It was a matter of time before someone did it just because – but a video of a Chevy Volt going against a Tesla Model S Signature Performance in a quarter mile shows a predictable result.

The Volt was meant as a Prius beater, not a Viper beater – which, by the way, the Model S is, as it showed when it recently set the world’s fastest production quarter mile against a 1995 500-horsepower Viper.


Listen for the kid in the background at the end: "Dad, that one on the left was so quiet!"
 

As for the Volt vs. Viper beater, the Model S turned a respectable 12.562-second run at 108.34 mph compared to the Chevy’s time of 17.201 at 80.36 mph.

It wasn't really a race, more a demonstration run, and apparently it was all in good fun. The engine noise heard is of course from cars in proximity, not the two electric cars facing off.


 

Now, if someone can just post a drag race between the Rimac Concept One and a Model S, that could be entertaining indeed. The Model S was entered in the world record book by the National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA) for its speed feat, but in existence in another part of the world is the fringe-lunatic Rimac which has been called the fastest electric car in the world – estimated at north of 186 mph, not the 130 to which the Model S is limited.

Pitting the Rimac against a Tesla would of course be even more unfair, given the AWD Croation creation costs around 10-times more, and boasts 1,088 all-electric horsepower and 1,180 pound-feet of torque.

Even though it's long-legged enough to top 300 kph, Rimac says the no-excuses Concept One will sprint from 0-62 mph in 2.8 seconds which ought to help it on its way to completing a quarter mile in a respectable amount of time.

The company also says lateral acceleration from the torque-vectoring supercar rolling on Vredestein Ultrac Vorti tires is a C7 Stingray beating 1.4 g. (Do you believe this?) All-electric range from the 4,300-pound car's 91-kwh LiFePO4 pack is said to be a Model S-beating 373 miles (600 km) – (“realistic range” estimated at 310 miles (500 km). As for how they calculate "realistic," we'll have to see, but we’d expect using its speed potential overly much and achieving such range to be a case of one or the other, not both.


Only 88 units of the $980,000, full carbon fiber bodied Concept One are said to be planned for launch this year.
 

You can read more about that astonishing EV here , but this is not so much about the Rimac or even the Model S – rather, it’s about the Volt.

The Volt does a great job for what it is, and is not as out of reach as the Model S costing 2-3 times more. The Volt is a step closer to a mass market vehicle leading away from oil, and GM wasn't thinking of baking in bragging rights for cruise night.

But Volt fans often say they’d love to see a high-performance Voltec model, and GM is actually bringing one out that has such a posture, this being the Cadillac ELR.

So, if in place of the Volt on that drag strip against a Model S there happened to be an ELR, do you think the result would have been much different?

And, does it matter?