Tesla announced a new 2+2 Roadster. It will go from 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, 0 to 100 in 4.2 seconds, and do the quarter mile in 8.9 seconds. Top speed is over 250 mph, and undisclosed. Cost is about $250,000. I just know that someone will test all that on the street and with stock tires. Why did they do it? Just to show that they could and blow away ICEmobiles. I’m sure it has more civil modes. You probably will have to push that insane mode button to unleash that kind of power. For that kind of money, they should send they buyer to school to learn how to handle the power, and provide the car at the track after graduation.
Whatever the merits of such a car, the reason they are announcing it probably has to do with Tesla’s need for cash now. Having people put up earnest money gives Tesla that; it also suppresses those people’s demand for a different ridiculous car that may be in production before the new Tesla.
At the same time they also announced their semi-truck, 500 mile range. Now if they could only deliver the vehicles they announced last year.
The new roadster goes past “ludicrous speed” to “plaid” (really):
;-]
why do they spell plaid with an “I”? it is pronounced “plad”.
Cool. I like the idea.
Hey, why not?
Aston Martin is set to release an insane vehicle called the Valkyrie. It’s expected cost is $3.2 million each. The road versions are already sold out. The first one hasn’t been built yet.
The first 500 of Bugatti’s new replacement for the Veyron, the Chiron, are sold out at $3million each.
I like the idea of Tesla joining the club. They’ve certainly already changed everybody’s assumptions about what an electric vehicle is.
From Gaelic plaide, a blanket.
The other announcement was Tesla’s Semi.
It keeps Tesla in the news, and some folks like to have the option to go fast when they want to, and they’ll maybe buy one. Cash and news is good for any company.
We have a local Solar City (Tesla owned) plant. Even though NY state paid $750,000,000 to build the plant and gave it to Solar City they are more than a year behind getting into production. In the meantime, orders for solar panels are slowing. They have an online calculator to show you how much money you can save over 30 years. Ever using their (specious) figures I would save $4000 less than the $16000 federal credit.
They get their figures by overestimating my electric bill, compounding 2% raise every year in electric rates and not accounting for inflation devaluing the money you get back or taking into account 30 years of financing costs on the 65,000 they want now for the system.
Does anyone have any Idea what $65,000 invested in the market 30 years ago would be wort now.z?
Extreme electric vehicles should be compared to extreme ICEmobiles. Top fuel dragsters are already going 60 mph by the time the rear tires cross the start line and zero to 100 in less than one second.
Put street tires on that Tesla and test it on regular street pavement and it will likely struggle to do zero to sixty in three seconds, there just isn’t enough traction.
@B.L.E, I agree with most of what you say, except that the Tesla Roadster is street legal and is not a custom car. There are outrageous custom cars, like Rod Saboury’s Corvette that are fast by track standards and street legal, but they are one-off creations.
???
And that’s bad?
I’m inclined to agree with B.L.E. that these vehicles should be, and I suspect will be, in the elite group of supercars. While they’ll be totally street drivable, their uniqueness and price will put them in multistall garages parked next to Ferraris, Lambos, and Bentleys. Not bad company.
I’d like to get my hands on one of the first Tesla roadsters. They were really cool IMHO.
I continue to be amazed at how much Tesla has changed our assumptions about electric vehicles.
So you assumed an electric car company did not need massive government subsidy to stay alive?
;-]
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The Model S is already down to 2.2 seconds, on street tires, on regular pavement.
I wonder if they let some air out of the tires to gain extra grip for the 2.2 second run.
In order to do that, the tires would need a coefficient of friction of around 1.25, and the weight transfer to the driving wheels would need to approach 100%.
It would take 2.73 seconds for gravity to accelerate a car to 60 in a free fall in a vacuum.
If that was indeed done, it was likely done using street legal sport tires and on ideal pavement conditions, if not on a drag strip sprayed with rosin, and it was likely done exactly one time in a row.
This might be a good “takeaway” . . .
Tesla vehicles have been, are, and probably will continue to be, vehicles which are not aimed at the masses
They are sporty and luxurious, and not inexpensive
As such, we should view them more as sports cars and luxury vehicles, and less as electric vehicles
Tesla cars aren’t competing with the Nissan Leaf. They’re competing with the BMW 7 Series and Porsche roadsters, for example
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Well, yeah, the tires are obviously not retreads from Honest Earl’s Used Tires. 
And I’m sure the pavement was at least good - they’re probably not doing 0-60 runs through Chicago potholes.
Remember that all of the wheels are driving wheels, it’s an AWD car.
As for gravitational acceleration, well, yes, there’s some g-forces going on any time you get loose objects in the cabin to fly backward and stick to the seat backs during acceleration.
