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Does Laguna Seca have an HPWC somewhere in the paddock area? It clearly needs one.

Was the Supercharger at Harris Ranch too far away from the hill climb?

Cmon, the bay area is practically next to Laguna Seca. :) With the help of 3 other TMC members I'm donating and installing a Clipper Creek CS-90 to a local track here in Ontario. There are probably at least 10X the # of Model S's in the bay area... You should be able to put a couple CS-90's there. Hell Tesla should put in a supercharger!
 
My fuzzy recollection is that Tesla did have superchargers at the ReFuel event. Maybe it was HPWCs.

Maybe this will clear the fuzz:
attachment.php?attachmentid=24954&d=1372818461.jpg


(All the charging infrastructure, including HPCs, extra NEMA14-50s, & SuperChargers were temporary for the event.)

The track does have some permanent 14-50s for RV hookups.

- - - Updated - - -

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/oneyear/alternative/1310_2013_tesla_model_s_p85_arrival/

2013-Tesla-Model-S-front-three-quarters-in-motion.jpg

2013-Tesla-Model-S-front-end-in-motion.jpg


http://www.motortrend.com/features/...st_drivers_car_contenders_part_1/viewall.html
 
Scott Evans
11 days ago

@AndrewDLee Adding the Model S isn't really feasible. Each vehicle must drive to Highway 198, which is in the middle of nowhere and not at all close to a Supercharger or even a basic wall outlet. By the time the Tesla arrived, it would be at half charge or worse, and it wouldn't last through 12 hot runs up and down the closed-road hill climb. It then wouldn't make it to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, either. Moreover, we did run the Model S at Mazda Raceway, as you can see in our first Long-Term Update. Discharging the battery quickly enough to race around a track creates a lot of heat and the car goes into a battery protection mode, cutting power output. At 1:50.79, it was just quicker than a Subaru BRZ.

That response is clearly a cop-out. There wasn't even a solitary 110V plug anywhere at the raceway?! Within 20 miles of the raceway, even?! And you can't tell me that some of the other cars in the challenge, with their big V12 or V8 ICEs, weren't running low on juice if they had to drive any distance and then run 12 hot laps!

No, if this were really an issue of range, they could have brought the Model S out beforehand, charged it on a 110V plug, and then made a note that they had to do so in the summary. They were probably just ashamed that their Car Of The Year had such a glaring weakness exposed in this test. Good for Tesla PR, bad for journalistic integrity.
 
No, if this were really an issue of range, they could have brought the Model S out beforehand, charged it on a 110V plug, and then made a note that they had to do so in the summary. They were probably just ashamed that their Car Of The Year had such a glaring weakness exposed in this test. Good for Tesla PR, bad for journalistic integrity.
It seems like they didn't even take it to the test. The footage in the video was probably from the last time they went to Laguna Seca. If it power reduces in less than a lap (and they knew the time wouldn't be that great beforehand), then that doesn't make for very exciting footage and probably isn't even in the consideration for this article. It's not like they take all the contenders for Car of the Year and test it; they pick out a whole new list (even those not in consideration for Car of the Year).

And 110V is worthless for a track day (even at the drag strip). You need at least a 14-50 to make it worthwhile. Remember that you are consuming 4x or more than normal usage.
 
You need at least a 14-50 to make it worthwhile. Remember that you are consuming 4x or more than normal usage.
That's a reasonable estimate.

For a "careful/planned session" -- where you don't the straights at speed, focusing on the turns -- the limiter kicks in very little and I'd only spend about 50 rated miles per session.

For a "hot session" (where session is 15-20 min.) at the Ridge, I'd use up ~70 rated miles. For 3 "off sessions" (roughly an hour+), I'd regain 30-40 of that back. So across "session rounds", I'd lose 20-30 rated which obviously limits how many sessions you can do in a day. You definitely hit the limiter within a lap or 20 for a "hot session".

"Only losing 20" doesn't sound like much, but you don't want to be negative or even near zero. So backsolving... staying above ~30 rated puts your last session starting at 100 rated. Add 30 per session with a cap (for me) of Daily 90% (~232) and that leaves.... 232-100/30 = 4.4 sessions. That maps about right. I did sessions 1,2,3,4,6 on Sunday -- choosing to skip session 5 because I was too low on power.

(I was lower than I should have been because of an errand to the store that ate up 80 rated before the day started, but that's a user planning error. I got most of it back during the morning prep, driver meeting, etc. anyway.)