Elon races his neighbor's Corvette on the street

[TEG]

Clips: Elon Musk's Tesla caught on video smoking Scoble and Calacanis

Hanging out with a fast company (emphasis on fast) « Scobleizer — Tech geek blogger

(come on guys... rent a track!)

Looks like P1 is in Southern California now.

I wonder if he has Solar Panels to power the house and the Roadster.
(With the "Solar City" tie in I would hope so)

 

[TEG]

During the video, Elon says "This particular car has two speeds".

I gather he is going to drive with "full performance", but expects that the transmission may fail after a few thousand miles of use.

 

[TEG]

Another quote from the video:
"Car & Driver said it had the highest 30 to 70 mile and hour acceleration of any car they ever tested"

Nitpick time:

When I looked at the Car & Driver article it says "Our top-gear acceleration measured 2.3 seconds for the 30-to-50- and 50-to-70-mph intervals. The Tesla’s 4.6-second total for the two tests bests that of a Mercedes-Benz CLK63 AMG Black Series, which was our 2007 champion in this measure of instant responsiveness."

First off, the article didn't say "best ever", but rather "bests the 2007 champion".
More importantly one needs to keep in mind the keyword "top-gear" acceleration. The Tesla Roadster has a relatively modest top speed compared to many of the other cars they test, so "top gear" on the Roadster isn't RPM restricting the motor like it would for their other test cars. If they tested the competitors in say 3rd or 4th gear (instead of 5th or 6th) the 30-70 times could be much quicker.

This site says the McLaren F1 could do 30-70 in a little over 2 seconds (if not stuck in top-gear...)

Here they say that the Ultima GTR does 30-70 in 1.8 seconds.

 

[Iz]

These guys are having too much fun :biggrin:

 

[mike]

Unfortuantly these clips don't seem to want to buffer, rather they just stream live. I'm not sure if there is a bandwidth issue on their side or on mine, but I get about 5 seconds of video then a 10 second pause.

Anyone know of a better source for these videos? Should the Qik player be buffering and it is just acting funny for me?

Thanks!
Mike

 

[TEG]

Yeah, I suffered through the same stop/start playback problems too.

 

[Kardax]

I would be thoroughly entertained by a future headline that reads "Tesla Chairman's License Revoked due to Reckless Driving". It probably won't happen, but it would be funny, and would help continue to dispel the myth about EVs being slow or boring

-Ryan

 

[TEG]

 

[vfx]

TEG wrote: "First off, the article didn't say "best ever", but rather "bests the 2007 champion"."

I thought the the whole "best ever tested" quote was told to Siry during the testing. He mentioned it before the article came out. So if it's not in print then it can't be quoted?

 

[TEG]

Whatever. Using the "top gear" metric really handicaps the other supercars that have outrageously high top speeds.

 

[Hunter]

Yeah, I agree...Darryl and Elon both are leaving out the "top gear" part that changes everything. And also, when I read Darryl quoting them he said they "thought" that it "might be" the fastest they had ever tested. Anyway, imagine running your gas car in fifth gear (or sixth if you've got one) at 30mph and then tell me this comparison isn't bunk. Shoot, it'd take all afternoon to go 30-70 that way in my car :redface:

 

[TEG]

Tesla: Electric roadster | USATODAY.com Video

"...30 to 70 mile acceleration ... that is faster than any car ever tested by Car & Driver magazine..."

Check out this discussion

If you leave the 911 Turbo S in top gear then it takes over 15 seconds to do 30-70...

When you look at 911 Turbo S specs it is impressive with 0-60 in about 4s, 450hp, etc. But it is geared to go 190MPH+ so of course it is going to be a slug in top gear. It is way out of the powerband at 30mph in top gear.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Tesla: Electric roadster | USATODAY.com Video

"...30 to 70 mile acceleration ... that is faster than any car ever tested by Car & Driver magazine..."

Check out this discussion

If you leave the 911 Turbo S in top gear then it takes over 15 seconds to do 30-70...

When you look at 911 Turbo S specs it is impressive with 0-60 in about 4s, 450hp, etc. But it is geared to go 190MPH+ so of course it is going to be a slug in top gear. It is way out of the powerband at 30mph in top gear.

Okay after reading the discussion on the charger thread, I see how this 30 to 70 top gear acceleration really doesn't mean that much in performance because these cars are geared differently in top speed. It's getting a little out of hand, dropping that figure as proof of performance. Maybe you should find some way to contact him or something. I can just see some of the Tesla haters using this against it.

 

[TEG]

I don't want to make too much of a big deal about it because the drivetrain 1.5 upgrade is likely to make the 30 to 70 acceleration even better than what he has now (and what the car mags tested). The fact is true that in "real world" driving situations the Roadster is just always quick. You will never be caught stuck in the wrong gear!

 

[TEG]

I see lots of places where people are critical of Car & Driver always doing 30-70 tests in top gear only. For instance, check this one.

If you go beyond Car & Driver and look for other places which test in a "more optimal gear" you can find much better times.

http://www.iweb.btinernet.co.uk/dream_cars.htm

"
3.0 TVR Cerebra 4.5
3.2 TVR Tuscan Speed Six
3.8 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI Extreme
4.1 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI
4.3 BMW M3 (2001 Model)
"

 

[AGR]

When cars had a 3 speed or 4 speed manual transmission with direct in the top gear the 30 to 70 accleration test in top gear had some relevance. Especially for larger sedans with relatively big engines that could have ideally used an automatic transmission at that time.

One of the strong points of any electric car is the "instant torque" that is available, the top gear test is ideally suited for an electric car, compared to ICE cars with a 6 speed transmission with 2 overdrive gears.

 

[TEG]

Car and Driver forum debate:
Does top gear acceleration data serve any useful purpose? - Magazine Feedback - Car and Driver Forums

Corvette Z06 Car & Driver road test:
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 - Road Test / Muscle Cars / High Performance / Hot Lists / Reviews / Car and Driver - Car And Driver
"...
Zero to 60 mph: 3.6
Zero to 70 mph: 4.5
Top-gear acceleration,
30-50 mph: 12.9
50-70 mph: 10.6
..."

So Car and Driver says the Corvette Z06 does Top Gear 30-70 in 23.5 seconds compared to 4.6 seconds for the Roadster. Doesn't that seem like an absurd statistics. Would a Z06 driver really put their car in 6th gear and leave it there all the way from 30 to 70 MPH?!

The gearing chart shows that the Z06 can get to 88 mph in 2nd gear. Doing 30-70 all in 2nd gear in the Z06 is probably wickedly quick. The 0.74 overdrive 5th gear is for top speed (198MPH @ 6500RPM), and their 0.50 overdrive 6th gear is really just for fuel economy. It would only be turning the engine at 1125 RPMs at 50MPH (not much above idle speed).

When they actually shift the Z06, Car & Driver said you can get from 0 to 70 quicker than a Tesla can get from 30 to 70...