We had a most enjoyable drive today and Marge and I are keen for some more of these. Will from Tesla said he was hoping to be able to run these events once per quarter.
I had charged The Homer to 100% just before leaving home and drove out of the garage with a rated range of 519km. We gathered at St Leonards at 10.30am for coffee before Will & Gemma provided a short briefing and we were on our way just after 11am. There was an informal convoy but as the cars were separated when leaving the store we did spend some time driving with no other Teslas around, only to meet up again further down the route.
The target route was along the Bells Line of Road on to the Great Western Highway and so most cars seemed to take the M2, then the M7 and then Richmond Road to get there. I was able to use autopilot for most of the M4 and M7 but the lack of line markings in a few places along Richmond Road caused some "hunting" and so I took over there. I continued driving the old-fashioned way through the Bells Line of Road as that was the main point of taking that route and the car handled extremely well and I really enjoyed much of that section of the drive. We did run into a lot of roadworks along the Bells Line of Road - much more than I can remember ever seeing before - and this did slow the convoy down and push the schedule out 30 minutes or so.
We all arrived more or less at the same time at the recently re-opened Hydro Majestic Hotel at Medlow Bath. They have a single destination charger there and I saw two separate cars taking advantage of it both before and after lunch. The food had been pre-selected and was simple cafe fare that everybody at our table seemed to enjoy and Marge and I were pleased to meet some very interesting fellow Tesla enthusiasts. There was a short drive to a tearoom scheduled for after lunch but we had to leave early so I can't report on the rest of the day.
We returned to Sydney by continuing on the Great Western Highway, again much of it on autopilot, and I was surprised to pull into our garage still with 39% battery remaining. Unfortunately I forgot to reset the trip computer so I can't tell you exactly how many kilometres we did or provide any other stats but I was impressed with the handling, comfort and range of the Tesla on this trip.
Thanks to Tesla at St Leonards for organising this and roll on the next one!
