With 835 horsepower and 908 lb-ft of torque, the first-generation quad-motor Rivian R1T and R1S have always been incredibly powerful and quick vehicles.
I know firsthand since I've owned both variants. So I was excited to get behind the wheel of the Gen 2 R1 vehicles, particularly the new quad-motor variant, to see how noticeable the extra 190 hp and 290 lb-ft of torque was. It was, well, definitely noticeable.
The extra power comes from several enhancements, but mostly because Rivian is replacing the original water-cooled Bosch-sourced motors with its own oil-cooled "Enduro" motors, which are manufactured at Rivian's plant in Normal, Illinois.
Rivian's new R1 vehicles now come in four different powertrain configurations: dual-motor, Dual-Motor Performance, Tri-Motor, and Quad-Motor. Power output varies from 533 hp and 610 lb-ft of torque in the Dual-Motor base models to 1,025 hp and 1,198 lb-ft of pavement-punishing power in the top-of-the-line Quad-Motor variant.
Rivian recently invited a small group of journalists to get a feel for the power of the new Quad-Motor R1S & R1T at the Pacific Raceway in Kent, Washington. I had the opportunity to pilot an R1T and an R1S for 0-60 test runs and also quarter-mile races against the other journalists - yeah, this job certainly doesn't suck!
Rivian prepped the track with traction glue and had a tire warmer on hand to warm up the rubber before we started the runs, as the outside temperature was in the low 70s when we began.
We started out taking turns in each vehicle for the 0-60 mph runs and I managed to hit the mark in 2.98 seconds in the R1T and 3.13 seconds in the R1S. Rivian claims the R1T can achieve the goal in under 2.5 seconds in ideal conditions. We all had to drive with a Rivian representative in the vehicles, so that added about 170 lbs of unnecessary weight.
Also, since we were running the two vehicles nonstop, I didn't expect to see the perfect time, as the battery SOC wasn't optimal when my turn came up. Still, breaking three seconds in a 0-60 run is impressive.
As for the quarter-mile runs, I did 11.28 seconds in the R1S and 10.81 in the R1T. That was the first time I had ever broken into the 10-seconds in a quarter-mile run on a track, and I've driven many pretty fast cars.
The 0 to 100 mph times were equally impressive as both the R1T and R1S accomplished the feat in under 7 seconds. It wasn't too long ago when hitting 60 mph in under 7 seconds meant you had a really fast car.
Electrification has allowed car manufacturers to push the limits of acceleration way beyond what was considered possible with combustion vehicles. The new R1 vehicles will smoke any stock combustion pickup truck or SUV on the dragstrip, including the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT, the Lamborghini Urus, the Hennessey Ford F-150 Venom 775, and the Jeep Grand SRT Cherokee Trackhawk; all of 'em.
Do we need this kind of performance from 7-seat, family-hauling, soccer mom mobiles? Certainly not. But life isn't only about what you need, what you want is way more important - and fun.
