It isn't hyperventilation. Onset and offset of symptoms are immediate with start and end of acceleration, so the whole episode totals 3 seconds or so. That isn't consistent with hyperventilation.
No - different levels of driving. I would be the slowest on the track with either my Aston or my Atom if I followed this beginner's principle. Need that trail-braking to load the fronts to get the turn-in, folks. Will get blasted for this here I know - but there are too many former commuter car driver on here commenting about performance driving because they've now got a car that moves in a straight line...
That last part is my biggest fear. When Americans talk about performance, they usually mean driving in a straight line on a drag strip. In Europe, we like to take corners. I sincerely hope that they will test the Roadster extensively on the Nürburgring. With the notion that they are indeed implementing a double layer of P100D battery packs, I start to fear for the corners. With all this additional weight, the Roadster might become even heavier than the Model S :-o
To be fair, it may just seem like this simply because it's an objective measure. 0-60 times, 1/8 miles, 1/4 miles are objective. Sending a car around a track is more objective, and therefore harder to talk about empirically. I'd say if you just look at the evolution of how much better modern day Mustangs and Corvettes run compared to what they used to 20 -30 years ago, you'll see that we're not totally heathens anymore.
The paper below has some interesting data on the limits of human acceleration, mostly tested by John Stapp on a rocket sled. Go to page 42 for "eyeballs in acceleration" at 50+ g's http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/708916.pdf This one talks about top fuel drivers getting dizzy at 5g's acceleration. The bigger problem is when they pop the drag chute and get "eyeballs out" deceleration, some drivers have had retinal detachment issues. Excessive force – The Denver Post X-15 pilots got up to about 4 g's acceleration. One problem they noted was a false "pitching up" sensation that can be disorienting. NASA - Dryden History - X-15 Lessons Learned - Bill Dana
I liked the part in chapter 10, “Tolerance Limits, Eye balls out”. The researchers seemed OK with injuries requiring hospitalization. Interesting paper.
It doesn't take anything like 4G for this effect to be dangerous. Part of night/instrument flying training is that after takeoff, while the plane is accelerating, it is important to use the instruments to maintain a positive rate of climb. Otherwise the "somatic head-up illusion" can make the pilot dive straight into the ground, accelerating all the way.
Hopefully we won't be driving on instruments. Your tagline: “PLEASE NOTE: Posts are the copyrighted intellectual property of the author, and are intended as part of a conversation within this forum. My words may NOT be quoted outside this forum, without my expressed consent.” Really? As for my words, anyone is free to copy, edit, claim, repost, profit from, advertise with, or put on T shirts, anything I post here. If I post a picture, it can be used as well, any way someone wants, with or without credit.
Seriously folks? The new Roadster might be quick 0-60 for a street car, but it's not quick in the grand scheme of things. I've done 0-60 in 0.8 seconds many times. Peak forward G's of 3.5. And with 2 parachutes out at 225 mph I've seen -5.0 G's. And yes that feels fast. But after enough times you're so used to it you can pick out family in the crown. As others have noted, humans can tolerate massive G's in the front to back vectors because the issue for pilots is G's forcing blood from the brain down to their legs. I've also raced shifter karts achieving 3.0 lateral G's in corners - 17 times per one mile lap. Those also have virtually no adverse affect on people. Motion sick, perhaps. But two seconds of straight line acceleration? No.
Maybe, but considering how few people will ever get to drive a Roadster (or conventional hypercar for that matter), Joe Average imho need not be too concerned about the subject. Right, because you need a car with a 0-60 capability of 1.9 seconds to do that. I think you mean the Nürburgring. The one in Nürnberg is called Norisring incidentally.
(Off topic, sorry) but yes. A few years ago there was a rash of FUD including out-of-context quotes from TMC posts. Maybe the problem has gone away, but the fallout (and the FUD) remains.
The answer here is definitely in the field of drag racing. As pointed out by JMatt above there are heaps of people every day who are not young fighter pilots but who strap themselves into cars that run 0-60 mph in under 1 second pass after pass. Because the peak G is somewhere near 3.5 to 4 g, but only for a short period, then dropping back to 1.5 g fairly quickly, there is no need for any fancy suits or anything like that, you just need to be in normal average physical condition - which is why you need a medical to get a drag racing license. The only pre-requisite required is that you need, no, MUST put your head back on the head rest BEFORE you launch - if you don't your head whips back and you can certainly be dazed by a quick hit on the head. I know this from over a decade of running fast drag cars, the slowest of which was a modified street car around the roadster 0-60 in 1.9, and 9.1 sec quarter mile, fastest was 0-60 in 0.85 sec, 6.7 sec quarter mile at around 200 mph. Never ever had any problems with the G, but I always put my head back before the launch. The catapults that run 0-175 mph in 2 sec for the jet fighters sound like a nice hit, but the top fuel drivers (of which I know a few) do need to prepare mentally, if not physically (helps to be fit) for the 0-250 mph in the mid 2 sec zone they have to deal with...
Lol!! BenD nailed it! I can attest he's right: When you launch a dragster that'll pull 3.5g launches, your head is against the headrest, and you can't pull it away from the headrest for about 1.5 seconds when the g's have already dropped.
As somebody that's been driving a Tesla since '13, I believe you'll discover that you grow increasingly accustomed to the acceleration as you drive the car. It may take a few months, and it might take a few years, but I expect you'll grow increasingly used to what is right now maybe a bit too much For me, what was originally on the edge (or a bit beyond) what I could tolerate, is now rather humdrum and expected. In my Roadster, I find myself needing to toggle into Performance mode all the time for that little extra bite that otherwise feels like its missing.
People, please. It's all what you are used to, and I think even people that have not been in a quick car can be acclimated to it pretty easily. I had a '93 Celica Turbo All-Trac that I pulled the engine from, sent to an engine re-builder where it was rebuilt, blue-printed and re-assembled and guaranteed by the builder to withstand 750 hp all day long. I put in a HUGE inter-cooler, larger injectors, a huge turbo and a programmable ECU and an electronic boost controller. Oh yeah.......also HUGE three piston brakes. If you have a car that can go real fast, you need a car that can stop real fast. This is a 4 cylinder car that made 434 hp at all four wheels on a 4wd dyno. I would estimate that this car would do 0-60 in the mid 3 second range as I have a time slip from Indianapolis Raceway Park where it did 11.806 @ 118.99 mph in the quarter mile. So I was "used to" a car this quick. When I was considering buying a P100D, I tried to wrap my head around driving a car that was a whole second faster in the quarter mile! That seemed HUGE to me at the time. Now that I am the owner of a P100D, I can truthfully say, "Meh..............nothing to it." I'm positive that moving from a P100D to the new roadster is something that will be easy to become acclimated to. Now, on the other hand, going from driving a mini-van or a Toyota Prius to the new Tesla roadster might just take a little longer to become acclimated to?
Y'all dealing with child's play numbers. I used to go on this all the time when I was younger and I'm totally fine.. Rotor (ride) - Wikipedia