Tesla Roadster: Tesla unveils 'fastest production car ever'

[RumbleOfThunder]

greggy50 said:

THe fact the Tesla Lorry does 0-60 in 5 seconds unloaded is arguably even more impressive...

It's bloody ridiculous actually. The days of me dusting a lorry at the lights to push into their lane is over.

[RumbleOfThunder]

Alex_225 said:

greggy50 said:

THe fact the Tesla Lorry does 0-60 in 5 seconds unloaded is arguably even more impressive...

That is definitely impressive.

At least with a Tesla lorry, when it pulls out to overtake you'll know it won't take 5 minutes to get past a normal lorry! haha

It will though that's the thing! It might have all the power in the world but as long as speed limiters are still in place, it creep past at 0.00001mph.

[Alex_225]

RumbleOfThunder said:

Alex_225 said:

greggy50 said:

THe fact the Tesla Lorry does 0-60 in 5 seconds unloaded is arguably even more impressive...

That is definitely impressive.

At least with a Tesla lorry, when it pulls out to overtake you'll know it won't take 5 minutes to get past a normal lorry! haha

It will though that's the thing! It might have all the power in the world but as long as speed limiters are still in place, it creep past at 0.00001mph.

Crap yeah, you're right. Damn it! haha

[CanAm]

kambites said:

The Evora isn't based on the Elise; it's an entirely different platform archetecture which happens to be made of the same material.

I think you're reading too much into the wording, they just mean it replaces the old Roadster in the same market segment. I don't think there's any indication that this will be based on anything Lotus.

I think you could be right. My original comment was slightly flippant and taken too literally.

[WestyCarl]

Fair play to Mr. Musk.

He made enough money with paypal to be able retire to a desert island. Instead he decided to make rockets that land on boats, the fastest accelerating 4 seater car, super tunnels, the largest battery factory in the world and now the fastest accelerating lorry the fastest accelerating sports car. Now doubt I have missed some of his other minor achievements along the way......

[Dave Hedgehog]

WestyCarl said:

Fair play to Mr. Musk.

He made enough money with paypal to be able retire to a desert island. Instead he decided to make rockets that land on boats, the fastest accelerating 4 seater car, super tunnels, the largest battery factory in the world and now the fastest accelerating lorry the fastest accelerating sports car. Now doubt I have missed some of his other minor achievements along the way......

and the worlds largest battery, which solves the problem of none linear power supply from solar / wind farms

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41469231

[98elise]

jkh112 said:

98elise said:

kambites said:

Assuming it's using the same cells as the other Teslas, the battery alone is going to weigh about a tonne. So realistically the car is going to be two... to record those figures it's going to need, what, 1500bhp plus?

I can't see it using the same cells. The model S battery takes up the whole floor pan and is about 4 inches thick. This is will be double the energy so would be double the size!

According to Wikipedia (so definitely true) the model S 85 kWh battery pack weighs 540kg.

I don't doubt it does weigh that, I just can't see it using the same cells as it would need to be double the physical size (so 8 inches thick if on the same floor pan)

It actually looks like quite a small car so I wonder where the hell a 200kWh battery is going to fit.

Edited by 98elise on Friday 17th November 10:06

[rxe]

Performance is clearly great. Range is good - probably more like 450 miles at real world speeds, but that's certainly good enough. As it stands, utterly irrelevant given the price. Delivering a Model 3 with the same range would be much more interesting.

[PhantomPH]

robemcdonald said:

I have been eyeing up a model 3 as my next car, but no longer have confidence it will be available in here by 2020 let alone the 2018 originally promised.

Which is one of the reasons I cancelled my order and got my deposit back.

I really am getting a strong Porsche Cayman vibe from this:

[culpz]

Looks gorgeous and that 0-60 figure is nothing short of ballistic! My only real gripe is the name. For a supercar, simply calling it the Tesla Roadster just makes it seem really watered-down and not very special. Come to think of it, most of Tesla's model names and variants don't really do them justice.

Of course, i'm nick-picking. Would be great to see some of these of the road.

[Tony427]

Oldest trick in the showmans book.

If you are in serious trouble distract the audience with something stupendous.

How's the model 3 production ramp up going ?

"Look Squirrel.

And another squirrel with a santa costume on. "

I bet you that there are some of his enthralled and evangelical congregation that have ordered a model 3 , with no delivery date likely in the near future, who cannot wait to put another deposit, this time $50,000, down on a supercar that isn't yet in production.

Just when he needs to get some more cash in, he gets a lovely $50m in deposits. Trouble is, it won't touch the sides.

