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Tesla Roadster

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Re: Tesla Roadster

#31
post #25

"quickest car in the world" is an interesting choice of word. Is that to stand out from the slogan tropes like "fastest car in the world" / "fastest in its class"?

I think they are getting at a subtlety between being fast (speed) and being quick (acceleration).

Re: Tesla Roadster

#32
post #25

"quickest car in the world" is an interesting choice of word. Is that to stand out from the slogan tropes like "fastest car in the world" / "fastest in its class"?

“Quickest” in auto-journalism typically refers to acceleration. So 0-60. “Fastest” typically refers to top speed. So e.g. 250mph.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#33
post #25

"quickest car in the world" is an interesting choice of word. Is that to stand out from the slogan tropes like "fastest car in the world" / "fastest in its class"?

fast--top speed. quick--acceleration.

Bugatti probably has them beaten on top speed. This roadster doesnt look very stable at 200+ mph with its short wheelbase.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#34
post #7
post #2

0-60 in 1.9 seconds is ABSURD

that's a significant challenge from a friction/grip/tire treat compound (and electronic traction control) perspective, no matter what kind of AWD systems is in place...

I wonder how a AWD system works, when the Roaster has 3 motors (according to the Tesla live stream today only 3 motors). Why not 4 motors, one for each wheel.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#35
post #23

Does this mean that Tesla is pivoting from their attempt to produce a medium-priced car in quantity and going back to hand-building high-end cars? Tesla is good at high-end, low volume products. But the Model 3 production fiasco shows they don't know how to do what Detroit and Wolfsburg and Toyota City do. This is in a way a step backwards. Tesla is going back to targeting the 1%. There are lots of little supercar co…

I would have to guess that they didn't decide to make a Roadster in the last month or two.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#36
post #19

I'm thinking what this means to gas car makers. Wave 1: "It's all about legacy and prestige, not speed/acceleration". Wave 2: "The track handling isn't all that good, how can drivers take that corner at full power without losing traction". Wave 3: "Alright, we will go electric too".

If this thing has torque vectoring and does a 9 second 1/4 mile, it's going to drop at wave 2.

But wave 3 is already here - a lot of smaller companies are talking about making their own electric vehicles. If batteries become commodities, it's going to reduce the R&D cost of making a road legal car by an order of magnitude. We're just waiting on the batteries.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#38
post #26

I would really love to know how they are getting such a large battery capacity in a vehicle of this size. Is this a generational leap in energy density? What kind of materials are being used here?

Double-thick battery? The current battery is one level deep and is pretty thin.

Re: Tesla Roadster

#39
200K is actually good value, seeing as gas supercars that are near it in terms of performance (except slower) often cost over $1M.

EDIT: Tesla probably should fix their homepage going to a what appears to be the live stream page. I'd have to imagine they are losing valuable pageviews and sales. Tesla.com should be redirecting to either the Semi or Roadster landing pages.

Screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/L9oN5

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