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Tesla exhibits at the Paris Motor Show 2008 Oct 4-19
- Thread starter Finkenbusch
- Start date
Paris Motor Show, 2008
OK, so call me insane. With the wife and kids packed off to the states, there was very little to keep me from going to the Paris Motor Show.
7:00am TGV from Zürich to Paris - 4 hours 20 minutes. Very impressive after you get into French territory and the train edges up towards 300 km/h. After negotiating the Paris Metro (somewhat like Boston, but much more cramped) I found myself in the Expo. Still somewhat sleepy due to a lack of coffee it took me a minute to notice that I was being escorted through the date by 30 police in full riot gear. Ah, barbarians at the gate... or in this case Greenpeace, who had deployed a banner on Expo Hall 5 and decended down the front of the building. C'est la Vie...
Inside it was easy to find Tesla at the back with two Roadsters. After maligning the French language I was pushed towards Aaron Platshon (Marketing manager Europe, and the only other native english speaker within 10km).
This turned out to be very cool, as I picked his brain for the next couple of hours. The only interruption was Simon Rocheforte calling me... "Where are you? Meet me on the test track". OK, let's be honest. It wasn't a full blown test track, but rather a two lane stretch built in one of the parking lots. There were a few other EVs there (including a Smart prototype), but clearly nothing was drawing attention like the red Roadster. As only he can do, Simon passed me the keys and said "Let's go".
Having only two other EVs as the only other traffic has advantages, in spite of the abbreviated track. I did what can only be described as multiple "launches" for the next 20 minutes or so. I finally got to enjoy the crushing acceleration that was not possible with my Zürich test drive a few weeks before (Cr*p rush hour traffic...). Simon in the passenger seat took this all in stride - just another day in the office (and probably his 2000th test ride).
The brakes also got a good workout - I did my best to get the ABS to kick in, but everything was smooth until we were stopped. It could be that I wasn't jumping on the brakes hard enough.
I will apologize for the fuzzy photo of customer car #27; at least you get an idea of what the orange looks like.
My pics of the Paris Motor Show:
peter_greis' slideshow on Flickr
In one of the other halls was Lamborghini and Bentley. Most impressive was the crush of people, and the fact that it must have been 15 degrees(F) warmer than the other hall. There were so many people drooling on the glass fence surrounding the cars that it was hard to get a look at them.
As a near oxymoron, another hall had the "American Market". I would be interested in hearing the business case behind a Ram 150 with full lift kit for 50,000 euros. At 7.60 USD for a gallon of diesel (at least in Switzerland), it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Anyway, enjoy the photos.
cheers
P
PS - the ride:
OK, so call me insane. With the wife and kids packed off to the states, there was very little to keep me from going to the Paris Motor Show.
7:00am TGV from Zürich to Paris - 4 hours 20 minutes. Very impressive after you get into French territory and the train edges up towards 300 km/h. After negotiating the Paris Metro (somewhat like Boston, but much more cramped) I found myself in the Expo. Still somewhat sleepy due to a lack of coffee it took me a minute to notice that I was being escorted through the date by 30 police in full riot gear. Ah, barbarians at the gate... or in this case Greenpeace, who had deployed a banner on Expo Hall 5 and decended down the front of the building. C'est la Vie...
Inside it was easy to find Tesla at the back with two Roadsters. After maligning the French language I was pushed towards Aaron Platshon (Marketing manager Europe, and the only other native english speaker within 10km).
This turned out to be very cool, as I picked his brain for the next couple of hours. The only interruption was Simon Rocheforte calling me... "Where are you? Meet me on the test track". OK, let's be honest. It wasn't a full blown test track, but rather a two lane stretch built in one of the parking lots. There were a few other EVs there (including a Smart prototype), but clearly nothing was drawing attention like the red Roadster. As only he can do, Simon passed me the keys and said "Let's go".
Having only two other EVs as the only other traffic has advantages, in spite of the abbreviated track. I did what can only be described as multiple "launches" for the next 20 minutes or so. I finally got to enjoy the crushing acceleration that was not possible with my Zürich test drive a few weeks before (Cr*p rush hour traffic...). Simon in the passenger seat took this all in stride - just another day in the office (and probably his 2000th test ride).
The brakes also got a good workout - I did my best to get the ABS to kick in, but everything was smooth until we were stopped. It could be that I wasn't jumping on the brakes hard enough.
I will apologize for the fuzzy photo of customer car #27; at least you get an idea of what the orange looks like.
My pics of the Paris Motor Show:
peter_greis' slideshow on Flickr
In one of the other halls was Lamborghini and Bentley. Most impressive was the crush of people, and the fact that it must have been 15 degrees(F) warmer than the other hall. There were so many people drooling on the glass fence surrounding the cars that it was hard to get a look at them.
As a near oxymoron, another hall had the "American Market". I would be interested in hearing the business case behind a Ram 150 with full lift kit for 50,000 euros. At 7.60 USD for a gallon of diesel (at least in Switzerland), it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Anyway, enjoy the photos.
cheers
P
PS - the ride:
Awesome! Thanks for the posts and pics, Peter!
I as I understand it, there were some production slots set aside for marketing cars. Given the value associated with the VIN, Tesla may have decided to designate these cars as VPs even though they were produced after "regular production" cars. Actually, now that I think of it, both VP16 and VP17's serial numbers (the last 6 digits of the VIN) begin with a "9" instead of a "V" like the earlier VPs. That may indicated the were produced after regular production.
I think he means Signature #27. Founders #27 is indeed blue (we saw it in person).Somewhere I read that F27 was Twilight Blue...
Also, I thought there were only 18 VPs. Now I am confused.
I as I understand it, there were some production slots set aside for marketing cars. Given the value associated with the VIN, Tesla may have decided to designate these cars as VPs even though they were produced after "regular production" cars. Actually, now that I think of it, both VP16 and VP17's serial numbers (the last 6 digits of the VIN) begin with a "9" instead of a "V" like the earlier VPs. That may indicated the were produced after regular production.
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