The T Zero pictures available online are few and low resolution. That just changed. I posted the first of many more on Flickr at - Pete Gruber’s albums | Flickr
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Every collecting pursuit, from comic books to Beanie Babies, has a “Holy Grail” —
its rarest and most valuable object. And so it is with car collecting.
Ferrari has the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, Plymouth has the 1971 Hemi Cuda Convertible,
Lamborghini the 1972 Miura P400 SV, and Ford faithful covet the 1968 GT40.
The T Zero electric car featured in these pictures has not been valued yet and may remain obscure,
or maybe not. There were only three of these built and in existence. One now resides in
Arizona and is a test vehicle at the Gruber Power Services EV division.
This is the car, built by a tiny company called AC Propulsion Systems in CA
that inspired Martin Eberhard, the real founder of Tesla Motors
(you thought it was Elon), to commit to building electric sports cars,
and the rest is history. Elon also found AC Propulsion some time later, test drove the
T Zero, and became convinced there is a market. He then joined Martin's
Tesla Motors as an investor, and eventually took over the company and Tesla Motors.
These three T Zero's, built in 1997, rivaled the performance of exotic cars of that era. It is the
proof of concept vehicle that the first production Teslas, the Roadster, was patterned
after. In fact, for a time, Tesla paid royalties to AC Propulsion for using their design.
It is also the most influential electric vehicle in this century since it inspired
and started the clean energy electric car movement.
Performance is 0-60 is 4.2 seconds with a range around 70-80 miles with lead acid Optima batteries in the doors.
Handling is surprisingly nimble and responsive. In fact, it handles better than my Tesla Roadster.
I look forward to sharing this treasure with the Arizona car enthusiast community.
__________________________________________________________________________
Every collecting pursuit, from comic books to Beanie Babies, has a “Holy Grail” —
its rarest and most valuable object. And so it is with car collecting.
Ferrari has the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, Plymouth has the 1971 Hemi Cuda Convertible,
Lamborghini the 1972 Miura P400 SV, and Ford faithful covet the 1968 GT40.
The T Zero electric car featured in these pictures has not been valued yet and may remain obscure,
or maybe not. There were only three of these built and in existence. One now resides in
Arizona and is a test vehicle at the Gruber Power Services EV division.
This is the car, built by a tiny company called AC Propulsion Systems in CA
that inspired Martin Eberhard, the real founder of Tesla Motors
(you thought it was Elon), to commit to building electric sports cars,
and the rest is history. Elon also found AC Propulsion some time later, test drove the
T Zero, and became convinced there is a market. He then joined Martin's
Tesla Motors as an investor, and eventually took over the company and Tesla Motors.
These three T Zero's, built in 1997, rivaled the performance of exotic cars of that era. It is the
proof of concept vehicle that the first production Teslas, the Roadster, was patterned
after. In fact, for a time, Tesla paid royalties to AC Propulsion for using their design.
It is also the most influential electric vehicle in this century since it inspired
and started the clean energy electric car movement.
Performance is 0-60 is 4.2 seconds with a range around 70-80 miles with lead acid Optima batteries in the doors.
Handling is surprisingly nimble and responsive. In fact, it handles better than my Tesla Roadster.
I look forward to sharing this treasure with the Arizona car enthusiast community.
