Question from potential new owner

[John W. Ratcliff]

I am charging with 240v. I'm taking the car to Tesla next Thursday for it's annual inspection and I'm sure they will tell me all about the health. I haven't pulled the logs off yet, just haven't had the time.

I guess it's just me that thinks the steering wheel feels cheap; I'm just used to my Porsche Boxster and Acura NSX; both of which had a much nicer 'gripier' feel to me.

I don't really have much an issue getting into the car (yes I've seen that video), but getting out is definitely awkward. The fact that I'm 55 and 235 pounds probably has a lot to do with it.

 

[MileHighMotoring]

The only good way to get out in my experience is to get your left leg outside on the ground, (optional: slide your tush over onto the sill) , and use your left arm against the body and your right hand on the steering wheel to pivot/lift yourself up. Even when I do it smoothly and nimbly it's not a natural set of movements, but it gets you out without looking like a fool.

 

[Habious]

It's definitely a bit...ungraceful...getting in/out with the top on. I do my best to drive it with the top off as often as possible!

I'm 6'1, and "over 250 lbs"...and not particularly limber.

While I've seen the "tall guy getting into/out of a Roadster" video, I actually use a completely different technique that seem to work well for me.

When I get into the car, I put...

A) My right leg in
B) my head in
C) drop my butt into the seat
D) slide my left in

This technique only works from the driver's side, because I hold the steering wheel. This allows me to drop my butt down BELOW the door sill (outside the car) while I'm sliding my head in.

 

[supersnoop]

Is there a link to learn how to do that? Thx.

https://upload.teslamotors.com/

 

[MileHighMotoring]

https://upload.teslamotors.com/

Thanks - done and unpacked the .tar archive. How do we read the log files?

 

[supersnoop]

Thanks - done and unpacked the .tar archive. How do we read the log files?

VMS Log Parser for Tesla Roadster
TeslaFlux
Log Parsing tool available

 

[jeremyz]

It takes a little while to learn to get in and out of such a low car. Now, it's totally normal and more or less graceful for me. I broke my left ankle a few months ago (to show the f'er who the boss is) and I could manage getting in and out of the car. Getting in was pretty normal, but getting out required a modified motion with the door fully opened.

I agree that the Roadster doesn't have a lot of top end acceleration. I actually kind of like that, because it doesn't prod me into driving crazy fast on the freeway. An AC induction motor has two drive phases. The first phase is a constant torque phase (up to around 50mph in the Roadster). The second phase is a constant power phase (with torque that diminishes proportional to 1/speed). The Roadster would accelerate better at higher speeds if it had multiple gears, but transmissions are for weak cars with narrow torque curves. I guess it would also accelerate better at speed if it didn't have the Cd of a minivan.

 

[hcsharp]

The Roadster would accelerate better at higher speeds if it had multiple gears, but transmissions are for weak cars with narrow torque curves.

Actually I don't believe that's correct. If you had gearing such that the motor was working in the constant torque phase while at higher speeds, it would be no different than it is now and possibly worse. That's because the gearing would reduce the actual torque to the wheels. Power is the product of torque and speed. Right now when you reach the constant power stage the inverter regulates the power by reducing the torque as the speed increases. If you had different gearing it would reduce the torque at the wheels even though it might enable the motor to slow down to the constant torque phase.

 

[jeremyz]

The shape of the torque does reduce the benefit of adding additional gears. You would only really notice a difference at higher speeds. I think it would be more interesting to add a 0th gear and move the existing gear to a 3rd-ish gear. Then you would have better acceleration form 0 to 40 (if the you had bigger tires) and still have strong acceleration until 80mph in the new gear.