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Tesla Roadster

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Re: Tesla Roadster

#391
post #178
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's some unreal level of acceleration. Never seen anything like it.

electric dragster 0-100 in 1s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LQXB1DX-2Q

> 3000ftlbs torque off the line, equaling zero to 60 miles per hour in 1.0 second flat

Re: Tesla Roadster

#392
post #52

Taking reservations for 1000 founder series cars at $250k each up front means they're pre-selling $250,000,000 worth of product at least 2 years out. Kind of smart.

I thought the same. These consumer "loans" along the way are a brilliant marketing tactics. Anyone know if this is refundable?

Re: Tesla Roadster

#393
post #366
post #17

The Tesla roadster specs are insane! No exotic carmaker will be able to match it (taking price as a consideration). (no Ferrari, or Lambo, can get that close. This is Formula 1 acceleration speeds). Plus 620 miles of range, and it is a 4 seater. Expensive as hell, but this is exotic car territory. Base Specs Acceleration 0-60 mph1.9 sec Acceleration 0-100 mph4.2 sec Acceleration 1/4 mile8.8 sec Top SpeedOver 250 mph…

From Wikipedia's F1 page [0]: > The 2016 F1 cars have a power-to-weight ratio of 1,400 hp/t (1.05 kW/kg). Theoretically this would allow the car to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than 1 second. However the massive power cannot be converted to motion at low speeds due to traction loss and the usual figure is 2.5 seconds to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) Even adjusting for 60 mph = 2.4s, I don't see how the traction of the T…

F1 cars are rear wheel drive and still have to build their torque and power up the rev range and change gears.

Telsa is 4wd and has all it's torque and power from standing with no gears

Re: Tesla Roadster

#394
post #365
post #17

The Tesla roadster specs are insane! No exotic carmaker will be able to match it (taking price as a consideration). (no Ferrari, or Lambo, can get that close. This is Formula 1 acceleration speeds). Plus 620 miles of range, and it is a 4 seater. Expensive as hell, but this is exotic car territory. Base Specs Acceleration 0-60 mph1.9 sec Acceleration 0-100 mph4.2 sec Acceleration 1/4 mile8.8 sec Top SpeedOver 250 mph…

Sounds really good on paper but the production is scheduled for 2020, so it’s unfair to compare it to the cars currently on the market. No other manufacturers announce cars so far ahead so it seems at least partly like a hype for Tesla investors. Acceleration is just one part of what makes a great sports car. And how is the acceleration past 100 mph? That’s the traditional weakness of electric cars and it matters mor…

> And how is the acceleration after 100 mph?

This. If you're buying a supercar to actually drive on a track, this is key. Any specs relating to what happens below 100 mph are worthless. If you spend any significant percentage of time going so slow, you need to spend ~$8k on a BMW E36 M3 instead, and learn how to drive.

But if you buy a supercar mainly to park in front of Harrods, 0-60 time is... still worthless.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#395
post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is that sound is associated with speed because a bigger/stronger engine is usually louder. Electrics will break that association. Or it will create a new expectation about what a fast car sounds like. Because from now on, they will always be faster than ICE vehicles. I think there will be a niche of people buying ICE cars for their loud sound, just as there are people who buy the loudest possible motorcycle…

The sound is satisfying for reasons that are entirely separate with its association.

Do you have any sources for that? Personally, I don't find sports car sounds satisfying at all, so I guess those reasons don't apply to everybody.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#396
post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From Wikipedia's F1 page [0]: > The 2016 F1 cars have a power-to-weight ratio of 1,400 hp/t (1.05 kW/kg). Theoretically this would allow the car to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than 1 second. However the massive power cannot be converted to motion at low speeds due to traction loss and the usual figure is 2.5 seconds to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) Even adjusting for 60 mph = 2.4s, I don't see how the traction of the T…

F1 cars are rear wheel drive and still have to build their torque and power up the rev range and change gears. Telsa is 4wd and has all it's torque and power from standing with no gears

The F1 engines are already revved up when they start. They just engage the clutch. And F1 gear changes are pretty much instant as the old and new gears are connected at the same time and the moment that would start to cause problems the old one gets disconnected

But yeah its the real wheel drive that stops F1 cars going faster 0 to 60. (limited by the friction instead of the power the engine can deliver)

The whole startup trickery with the two clutch paddles is interesting too. Basically they use one of the paddle to find the bite point and leave it there and then use the other to fully disengage the clutch. Then once the lights go out they drop the other clutch so the clutch goes instantly to the bite point and then use the other paddle to modulate the launch (they are pretty much flatout while standing still and use the clutch to control wheel spin). A launch control computer probably could do this better but such things are banned in F1.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#397
post #366
post #17