Cheers,

Tony

[Robmarriott]

250mph is 402km/h, I wonder how quickly it would get there and to a dead stop again? Quicker than an Agera RS?

[DonkeyApple]

WestyCarl said:

Fair play to Mr. Musk.

He made enough money with paypal to be able retire to a desert island. Instead he decided to make rockets that land on boats, the fastest accelerating 4 seater car, super tunnels, the largest battery factory in the world and now the fastest accelerating lorry the fastest accelerating sports car. Now doubt I have missed some of his other minor achievements along the way......

Given old, angry blokes something to take their minds of the haemorrhoids. It shouldn't all fall on the shoulders of the BBC.

[Zoon]

Tony427 said:

Oldest trick in the showmans book.

If you are in serious trouble distract the audience with something stupendous.

How's the model 3 production ramp up going ?

"Look Squirrel.

And another squirrel with a santa costume on. "

I bet you that there are some of his enthralled and evangelical congregation that have ordered a model 3 , with no delivery date likely in the near future, who cannot wait to put another deposit, this time $50,000, down on a supercar that isn't yet in production.

Just when he needs to get some more cash in, he gets a lovely $50m in deposits. Trouble is, it won't touch the sides.

Cheers,

Tony

I don't think that car was designed in two months since the production issues of the Model 3 hit.

I am the first to admit they have no chance of getting UK cars here by next year, but I do think they will get there.

[Dave Hedgehog]

culpz said:

Looks gorgeous and that 0-60 figure is nothing short of ballistic! My only real gripe is the name. For a supercar, simply calling it the Tesla Roadster just makes it seem really watered-down and not very special. Come to think of it, most of Tesla's model names and variants don't really do them justice.

Of course, i'm nick-picking. Would be great to see some of these of the road.

its about brand building, every social media post, news review, youtube vid etc. reinforces the brand, the same reason apple sticks giant logo's on all their products

[Evanivitch]

ash73 said:

Sounds amazing.

And it will weigh as much as a Challenger tank.

It'll be interesting to see if it weighs more than a Buggatti Veyron (circa 2000kg).

Original Tesla Roadster was circa 1300kg with battery pack being significantly less capacity.

[DamnKraut]

Musk needs the headlines from his wannabe Ferrari and McLaren killer produced for the richest 0.001% (same as the other overweight and overdimensioned crap his company spews out) while wasting stloads of resources in the production process. Tesla has been hit with a wagon load of bad publicity recently and their only hope of ever becoming profitable, the Model 3, has been in development far too long.

The electric truck is actually an interesting suggestion given the usage profile (long distance at steady speed, overnight parking as drivers rest allows time for recharging, trucks polluting inner cities when delivering goods). Would like to know what MB, MAN, Scania, Renault etc are developing at the moment to counter this. Pretty sure they have not been idle in that regard as EV technology would actually make sense in buses and trucks.

[JD]

DonkeyApple said:

Given old, angry blokes something to take their minds of the haemorrhoids. It shouldn't all fall on the shoulders of the BBC.

Incredibly accurate!

He joins the rarified group:
Daytime running lights
Wind turbines
Audi indicators
BBC
And now Tesla.

Have I missed any?

[Blaster72]

Evanivitch said:

ash73 said:

Sounds amazing.

And it will weigh as much as a Challenger tank.

It'll be interesting to see if it weighs more than a Buggatti Veyron (circa 2000kg).

Original Tesla Roadster was circa 1300kg with battery pack being significantly less capacity.

The 85kwh Model S battery weighs 540kg, scaled up this would put the Roadster battery at around 1300kg. It could well come in at less than 2000kg total weight when finished.

I'd like to see if they've managed to crack the cooling issue, as I remember a Model S can't manage a single lap of the Nurburgring without overheating and going into a kind of reduced power mode. Drag racing is a neat trick but it'll need to handle well and lap well to keep up with the supercar crowd.

[RobM77]

Evanivitch said:

ash73 said:

Sounds amazing.

And it will weigh as much as a Challenger tank.

It'll be interesting to see if it weighs more than a Buggatti Veyron (circa 2000kg).

Original Tesla Roadster was circa 1300kg with battery pack being significantly less capacity.

This is the key point to me. Straight line figures alone do not make a sports car. Drag cars faster than Veyrons have existed for decades, but we don't drive them on the road or even anything remotely related. In my mind, a sports car should put a smile on your face and be respectably quick on a mountain road, B road and race track - without that it's not a sports car.