Recent content by chrisn

I wouldn't necessarily trust the UI if you don't feel a change in your "butt dyno." Might be interesting for someone to download an iPhone app to measure acceleration runs and see if it shows evidence of gradual power fall-off and/or step-function limiting. I have a TraqMate, but some of the...

Do I read you correctly that you see/feel a power drop simply from driving aggressively in the 100 mph range? And that a single squirt to ~120mph triggers a limit? If true, this is really disappointing.

I read with interest Cottonwood's post from November 2012: Model S vs Roadster on the Track I am curious if anyone else has done fast laps in the Model S and has newer/other data to report. Both in terms of general track ability and power-reduced/thermal protect behavior.

Awesome as proof of concept, and "free" is a nice price for fuel. On the other hand, in three days you made six stops totaling 4.5 hours (not including non-charging "overhead" time of maybe another 30-45 mins) versus an ICE car where you would have made three stops and could have refueled fully...

None of these things pencil out as proof-of-convents (and aren't intended to), but this seems particularly dumb. I know that San Jose and Oakland airport have incentives (mandates?) for CNG cabs-- and virtually all cabs picking up form those airports are CNG. For fleet applications, I think...

Not exactly. Launch control requies you to press the button to turn off stability control, but it would be more accurate to think of launch control using stability control in "automatic mode" and not "off." The whole point is that it modulates the throttle and clutch to provide optimal 0-60...

Although I agree with the conclusion about where the MSP has the best chances, I disagree abut why. The new M5' with its advanced turbo chargers and fancy dual cutch gear box, has very very flat TQ over a VERY broad range of engine and wheel speeds (accounting for gear box) and the penalty to...

Well, if you are talking about spending $$$ to improve performance, nothing beats turbo charged cars like the M5. Power is basically software-defined. Most turbo cars can be tuned to add 10% more power with software only. When performance parts become available, I expect at least 20% gains...

1. Novelty. The new new thing is always cool. Being the first kid to have one is cooler. 2. Smooth delivery of significant power from a standing start without breaking a sweat. 3. Quiet. Always composed and quiet. (Although road/wind/tire noise dominates when cruising beyond 60MPH, so at...

Everyone has to eat. My dinner bet stands. In practice, I think "reaction time" will be as big a factor, and it is hard to measure/compare that. If we use logger data to "start" when each car begins to accelerate, that might not be fair to the MSP (as it would make the shift time "free" to...

My mistake. I knew they used those on Roadster, but I wrongly assumed they did a bespoke cell/pack for the MSP. You have convinced me that performance potential of MSP falls more with SOC than an R/C car. And i get that that is by design and for real-world reasons. My point still stands that...

The OP and early commenters framed the central Q as: which is faster around the track? I have not tried to redefine that question. I have played all with various excuses/explanations, but have not tried to dodge the central question. I'm the one providing real world data. I...

Dude, those are laptop/flashlight batteries and charts have auto-fit origins. Use a 0,0 origin and they will be flatter-- especially cells engineered to be high discharge cells (like an R/C pack and presumably the new Tesla batteries). Laws of physics/chemistry of dictate that they not...

I actually am an R/C enthusiast and do know how batteries work. With LiPos, even under heavy load, the voltage during discharge is very flat (voltage versus SOC). Obviously, voltage drops more with more load, but at heavy loads (I am looking at 25C curves) this drop is approximately constant...

Really? Really? Again with the apologist/fanboy stuff. Trailering a track car/racecar to the track is not unusual, but trailering a stock sedan to the track is laughable. I have never seen it. Have you? What would be the point? I've seen stock show/shine Ferraris roll out of trailers, but...