Tesla Says New Roadster is Fastest Production Car Ever

After unveiling the Tesla Semi, CEO Elon Musk surprised the crowd with a look at the fastest production car ever made – the second generation Roadster.

Musk said the base model of the sports car will hit 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, making it the first production vehicle to clock in at under two seconds. The car will go 0 to 100 mph in 4.2 seconds and can make a pass on the quarter mile in 8.9 seconds. Musk declined to offer the top speed for the car, but said it’s greater than 250 mph.

With a 200 kwh battery pack, the new Roadster has a 620-mile range per charge, Musk said. The all-wheel-drive vehicle has three motors, one in the front and two in the rear.

“The point of doing this is to give a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars,” Musk said.

The new 2 by 2 four-seater Roadster is slated for production in 2020.

 

[ecarfan]

Hold on, a car that goes to 250+ mph, very low CG, and range of 600 miles, i'm sure that the new roadster is 'ring ready. Clearly this car was not designed for public roads, since no one can really go 250 mph...

I would not assume that. Tesla has never built a car that was capable of running on the track because the cooling system could not handle the heat generated. At this point we don’t know if the new Roadster has a track capable cooling system or not. I certainly hope it does, but I would not assume that is the case.

The primary use of this car will be public roads. Yes, of course no one can go 250mph on any public road. But no one driving on a public road needs a 0-60 time of 1.9 seconds, either, and there most of the time on a public road if one was to fully use that acceleration capability they could endanger their life and the lives of those around them because few drivers have the experience to safely handle that kind of power on public roads.

 

[SageBrush]

Hold on, a car that goes to 250+ mph, very low CG, and range of 600 miles, i'm sure that the new roadster is 'ring ready. Clearly this car was not designed for public roads, since no one can really go 250 mph...

That is something else entirely -- fleecing the rednecks in street drag racing.

 

[Tolga]

Why anybody dont remember that an electric car have recorded a faster lap than the fastest lap ever recorded by a production car on nürburgring. It wa NIO's supercar. I don't know if it's an official record because that may not be a production car. But the point is that it is doable by bev powetrain. Why Tesla can't do that. Wasn't the point of ng Roadster tl give hardcore smackdown? And how it is possible without a truck capable car?

 

[Tolga]

ahhk sorry I meant "track capable car"
sorry for my poor English.

 

[bhzmark]

Interesting. Here's link
NIO EP9 Electric Supercar Nurburgring Record - Fastest Street-Legal Car at Nurburgring

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I would not assume that. Tesla has never built a car that was capable of running on the track because the cooling system could not handle the heat generated. At this point we don’t know if the new Roadster has a track capable cooling system or not. I certainly hope it does, but I would not assume that is the case.

The primary use of this car will be public roads. Yes, of course no one can go 250mph on any public road. But no one driving on a public road needs a 0-60 time of 1.9 seconds, either, and there most of the time on a public road if one was to fully use that acceleration capability they could endanger their life and the lives of those around them because few drivers have the experience to safely handle that kind of power on public roads.

I certainly hope it is track capable. To me the key benefit of having the Gen 2 Roadster at the $200k price point is that it's expensive enough to give them more freedom to develop new components, while not being so expensive that they lose all focus on cost.

Along with sustained power, range, charging and efficiency are all key areas for BEV development and I hope that Gen 2 Roadster project allows them to improve on all of them.

 

[Alan]

The primary use of this car will be public roads. Yes, of course no one can go 250mph on any public road. But no one driving on a public road needs a 0-60 time of 1.9 seconds, either, and there most of the time on a public road if one was to fully use that acceleration capability they could endanger their life and the lives of those around them because few drivers have the experience to safely handle that kind of power on public roads.

250mph is always dangerous on a public road (and also on a racetrack). A crash at 250mph is fatal.

0 to 60 in 1.9 (or 2.4 in a Model S) is far less dangerous provided you are not going to surprise other road users. Its also legal (and fun) unless the speed limit is less than 60.

Personally I would be just as excited by the new roadster if it did 0 to 60 in 1.9 but only had a top speed of 125mph.

 

[scaesare]

I would not assume that. Tesla has never built a car that was capable of running on the track because the cooling system could not handle the heat generated. At this point we don’t know if the new Roadster has a track capable cooling system or not. I certainly hope it does, but I would not assume that is the case.

I believe the comments by the Tesla folks there giving the high-speed run test rides to the effect of "And this car can do this all night long" were likely addressing this very aspect of the Roadster's capability.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Elon mentioned that this first release of the new Roadster is the base model. Alluded that later they might offer an even higher performance model.

