Model S First Drive Reviews

[bonnie]

Love this review. He captured the feel.

 

[CapitalistOppressor]

I love how he's angling to get to keep one for three months. Good review though.

Elon should let him. Dude paid up on his $1,000 bet and gave a great review

 

[NigelM]

Already over here: Model-S-First-Drive-Reviews

Merge?

 

[bonnie]

Already over here: Model-S-First-Drive-Reviews

Merge?

Merged. Thanks, Nigel. You make it easy for me.

 

[brianman]

Elon should let him. Dude paid up on his $1,000 bet and gave a great review

Ok. Well if that's the bar...

I bet Elon $2,000 that he won't let me buy Founder #35.

It might be worth losing my $10,000 Sig deposit to get a founder's vehicle before the SSL folks.


In all seriousness, his $1,000 isn't special compared to the $5,000 and $40,000 reservation cost.

Also, his $1k is a reminder of his lack of faith in Tesla. You would be rewarding the wrong behavior.

 

[W8MM]

Unfortunately, in a car like a Lambo, other people can hear you being stupid for miles around. At full tilt, those cars are like civil-defense sirens, if civil-defense sirens alerted you to the presence of awful men in gold watches and track suits. It's embarrassing.​

But in the dreamily quiet Tesla Model S, when you hit fast-forward, the film speeds up but the soundtrack doesn't really get much louder. The pitch of the electric whine goes up, the suspension sinks down, but compared with an internal-combustion sports car—quaint thing that it is now—this car slips silently as a dagger into triple-digit speed. You can cut traffic to bits in this thing and never draw the jealous ire of your fellow motorists."​

He absolutely gets it!


​

 

[brianman]

when you hit fast-forward, the film speeds up but the soundtrack doesn't really get much louder

I liked this analogy, too.

 

[favo]

2012 Tesla Model S Signature Performance Review: I Am Silent, Hear Me Roar | Rumble Seat by Dan Neil - WSJ.com

New tidbits?

[...] battery pack (85 kWh) accounts for about 30% of the significant total vehicle weight, 4,642 pounds.

That would make the battery pack about 1400 lbs.

The lateral lower [front] grille intakes feature active shutters to close when extra cooling isn't needed.

 

[vfx]

The lateral lower [front] grille intakes feature active shutters to close when extra cooling isn't needed.

We were told that at the LA drive. It's a big reason the cd is so low.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

We were told that at the LA drive. It's a big reason the cd is so low.

Almost like the Formula 1 DRS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_reduction_system) that has such things opening and closing in the rear wing!

 

[AnOutsider]

Coverage of Dan Neil's piece: Tesla's Model S Review - Business Insider

 

[ferrarimanf355]

This just in: Jalopnik still butthurt over not getting a test drive. Film at 11.

 

[vfx]

On the video Dan says, "In this car you look like a genius because it was built by one."

 

[Beavis]

He is getting really whiny. I asked GB about the 10 minute test drives for the press and he gave the obvious explanation. Limited number of cars to drive, a long reservation list, and the commitment to deliver 5,000 by the end of the year means the press won't get the car for a week to evaluate it. Matt needs to get over the thought that Tesla needs the press.

 

[Lyon]

This just in: Jalopnik still butthurt over not getting a test drive. Film at 11.

Whine, whine, whine, snivel, snivel, snivel, mis-quote, mis-quote, mis-quote.

Pretty much a typical Jalopnik article.

 

[dsm363]

Whine, whine, whine, snivel, snivel, snivel, mis-quote, mis-quote, mis-quote.

Pretty much a typical Jalopnik article.

Yeah. That guy is in no way a journalist. Maybe that's why Tesla doesn't treat him that way.

 

[MikeK]

The entire Gawker media constellation is rife with shoddy and sometimes sleazy behavior. This is no surprise.

 

[CapitalistOppressor]

New tidbits?


That would make the battery pack about 1400 lbs.

Yes, I took notice of that too. Not sure how much I believe it yet. Based on Roadster 990lb pack with 56kWh an 85kWh pack would weigh ~1,500lbs, making Model S battery ~92% the size of an equivalent Roadster battery by weight. Thats a super crude calculation though since a fair portion of the weight is supporting structure, wiring, cooling, etc.

With claims floating around that energy density of the individual cells has increased by ~40% it makes me think that Tesla has either invested a lot of weight in additional overhead, density hasn't increased as much as expected, or that the ~30% estimate is very loose. Any of those explanations seem possible. The total weight of the car certainly ended up higher than I expected.

 

[Jason S]

The casing is part of the stiffness of the car, so that should account for some of the additional weight.

Other than that, the energy density claims tends to be with latest technology and I imagine it is cheaper to go with previous generation technology. Also the supply chain will be easier to manage.

 

[Arnold Panz]

I just got through my "dead tree" version of the WSJ, and couldn't believe the coverage of the Dan Neil review. Check this out:

That's the front page of the Off Duty section (third section of the weekend Journal), and it's continued on page 2 of that section (pic below). I've been reading the WSJ for many years, and have never seen a car review on the front page -- it's usually buried way in the back, and only with black and white pictures. This is fantastic coverage for Tesla, and targeted squarely at the type of people they're hoping to attract to give the car a look.