Five Teslas at our HPDE, and I drove one!

Our club hosted a lapping day at Shannonville Motorsports Park on July 27th. We had five Teslas (the Elise-based ones) participate -- the owners managed to have two charging stations donated to help them stay charged all day. I managed five reasonably hot laps in one. Here are my thoughts.

First, the torque is addicitive -- especially compared to my Elise and my Miata. Second, the handling was predictable -- not quite Elise-like -- you can really feel the weight, but solid and confidence-inspiring. Third, the regnerative-braking really proved useful in aggressivee driving. Fourth, I missed shifting . . .

But, the Teslas could only manage five to seven laps before the batteries and the controllers got too hot, and they went into reduced power-mode. Boo. Of course, I have driven modified cars that don't do much better.

I was surprised at the battery life -- all of them managed to participate in five of the seven sessions (30 minute sessions), with charging at the two stations in between and at lunch. All had arrived almost fully charged because the owners had factored that in to their planning and driven to the venue the night before, or trailered the cars in.

All in all a cool experience. I'm not a convert, yet, but I am glad to see the owners participating and pushing the envelope.

I rented this one for a day:

http://www.getaround.com/Halo

It was expensive, but I really wanted to learn what it was like to have an EV for a full day of longish road trippin' and this seemed like the best way to do it. Jessica and I drove 450 miles in about 24 hours and charged while stopped for food, a friend's going-away party near Seattle, and sleep. It cemented the fact that I wouldn't own an EV that didn't have fast charge capability. I learned a lot of other little things about EV ownership, but that was definitely the most important.

I took several friends out for joyrides that had never experienced an EV and, of course, everybody loved it. I'd love to own one someday, too bad they're so damn expensive! Awesome car, especially considering it was Tesla's first crack.

Bryce

As a point of reference, how hot was it at the track? When I had my rental unit, the only time I got it into reduced performance mode was with a really low state of charge, but I wasn't doing full power runs for lap after lap. I know that there are tricks to trying to balance maximum performance (warm battery) with longevity (cool battery)...so maybe these guys were ok with getting a shorter duration of high power laps instead of more laps with slightly less power? In other words, they could chill the pack and get a lot more than 7 laps, but they wouldn't be getting maximum power until they had already been going a few laps.

Bryce

ZOO wrote: First, the torque is addicitive -- especially compared to my Elise and my Miata.

This. A thousand times this. I really hope some form of EV catches on because of the ever-present torque.

My second favorite thing about the Roadster was the steering feel. It was just 100% right. I want to get my Miata to have that combination of weight and feel.

a gentlemen in my autocross club bought one. I got to take a few rides around the course with him. Holy hell was it fun.

While teaching DE today we passed a green Tesla convertible. Kids liked it.

Nashco wrote: As a point of reference, how hot was it at the track? When I had my rental unit, the only time I got it into reduced performance mode was with a really low state of charge, but I wasn't doing full power runs for lap after lap. I know that there are tricks to trying to balance maximum performance (warm battery) with longevity (cool battery)...so maybe these guys were ok with getting a shorter duration of high power laps instead of more laps with slightly less power? In other words, they could chill the pack and get a lot more than 7 laps, but they wouldn't be getting maximum power until they had already been going a few laps. Bryce

It was 30 degrees Celsius -- so it was quite warm. SMP is about 4 kilometres long.

You can buy a used Mustang with more torque and HP and more features for 12K? Why would anyone buy a Tesla?

All in all a cool experience. I'm not a convert, yet, but I am glad to see the owners participating and pushing the envelope.

Great way to end that post.

Exposure is the first step to forming educated opinions and right now the general population has extremely low exposure. It's a lot easier on the brain to listen to people who have at least tried it before knocking it, even if they knock it.

please say you had "Edison's Medicine" cranking on the stereo the whole time you were driving it...

Some pics . . .