I just went to the Tesla dealer in Menlo Park, CA. They are delivering cars; produced 13 cars last week.

They are pretty! To my taste, much better than the Elise, but I like smoother lines (hence, my S2000).

They are going for $109,000 now, and you have to pay in advance. So their customers are financing their working capital, which is nice in this economic environment, but some day will stop working; hopefully, they can get credit by then.

It was a very fun visit.

 

Fun enough to buy one?

 

Not for that price.

But it was cool seeing a whole bunch of a car that I had only read about until now, and that is, in fact, very pretty.

I'm really not in the wealth bracket where I'd pay $109,000 for any car (especially not while I'm spending almost that much educating my two younger children every year), but especially not on one that wouldn't make it through a 30 minute session at the track.

 

I wonder if we'll start seeing plug-in power ports at race tracks. Slide your credit card through, and pay by the kilowatt.

 

I talked to the salesman about tracking the Tesla. They clearly have had it out to several of the great California tracks.

The motor is air-cooled, and the ECU cuts power when it gets too hot, which happens in California when going all out; perhaps they're looking into water-cooling (he was coy about that). It sometimes would last 30 minutes, sometimes not.

It has a single-speed transaxle; the motor revs to 14k, so driving it on the track would be un-complicated (no more double- or triple-downshifts). It goes 0-60 in under 4 seconds, but tops out at about 125 (just like my Miata!).

As previously mentioned, it's a beautiful car, and I hope they succeed; if they do, it will be interesting to see the evolution of their product(s).

 

cool car !!! not really feelin the electric part! also cant help to think the rims look like gsr blades lol!

 

I would love to check one out.