The Tesla roadster specs are insane! No exotic carmaker will be able to match it (taking price as a consideration). (no Ferrari, or Lambo, can get that close. This is Formula 1 acceleration speeds). Plus 620 miles of range, and it is a 4 seater. Expensive as hell, but this is exotic car territory. Base Specs Acceleration 0-60 mph1.9 sec Acceleration 0-100 mph4.2 sec Acceleration 1/4 mile8.8 sec Top SpeedOver 250 mph…

From Wikipedia's F1 page [0]: > The 2016 F1 cars have a power-to-weight ratio of 1,400 hp/t (1.05 kW/kg). Theoretically this would allow the car to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than 1 second. However the massive power cannot be converted to motion at low speeds due to traction loss and the usual figure is 2.5 seconds to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) Even adjusting for 60 mph = 2.4s, I don't see how the traction of the T…

I agree, I think this is another case of "well it works on our computer" pre-release specs that will turn out not to get close to real-world performance. The 0-100mph is very suspicious but I think the 0-60 time quoted is simply impossible for a road car, even making allowances for a few years of tech advancements.

F1 tires are nothing like road tires. They're not even vaguely comparable - at normal operating temperatures (over 100C, and they're preheated before starting - although not to quite this hot) they have the consistency of chewing gum. They are also huge - far bigger than a road car could ever hope to accommodate. This car also looks to weigh around double what an F1 car will weigh, and with far, far, FAR less grip, so it simply doesn't seem possible that it can accelerate faster.

To address some of the other replies. Traction control: F1 cars are driven by some of the best drivers on the planet. I think it's straining credulity to believe that an electronic traction control system is going to outperform them to such a huge degree. Gear changes: F1 gear changes take about 8 milliseconds. A road-going automatic gearbox is definitely not going to beat this.

In short - it doesn't matter HOW much power you have, if you can't get it down on the road. Given the limitations of the weight of the car, the limited grip from road tires, and a gearbox that needs to survive everyday use, it seems frankly totally impossible that a sub-2s 0-60mph is correct.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#398
post #320
post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But the Model 3 production fiasco shows they don't know how to do what Detroit and Wolfsburg and Toyota City do. What fiasco? It was obvious from the start that their schedule was wildly optimistic. But that's probably just Elons way of pushing workers as hard as possible. It's way too early to call the Model 3 a success or failure. Of course it takes a few months to ramp up and stabilize production. It's their fir…

If it's that obvious, how come Tesla didn't know that? Contending that Tesla is incapable of comprehending basic, obvious facts isn't a great way to promote confidence in the company. We're a long way from fiasco territory, sure, but it's also pretty clear Tesla are still quite a way off from getting their production process under control.

Given how many people are involved, I‘m pretty sure they have considered a lot of the problems they have now, beforehand. I mean, do you think they don’t have a time range of best case through worst case? Elon just constantly tells us the best case, or almost best case version.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drag racing is meaningless? I totally get that you might not personally like it, but meaningless?

Rolling acceleration and track handling are more important than Drag racing. Bit fed up of 0-60 times being such an important feature. 50-70 more important, handling a bit more important again. And of course for most people build quality, running costs and environmental credentials.

Environmental credentials are important for supercar buyers?

Re: Tesla Roadster

#400
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very unlikely. With power you weight beyond useful (this has basically been "solved" since the day someone built a cat around a ww2 military aircraft piston engine), acceleration is determined by aerodynamics (drag and downpressure), tires and the time spent shifting gears . It's pretty evident where Tesla has the advantage.

I don't think you're right about this. If the 60-0 time and the 0-60 time are the same for the Chiron then it's limited by traction (assuming brakes that are strong enough to break traction at 60). Most high performance cars only shift once before 60, and with modern dual clutch transmissions it only costs a fraction of a second. The only way Tesla are going to get below 2 seconds is either with non-street legal tyre…

Braking has a very different load distribution, even with a center of mass as low as in supercars. I would not put to much into that comparison. Tires are depicted as Michelin in the announcement, it would be very surprising if they keep their best exclusive to Tesla, considering the relative proximity between Bugatti and Michelin, the relative cheapness of the Tesla and Volkswagen group representing a much bigger part of the tires market than Tesla for the foreseeable future.

> it only costs a fraction of a second

In other words: exactly the scale of the differences we are talking about. In addition to the short interruption itself I guess that it also takes a few millis until traction control has settled after a shift.

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