I just drove the $78,000 high-performance Model 3 — here's why it's my new favorite Tesla (TSLA)

Tesla Model P3D

The Model 3 Performance has two motors and can go from 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds, with a top speed of 155 mph.
A "base" Performance version can be ordered for $64,000; the car I sampled was fully loaded, at $78,000.
I drove the Model 3 Performance for only about an hour, in less-than-ideal Manhattan conditions, but my overall impression was that the car is completely brilliant.

Here's the bottom line: I really, really, really liked the Tesla Model 3 when I drove it earlier this year — but I like the high-performance version much, much better.

Earlier this year, I took my first proper spin behind the wheel of the Tesla Model 3, perhaps the most anticipated car in the history of the automobile industry. I had driven the Model 3 for about 15 minutes when it was launched in July of 2017, and I was impressed. The few hours that Business Insider had with the well-equipped $57,500 rear-wheel-drive version of the vehicle reinforced all my initial enthusiasms.

That was just the appetizer, however. The entrée arrived this week: the $78,000 high-performance, dual-motor, all-wheel-drive Model 3. Tesla has labeled its previous cars in this category with a "P" (for performance) and a "D" (for dual-motor), along with the kilowatt-hour designation of the battery. Thus, the high-performance AWD Model S with the biggest battery available in the P100D.

Not so with the Model 3. The trim I sampled doesn't have Model 3 badging at all and get just a "Dual Motor" label on the rear. Tesla refers to it as the Model 3 Performance.

I had a few complaints about the Model 3, but they've faded with time. And my main beef with what I've been calling the P3D was with the elevated pricing. But Tesla has adjusted it, so that a "base" P3D can be had for $64,000. If you take a pass on some of the upgrades, you get a considerably better driving experience than what the tricked-out RWD Model 3 offers — for less than $10,000 extra.

The P3D is an important evolution of the Model 3 for Tesla, which isn't currently manufacturing the no-frills $35,000 version of the car (that vehicle will have a smaller battery than the Model 3's now on sale, as well as a more bare-bones interior). Tesla needs revenue, and the pricey P3D will bring it in. Besides, the company's history is that buyers tend to flock to its more expensive cars, at least initially.

Tesla has been letting the Model 3 Performance out of the pen for some auto reviewers to sample, and the car finally made its way to New York City, where Tesla let us drive around in it for about an hour.

This is how it went:

FOLLOW US: On Facebook for more car and transportation content!

Tesla brought the Model 3 Performance Dual-Motor to our office in the Wall Street area.

The naming is as I already indicted, new for Tesla. I've been calling the Performance trim level of the Model 3 the "P3D," but Tesla simply refers to it as "Performance." The base price for this car is $64,000 (versus the $78,000 that was originally announced), and Tesla says that if you order one now, you'll get your vehicle in two-to-four months.

The other currently available versions of the Model 3 both have the same long-range battery as the Performance trim, good for 310 miles on a single charge. They only come with a Premium interior. The rear-wheel-drive starts at $49,000; and the dual-motor, all-wheel drive takes that to $54,000.

Just to get the specs out of the way, the RWD does 0-60 mph in about 5 seconds, with a top speed of 140 mph; and the dual-motor clocks the same 0-60 mph run in 4.5 seconds, topping out at 145.

The Performance spec shaves a full second off the 0-60 mph sprint — 3.5 seconds — and raises the top speed to 155 mph, which of course is just shy of 100 mph faster than the legal speed limit in much of the USA.

The Model 3 Performance doesn't look outwardly any different from the Premium-spec Model 3 we sampled earlier this year. Same color, in fact: "Red Multi-Coat," a $2,000 extra.

We genuinely enjoyed the Model 3 once we got to drive it around for a few hours. At the time, I'd say I tempered my enthusiasm, because of the car's sheer new-ness.

Here's what I thought:

When you get down to it, the Model 3, from a car company that's just 15 years old, is an awful lot of car for the price. Radically different propulsion, tech galore, high-caliber semi-self-driving. But we derived such joy from taking the wheel that we didn't much want to give it back. Some of that might be because driving an all-electric car is different from driving a gas car.

But much of it can be attributed to the Model 3 being simply good. And as Tesla improves it in the coming years, truly great isn't out of the question.

The obvious question is, "Does the Performance Model 3 bring Tesla closer to the that goal line of greatness?"

See the rest of the story at Business Insider