RE: Tesla Roadster: 'Quickest car in the world'

[Salamura]

This sounds like it will be a one-trick pony. To be able to go the claimed mileage and deliver the quoted performance it mush have a gazillion batteries and be really heavy, so I can't imagine it being particularly involving to drive. Btw, I suspect that if you do a few launches the battery will be all but depleted.

Sine Metu said:

Musk has already achieved his initial goal which was to demonstrate that electric cars were viable.

He has now just completely and utterly humiliated the engineers at Porsche (VW), Ferrari, Bugatti (VW), McLaren, Lamborghini (VW) whoever. Brands that existed purely for the purpose of seting new boundaries, of pushing the envelope, of breaking records, of acheiving headline speeds, of winning top trumps, all trumped in one move. A small start up just slapped them about the place. They all look a bit absurd today.

Do they though? Any of the above will be better built, more reliable, much, much more involving to drive, with a lot more character and soul, and just as quick in the real world.

[J4CKO]

RamboLambo said:

Sadly it will be where the future lies along with self driving vehicles - Jonny Cabs

I might be a dinosaur but long live the Normally aspirated engine like that in the V10 Huracan Performante. The noise that things make will be more thrilling than a 1.9s 0 - 60 time in any EV

Indeed, but its just like the bloke in 1900 saying how much he loves horses and these new fangled automobiles will never catch on as you cant feed them sugar lumps and have them kick you in the head.

[Ares]

EricE said:

Ares said:

Game changer and incredible value.

If he even gets a prototype up and running, matching his claims, the supercar world will st themselves.

They offered prototype test drives to the audience at the reveal.

https://youtu.be/aXWfL-1ieuE?t=3395

If it matches the rest of claims then, I hope Northern Italian sewers are ready

[Gandahar]

J4CKO said:

RamboLambo said:

Sadly it will be where the future lies along with self driving vehicles - Jonny Cabs

I might be a dinosaur but long live the Normally aspirated engine like that in the V10 Huracan Performante. The noise that things make will be more thrilling than a 1.9s 0 - 60 time in any EV

Indeed, but its just like the bloke in 1900 saying how much he loves horses and these new fangled automobiles will never catch on as you cant feed them sugar lumps and have them kick you in the head.

Yeah but if most cars go electric we will not have enough capacity to charge them all in the UK unless we go fusion. Meanwhile oil products become dirt cheap as little demand. The Williams Clio will be worth more than a Di Vinci painting ... maybe.

[Ares]

RumbleOfThunder said:

Apple is the most valuable company in the world and will be the first in history to break through the $1tn barrier. You being sour because their products are popular doesn't make the brand any less remarkable.

It just brings out irrational hatred in the weak.

[AW111]

Fast Bug said:

Wouldn't Tesla be better off getting the Model 3 out the door and resolving build quality issues first?

That's a different issue & a different department.
This is an R&D exercise - I doubt the R&D engineers have anything much to do with production and build issues, so why not have them woek on the next model?

[foxbody-87]

I find myself more interested in the Tesla Semi concept, which is a tractor unit that can supposedly do 0-60 in 5 seconds (!) and travel 400 miles on a charge. I think Cummins have also released a similar concept model.

[Ares]

J4CKO said:

Indeed, but its just like the bloke in 1900 saying how much he loves horses and these new fangled automobiles will never catch on as you cant feed them sugar lumps and have them kick you in the head.

Post of the day!

[jhonn]

GTEYE said:

But.....is this actually too fast? In isolation I'm sure its fine, but how well will it mix with public roads and other road users?

Not so sure.

I remember people saying something similar when the Lotus Carlton came out in 1990, cries of 'It's too fast' 'Ban it!' etc - as I recall there was no increase in accidents or deaths.

Tesla/traditional ICE is analogous to Quartz/mechanical watches in my opinion - there will always be a market for those that want the latest technology vs those who appreciate fine mechanical things.

I can see the advantage and uses of both, but at heart I'll always be a petrolhead; this car is interesting but I've no real desire to own one.

[ARFUR_DAILY]

RumbleOfThunder said:

Apple is the most valuable company in the world and will be the first in history to break through the $1tn barrier. You being sour because their products are popular doesn't make the brand any less remarkable.

Let's hope Apple never venture into the automotive business. Their cars would only work with AppleTyres, AppleFuel and you'd only be able to drive to people's houses that also own an AppleCar

[anonymous-user]

Salamura said:

Btw, I suspect that if you do a few launches the battery will be all but depleted.

You "suspect", really? Well guess what, you are wrong, because if you build an EV capable of huge acceleration then, guess what, it can do huge deccel as well (emachines don't care which way they spin, or which way the current is flowing through them). So, at the end of you 1/4mile, you lift off and recover most of the KE you put into the car to accelerate it. All you loose is the energy lost to drag, and as the run is only 1/4 mile, that's really pretty small.

