Tesla Model S: 0-60 in 2.5s, 762HP (Now w/ Fart Mode)

Photoshop? Because I can’t see any advantage really.

Jesus I was in San Jose and San Fran near the factory the last five days, they’re fucking everywhere

sell sell sell

I’m not sure why this fire is such a big deal. Gas powered cars catch on fire after major collisions too.

And sometimes not so major collisions (happened to remember this post from a forum I’m on)…

http://www.nissanmurano.org/forums/61-general-discussions/19023-gas-tank-ruptured.html

I think it is drawing most attention in the financial industry. Tesla’s stock has been going up at crazy rates and you have idiots like Jim Cramer saying he sees no downside and to keep buying even though the stock is already over priced. People lost confidence in Tesla when this happened and started selling the stock like crazy. The fire started with the lithium ion battery from what I read and I believe Tesla has admitted to it as well. I actually found this on one of the financial websites I read.

Yeah, it started in the battery after the battery was punctured by a big piece of metal. I’ve already said plenty of times where I stand on the 100% battery powered vehicles but even I can’t fault the car for catching fire in that situation. Same thing happens to gas but the gas has the potential to explore in a giant fireball. Lithium battery fires take a little while to get going but are extremely hard to put out. If I had to pick one or the other for a car I was in I’ll take the battery fire that gives me time to get out of the car before it’s an inferno.

“I fully intend to produce one of the most compelling Teslas to ever hit the roadway,” CEO Steve Saleen said in the release.

Saleen making a version of the Model S? Cool. Just don’t make it look like this:

http://image.mustangmonthly.com/f/9210421/mump_0605_06z%201994_ford_mustang_saleen%20front_view.jpg

The anti-Tesla bill in Ohio?..

honestly that isn’t a lot of money in contributions, i am sure there is other stuff going on behind the scenes… vacation homes, cars for family, tuition for kids etc.

I was in Seattle for work last week and decided to check out the Tesla store. They were more than happy to let me test drive a P85 Model S. And this wasn’t your basic, around the block, test drive. We were out for 45 minutes and he took us up a nice curvy mountain road. We ripped on this thing pretty hard and the guy was totally cool with it as long as we didn’t turn off the traction/stability control.

Exterior:
This thing looks just as good in person as it does in photos. I’m sure you’ve all started to see them around the area and can agree. One of the really cool added features was that the door handles recess and are flush with the body when locked or driving. This means better aerodynamics, less road noise, and added security when parked.

Interior:
Very good material quality on just about everything. Spacious in the backseat and the fronts were shaped well to hold you in place. (They were the sport seats)
The one thing that was a bit weird for me was the giant screen. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very intuitive system, but you literally control EVERYTHING from that screen. That includes radio functions, HVAC, heated seats, stability control, etc. However, it didn’t distract you when driving and I assume with auto dimming, it’s not too bad at night.
The only thing I truly didn’t like was the radio. We didn’t have the upgraded version and it fucking sucked. I’m slightly biased since I have the Logic 7 stereo in my 335i, but still. For a 6 figure car it was absurdly bad quality.
One other thing to note was how ridiculously quiet it was while driving at highway speeds. I don’t mean engine noise, but road noise. Easily the quietest car I’ve ever been in.

Now onto the good stuff.

Handling:
For a car that weighs as much as this thing did I was truly impressed at how it stuck to the road. We weren’t even in sport mode during most of the drive. (The model I was driving had air suspension.) You could adjust the ride height by about 2". While ripping through the mountain road the stability control was much more fluid than a regular car. Part of this is because the torque coming back from an electric car is instantaneous so you barely felt the blip from it pulling back.
The car had Brembos all the way around (with some huge rear brakes too) and stopped very well. But an added benefit to an electric car is that it uses regenerative braking. We barely had to use the brakes in normal driving conditions so I could see why the pads would last 75k miles and maybe even more.

Performance:
Holy shit was this thing fast. It just punches you when you slam the throttle and there is literally no hesitation. The P85 model makes 416 HP and 443 ft-lb of INSTANT torque. Although it was eerie to be getting pushed that fast without any noise aside from the wind going by, it was very fun. Straight line acceleration was smooth through the traction control keeping my lead foot at bay and it just didn’t seem to want to stop pulling as hard as it did from the start of the acceleration. (Test car is limited at 80, though)

I was with a fellow engineer and we berated the rep with a lot of technical questions, but also a lot of practical life questions. With their warranty and now their growing infrastructure, it’s making more and more sense to own a fully electric vehicle. The ‘supercharging’ stations that they’ve set up allow you to drive across the entire country as is, and they are building a lot more right now. And guess what, THEY ARE FREE FOR TESLA OWNERS. With no gas costs and such low maintenance costs, I can’t help but wonder what gas car this truly lines up with for long term cost.

Overall, this thing gets a huge :tup: in my book. It will take some time for the cost to become more reachable for me, but Tesla isn’t going away. I’m excited to see the future models past the Model X.

:bigtup:

Thanks for the review.

It is interesting (good) to see another perspective because they seem to vary quite a bit on this car/industry.

These ALL look good :tup:

They’re from Unplugged Performance: http://unpluggedperformance.com/

I want this one:

I’m a shareholder and TSLA shares are taking a beating this month. Before that they shot up like crazy. Still about 80% in the green since last fall though. No real reason this time though just seems to be a normal pullback. The cars are great and the owners I talked to when I was out there loved them.

I think I’m going to get in on TSLA stock. I really should have bought it a while back when I first became interested in it.

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--gOSFjwoX--/c_fit,w_320/654585820801815443.gif

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--mRRtnlzj--/c_fit,w_320/654591842724718480.gif

http://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/800/1*GYJrGrKUwnjSzw3IpSFS3w.gif

Only 2 cases in ~16,000 cars, and they go the extra mile to add in an additional measure of safety not only for new builds, but for anything out there already at no cost. That’s some damn good customer service right there. :tup:

WTF is that first thing they hit, a trailer hitch?