I had come to the conclusion that the Roadster was a carefully engineered "balancing act" designed to give optimal 0-60 in 1st gear, and then 2nd gear would be used to go right to redline at top speed ( > 130mph )
Recent developments have changed the "balance equation". Apparently the original 13,500 RPM redline was a bit too much for eMotor durability, so they dropped it down to 13,000 RPM max. That seems to have reduced the top speed closer to 125 MPH now. I also wonder if it causes one to need to shift out of 1st sooner, so perhaps you can't quite make it to 60MPH all in first anymore.
Having to do a shift could really cut into your 0-60 times, so reports of ~3.8s 0-60 even with the latest specs are all the more amazing. With reduced redline, and more weight added they must have had to do something like create more torque (at lower RPMs) out of the eMotor to make up for the other changes.
In a way it is unfortunate the 0-60 is such a "benchmark". Cars have to be designed just to optimize that when in the real world, you are frequently needed acceleration between different speeds.
I wonder how the Roadster stacks up in 0-50 times now compared to other supercars.
Recent developments have changed the "balance equation". Apparently the original 13,500 RPM redline was a bit too much for eMotor durability, so they dropped it down to 13,000 RPM max. That seems to have reduced the top speed closer to 125 MPH now. I also wonder if it causes one to need to shift out of 1st sooner, so perhaps you can't quite make it to 60MPH all in first anymore.
Having to do a shift could really cut into your 0-60 times, so reports of ~3.8s 0-60 even with the latest specs are all the more amazing. With reduced redline, and more weight added they must have had to do something like create more torque (at lower RPMs) out of the eMotor to make up for the other changes.
In a way it is unfortunate the 0-60 is such a "benchmark". Cars have to be designed just to optimize that when in the real world, you are frequently needed acceleration between different speeds.
I wonder how the Roadster stacks up in 0-50 times now compared to other supercars.