Full article at:Elon Musk likes to have fun.
Sure, his schedule these days is full, managing SpaceX and developing Tesla’s game-changing Model X, a gullwing electric SUV.
But he’s also the guy who sent a block of cheese into space as an inside joke, who met his actress wife in a European nightclub, and who named the new warp-speed option in his posh sedans Ludicrous Mode, after terminology from Spaceballs. When I visited his Bel Air home a few years ago as part of a story on his work, we played sci-fi video games (he’s very good) and talked about cult classic films.
So it stands to reason that the current crown jewel in Musk’s engineering repertoire, the 2016 Model S P90D, would have to be fun enough to drive to keep its mastermind creator meaningfully engaged.
I can vouch for that, and more.
The P90D hits 1.1 Gs at max acceleration, which is more than the pushback force you feel during free fall. It goes zero to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds. That’ll keep pace, no sweat, with a Lamborghini Huracan and a McLaren 650S.
P90D gets its name from the “Dual” motor arrangement that enables its all-wheel drive and the 90 kilowatt-hour battery pack that boosts drive range by 6 percent. (The "P" is for "performance," natch.) It’s not the normal Model S. It’s not even the P85D Model S that broke Consumer Reports. This one is even better. It uses the 90 kw dual-motor combination (a $35,000 upgrade over the $70,000 base model) to eke out the equivalent of 98 mpg in highway driving and approach distances of 300 miles on one charge. Assuming 15,000 miles and $0.12 per kwh, you’ll spend $650 per year to fuel it, according to the owner's manual. According mpg data from the US Department of Transportation, the average car will cost $1,519 a year to fuel, assuming the same mileage and a price of $2.37 per gallon of gas.
Driving the P90D is like being high. (Let's say … getting a runner's high.) It’s like entering a different plane. You seem to move through space and time at different speeds than people and objects around you. You feel untouchable. The P90D is not as nimble as a 911 or an M3. It shouldn’t be—it’s a sedan, not a coupe. But it manages traffic like Serena Williams manages anyone unlucky enough to face her across the net—with extreme fluidity, unrelenting beauty, and devastating force. This is where the good visibility throughout the side and rear windows, the front- and rear-running cameras, and the lane-departure warning systems really shine.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...n-musk-wants-your-sedan-to-be-ludicrously-fun