally quite intrusive traction and stability control systems so that they allow more slip - so much so in fact that pro-driver circuit corner drifting is even possible. This kind of driving can be rough on the car's cooling system, so 'Track Mode' recalibrates that to cool the car more aggressively and proactively.

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