Tesla had announced the “Track Mode” for its Model 3 electric sedan earlier this year and the company is now sending out an update for the car which enables this mode which will enable drivers to drift their electric car. What the software does is simply disable all traction control protection and repurpose the dual electric motors in the Performance variants to improve cornering and enable drivers to drift.
The company reiterates on its blog that Track Mode is only meant to be used on closed autocross circuits and racetracks. The software allows for improved cornering and more fun drifting the car by precisely controlling whether the torque goes to the front or rear wheels. It also changes the balance of the car using the motors which is something that the stability control would normally interrupt to ensure that the car stays on the road.
Track Mode thus relies almost entirely on the front and rear motors to control the car’s rotation. So when the rotation is insufficient to the driver’s request, the system can order a rear biased torque to make the back end slip out and when the rotation gets excessive, a front biased torque can be ordered by the system to straighten up the car. A limited slip differential is simulated using the regenerative braking functionality and the brakes.
All Model 3 Performance variant owners can now access the Track Mode. Tesla says that it will continue improving this feature in subsequent updates.