Spiderguy Roadster fun drive 7/15/2017 - Lick Observatory

[TEG]

Forum member "Spiderguy" came through again, and organized a Roadster fun drive including loaning a few from his Roadster collection to lucky TMC mods.

We took on the twisty roads of Mt Hamilton leading up to Lick Observatory, then had an early supper at the Grandview restaurant at the end of the drive.

Thanks Spiderguy !

 

[Roadster]

More photos pls! Anyone shoot video?

 

[TEG]

I don't think anyone was doing video this time. But there were plenty of pictures being taken. Others there may post some to this thread.

 

[mbfx]

A few phone pics

 

[ecarfan]

I can't beat those great photos so won't post anymore but want to thank @spiderguy and everyone who came along for such a great drive!

And I learned something about my Roadster: for the first time in 2 1/2 years of ownership, I now know what the acceleration pedal feels like when the PEM gets hot enough for the firmware to limit power: the pedal feels like mush!

It was 95F in the South Bay and Mt. Hamilton is at 4,265 ft elevation. Halfway up the mountain as I exited one of the innumerable tight curves on the road I pressed the acceleration and...the car slowed down. The cognitive dissonance of that scrambled my cortical neurons for a moment and then I tapped the VDS to bring up the drivetrain temperature screen. The PEM was showing yellow. Oops. The car was limiting power to prevent damage. That had never happened to me before.

I continued on very slowly (max 15mph) and soon came across @doug parked by the side of the road. The 1.5 he was driving had the same issue. Later I learned that another 1.5 on the drive also had experienced the same issue. We all made it to the top, eventually.

I am aware that the 1.5 cars are known to have this issue. Of the four 1.5 cars on the drive, three had the issue on the way up the mountain. None of the other cars experienced it.

I had Tesla do the standard maintenance on my Roadster about 1 1/2 years ago, which of course included cleaning the fans and ventilation ducts. Maybe it is time to do it again (I know some people do it themselves and say it's not difficult but I will leave it to the professionals at Tesla: where I live the Service Centers are used to dealing with Roadsters).

Anyway, it was a fun drive and I enjoyed the company. We had a special guest at the start of the drive: a longtime Tesla employee showed up with his Roadster and chatted with us, very nice guy, but he couldn't come on the drive because he had to go to work to meet a deadline! Such is life working for Elon...

 

[slcasner]

Let me add my thanks to @spiderguy. I always enjoy these drives and the great conversations at the stopping points, especially at this nice dinner.

 

[TEG]

The 2.5 sport I was driving also hit reduced power near the top (on the way up) but it wasn't as dramatic a reduction as the 1.5s. It still had enough power for me to go as quickly as I felt comfortable on that very windy, narrow road with no guardrail.

If this post inspires anyone else to do that drive, do be careful. And watch for bicycles who are sharing the road.

 

[slcasner]

My 1.5/3.0 did not complain about overheating. When I looked later there were no temps in the yellow, but the PEM changes temperature quickly so that doesn't say much.

 

[wiztecy]

No duplicate colors? Looks like you all had a blast and nice seeing Doug made it out to this one.

 

[gregd]

Wow, thanks for organizing the drive and for posting the results. I was just up at Lick a few weeks ago with family (no Roadster, though), and wondered what the drive to the top in the Roadster would be like. I was more thinking of the drive down (would regen be enough to keep from having to use the friction brakes?) than an overheat on the way up. I've driven up to Tahoe from here (about the same elevation gain, and all freeway), and only once did I have a problem with a momentary power limit. But that was before they found out that my fans weren't wired right, so I wouldn't expect a problem now. How fast were you guys going? It's essentially a horse & carriage road, after all.

One other curiosity... Some of those hairpin turns are really tight, and the Roadster is not known for having a good turning radius. How did it handle them?

Oh, one highlight of the trip was seeing a pair of Model 3's heading down the hill as we drove up. (Other highlight was getting to look through the 36 inch refractor telescope!)

 

[TEG]

Roadster turning radius was fine for that road. No problems with the tight turns. The manual steering with great road feedback make those kinds of roads enjoyable for those that aren't prone to motion sickness. On the way down, the regen helped a lot, but I was tapping into the friction brakes here and there. But nothing causing any brake fade or issues of that sort even with the stock brakes. Some of the Roadsters were sporting the upgraded brake rotors that a 3rd party has been making recently.

The main issue with that road is the width, and the inexperienced drivers you have to contend with. We had some dicey moments when large vehicles were going the other direction. In particular a fire truck and some large pickup trucks didn't leave much room for error as we passed each other. A few of us got stuck behind a car with a handicapped tag that was doing a lot of weaving making it unsafe to consider passing and they seemed oblivious or unwilling to get out of the way for the line of cars behind it. Eventually they did find a place to pull over, but after having missed out on many previous opportunities. There are a lot of "tourist" vehicles using that road to go see the observatory exhibits so I think you get a regular stream of people struggling with the road in vehicles less suited to it.

 

[Msjulie]

Bummer I missed it - interesting about the 'hot' cars as it was crazy hot this weekend but my car always has PEM temp at the highest end of the blue, seemingly doesn't matter why

Great pics!

 

[tvuolo]

I'm with Msjulie... My PEM temp hangs out at the highest end of blue even when I'm doing similar drives. I've encountered motor temperature warnings, but never PEM.

 

[kev1n]

Roadster turning radius was fine for that road. No problems with the tight turns. The manual steering with great road feedback make those kinds of roads enjoyable for those that aren't prone to motion sickness. On the way down, the regen helped a lot, but I was tapping into the friction brakes here and there. But nothing causing any brake fade or issues of that sort even with the stock brakes. Some of the Roadsters were sporting the upgraded brake rotors that a 3rd party has been making recently.

The main issue with that road is the width, and the inexperienced drivers you have to contend with. We had some dicey moments when large vehicles were going the other direction. In particular a fire truck and some large pickup trucks didn't leave much room for error as we passed each other. A few of us got stuck behind a car with a handicapped tag that was doing a lot of weaving making it unsafe to consider passing and they seemed oblivious or unwilling to get out of the way for the line of cars behind it. Eventually they did find a place to pull over, but after having missed out on many previous opportunities. There are a lot of "tourist" vehicles using that road to go see the observatory exhibits so I think you get a regular stream of people struggling with the road in vehicles less suited to it.

the roadster has manual steering? no power steering..?

 

[snd92]

Yes @kev1n. Manual steering suits the car very well, because of the light front

 

[TEG]

Yes, that is correct. Great road feel, but you need strong arms in parking lots.

 

[Msjulie]

But the steering effort drops quite quickly at the tiniest bit of forward/backward motion

 

[ecarfan]

the roadster has manual steering? no power steering..?

That is correct. It isn't needed.

 

[Rotarypower]

Isn't needed, and a great design decision by the roadster team back then. I can only imagine the debate by the marketing / commercial team in wanting powered steering. But, once you drive the car, it is an obvious choice.

 

[bolosky]

In my case, not only isn't it needed, it's physical therapy not to have it. I told this story before, so I'll keep it short, but basically I had shoulder surgery a while ago, and as long as I drive my Roadster the shoulder is happy, but a few weeks without it an it starts to hurt. This isn't a joke; I couldn't make up anything quite that good.