When I raced Vipers, I knew that it had almost a 200 mph rated speed, but never came close to that on a road course. The idea is that you have lots of headroom in the envelope.

One day, I had my chance. Entered the Silver State Challenge which allowed great speeds if you had enough safety equipment and experience. Opened it up, and exceeded 200 mph for the first time in my life, in 5th gear. Still had a 6th gear in reserve, but there was not enough torque to pull it faster.

The Vipers have a relatively small fuel tank, and I could go through most of my supply in the 90 Mile race.

Still have that picture on my wall, going through the traps at over 200 mph.

The idea of that race is to maintain a specific average speed, so absolute top speed is only useful to adjust your average is you drop below your predicted.

I imagine that as electric vehicles are developed more, most track records will fall to their capabilities. First in the short races, but after a while, even the longer distance events.

Already, many gas powered races are won, not by who ever is the fastest, but by those that can do the fastest pit stops to take on fuel and fresh tires. On longer events, they even need to switch out tired drivers for fresh ones. Changing out seat padding and adjusting the safety harnesses, plugging in the communications and cool suits often make the difference of winning and losing.

In ICE racing, the winner is often determined by the team that can best manage fuel consumption, tire life, and heat management. Over heating a car by pushing it too much will lose you even more time as you slow down for a while to allow it to cool off. Too quick in the corners will overheat your tires as well, causing you to pit more often to get fresh ones.

The world of transportation is changing rapidly.

 

[jbcarioca]

ahhk sorry I meant "track capable car"
sorry for my poor English.

Well it could have been the Tesla Semi-Performance version.

 

[S100D]

After unveiling the Tesla Semi, CEO Elon Musk surprised the crowd with a look at the fastest production car ever made – the second generation Roadster. Musk said the base model of the sports car will hit 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, making it the first production vehicle to clock in at under two seconds. The car...
[WPURI="https://teslamotorsclub.com/blog/2017/11/16/tesla-says-new-roadster-is-fastest-production-car-ever/"]READ FULL ARTICLE[/WPURI]

It will be interesting to see if the new Tesla Roadster is faster than the Koenigsegg Agera RS. The Agera RS broke 5 world records.

The video in the link below was shot using GoPro cameras placed inside the car and it provides a little more perspective on this record-breaking run. This video was shot as Niklas drove the Agera RS to its highest speed of the day – 457.94 km/h (284.55 mph).

Inside the Koenigsegg Agera RS World Speed Record Run - Koenigsegg

Here is a link to the 5 world records:

Koenigsegg Agera RS Achieves Multiple Production Car World Speed Records - Koenigsegg

 

[S'toon]

It will be interesting to see if the new Tesla Roadster is faster than the Koenigsegg Agera RS. The Agera RS broke 5 world records.

The video in the link below was shot using GoPro cameras placed inside the car and it provides a little more perspective on this record-breaking run. This video was shot as Niklas drove the Agera RS to its highest speed of the day – 457.94 km/h (284.55 mph).

Inside the Koenigsegg Agera RS World Speed Record Run - Koenigsegg

Here is a link to the 5 world records:

Koenigsegg Agera RS Achieves Multiple Production Car World Speed Records - Koenigsegg

Well, for starters, Tesla plans to build more than 25 of them. Also costs less than $2 million

 

[ecarfan]

It doesn’t matter if the new Roadster has a higher top speed than that car or not. It will be close to it and it will cost a small fraction of that car.

 

[S100D]

It doesn’t matter if the new Roadster has a higher top speed than that car or not. It will be close to it and it will cost a small fraction of that car.

I totally agree. for the money there is no car that can compare with the Tesla Roadster.

 

[ICUDoc]

All I thought about when I saw the Tesla Roadster 2 was my childhood dream car

Fantasy Is Now Reality

• May be the fastest production car
• Who can drive a car this fast?
• How did Tesla do it? What is the secret?

I suspect the VW group & Porsche will be one of the 1st buyers

Speed Racer - The Fastest Car On Earth
]

Well, I just delayed a craniotomy to watch this, and you don't even publish Part 2???
I'll check back in 3-4 hours.

 

[cizUK]

It may not have been mentioned in this particular thread, but it has been discussed many many times on TMC how all Tesla models to date, including the original Roadster, are not suitable as track cars because they overheat. Nor are they set up for racing or track use. They weren’t designed for that. This is well known.

As to Nürburgring times, that matters to some people, but to the vast majority of car buyers it means nothing. They don’t even know where the Nürburgring is located. And that’s fine. It’s a meaningless metric when it comes to designing a great car for public roads.

I realise you said this before we knew about it, but now we know that the Model 3 can do laps without overheating (with some replacement brakes)