This is "fact" and if you watch the launch night drive videos you can see the demo fleet doing 1/4 after 1/4 after quarter all night long.


(the tricky bit is actually the thermal management of the batteries and motors during such repetitive high load runs (you'll notice the circuit for the demo lap included driving a decent distance over to the acceleration lane, well that's not be accident, or for health and safety, that's simply to allow the powertrain to cool after each run)

[Dave Hedgehog]

jhonn said:

I remember people saying something similar when the Lotus Carlton came out in 1990, cries of 'It's too fast' 'Ban it!' etc - as I recall there was no increase in accidents or deaths.

because they only sold 17 and they spent half their initial lives broken down like every other vauxhall of that era

[Ares]

Tesla's popularity is increasing exponentially. More and more on the road in the UK, and the US are a couple of years ahead still.

Manufacturers and EV deniers can find fault all they like, but the time to sit up and take Tesla seriously has long gone.

[ZesPak]

Ares said:

It just brings out irrational hatred in the weak.

Yes
Steve Jobs = Elon Musk

Leithen said:

If you have ever watched both Jobs and Musk on stage, there's no comparison. Jobs was far more assured and accomplished on stage than Musk has ever been.

Completely true. Basically also my point, as Jobs was there because he knows how to bring products to people and his showmanship on stage. Musk is there despite that.

They are two completely different persons.
And also, to me, showing the world a car that trumps all the other cars is on another level than showing a slightly better electronic device than the previous person.

Gandahar said:

Yeah but if most cars go electric we will not have enough capacity to charge them all in the UK unless we go fusion. Meanwhile oil products become dirt cheap as little demand. The Williams Clio will be worth more than a Di Vinci painting ... maybe.

Whilst true, imagine the ridiculous lengths we go through getting a couple of litres of oil out of the ocean into our pumps.
The challenge of a higher capacity electric grid pales in comparison.

NJJ said:

But what happens to Tesla once EVs are everywhere, what will make a Tesla, a Tesla? They have pushed the envelope tech-wise and have embarrassed the legacy car makers, but take away the current wow factor and what else is left? Not enough to make them desirable in my opinion once EVs by their prestige contemporaries hit the market. However, maybe at that stage they will have moved the game on again!

We'll seen when Porsche launches it's Model S rival.
Maybe it'll be there before there's a new Model S!

Edited by ZesPak on Friday 17th November 12:56

[hyphen]

B17NNS said:

1.9 seconds. The man is utterly bonkers. Incredible stuff.

Not really,

Thorpe Parke has a rollercoaster that does 0-80 mph in 1.8 seconds. And they launched that in 2009 or something

[kambites]

Ares said:

Tesla's popularity is increasing exponentially. More and more on the road in the UK, and the US are a couple of years ahead still.

Manufacturers and EV deniers can find fault all they like, but the time to sit up and take Tesla seriously has long gone.

I don't think anyone but the most rabid anti-EV people will deny that Tesla have had an enormous impact on the market. The question of whether they can (or even want to) survive as a car company is more complex though.

[suffolk009]

As somebody pointed out, that impressive range will not be available if you do a couple of launches. It probably won't be available if you drive at anything more than 55mph.

I don't understand the dislike for Musk - he strikes me as no more egotistical or ungrounded or selfcentred than any other Silicon Valley billionaire.

If I had £200k to buy a sportscar I'd buy a McLaren everyday of the week. One of these maybe if I had a 20 car garage.

Oh, and it's a bloody Targa not a Roadster.

And WTF is "Gone To Plaid" even supposed to mean.

[Cold]

ARFUR_DAILY said:

RumbleOfThunder said:

Apple is the most valuable company in the world and will be the first in history to break through the $1tn barrier. You being sour because their products are popular doesn't make the brand any less remarkable.

Let's hope Apple never venture into the automotive business. Their cars would only work with AppleTyres, AppleFuel and you'd only be able to drive to people's houses that also own an AppleCar

Then it will automatically download a software update to fix bugs and overnight will become sluggish, power hungry and crash a lot. Mind you, this will mean that many owners will then upgrade to the newer version thus ensuring the manufacturer has a ready made replacement market.

[Blackpuddin]

unpc said:

Now that performance of EVs has almost totally eclipsed that of ICE powered stuff I would be good if manufacturers of ICE powered stuff gave up on the crazy bhp arms race and focused on making stuff involving to drive again.

Perhaps it would be even more interesting if EV manufacturers had a look at giving their vehicles more aural character. A whine overlaid by tyre and suspension noise is not massively inspiring. You'd think that in the pantheon of engineering challenges this would be a relatively easy one to sort out.

[kambites]

suffolk009 said:

As somebody pointed out, that impressive range will not be available if you do a couple of launches.

I think it'll take rather than than "a couple of launches" to deplete a 200kwh battery.