Much as I love my VR6 .. Tesla Model S P85D test drive.

[dr_mat 0]

The Corrado is now officially dull. Boring. Meaningless. Yawn...

 

Jeezus the Tesla is fast..

 

Did a couple of low-ish speed pulls in insane mode and it just pummels you into the seat. But the most impressive thing is that you can plant the throttle in a ~690lbft car round a roundabout and it'll work out how to get the power down as best it can. A little bit of a scrabble from the tyres, a little bit of understeer at first, but then it just bites when you get to the straight and it catapults you forward like nothing else (*).

 

I would say that yes the steering isn't as insightful as the Corrado (pretty much nothing is), but other than that it's a poor relative and for the first few thousand miles at least you would be grinning so much from the torque that you wouldn't notice..

 

Anyone else had a play?

 

 

( * - ok like a handful of other cars, all costing seriously in excess of 100k.. )

[EJ Taylor 22]

"The Corrado is now officially dull. Boring. Meaningless. Yawn..."

 

*My Corrado :smug:

[dr_mat 0]

"The Corrado is now officially dull. Boring. Meaningless. Yawn..."

 

*My Corrado :smug:

 

Nah, any Corrado .. ;)

[Jim 1]

Nah, any Corrado .. ;)

 

I am extremely envious :) Been a close follower of Tesla for quite a few years now and long lusted after the Model S in it's various incarnations over the last couple of years. Never managed to yet blag a passenger ride (or better drive!) of one :(

 

I did however get to go out in a Tesla Roadster a couple of years ago and yeah - it blew my mind. The performance was staggering. Same thing with the traction control too in the one I went out in - even though the road was damp, it still gripped and launched like it was fired out of a cannon.

 

I'm totally sold on electric to be honest. Infrastructure is progressing nicely, battery tech is improving all the time... I will have an electric car eventually!

[MZpog 10]

Whilst I can't afford a car to give me a kick like that, I never get tired of the bang for buck buzz 2 wheels offers me. My current weekend toy claims to do 60 in 2.6 seconds, but I never ride it like that, honest officer.

[dr_mat 0]

I am extremely envious :)

 

I did however get to go out in a Tesla Roadster a couple of years ago and yeah - it blew my mind. The performance was staggering. Same thing with the traction control too in the one I went out in - even though the road was damp, it still gripped and launched like it was fired out of a cannon.

 

I will have an electric car eventually!

 

I had the passenger experience too, but sadly my co driver was more of the "miss daisy" inclination than I so I had to wait till I got behind the wheel to properly experiment. The potential is huge though. And the fact that any old idiot can get in the driver's seat, plant the throttle and it'll see you alright and give you a bit of a thrill along the way is deeply impressive. Totally exploitable for all. And 7 seats, air con, a huge boot, the best safety record of any car on the planet thus far and 300+ mile range too.

 

I think we'll all have electric cars eventually, tbh. It's a much more sensible way of propelling a passenger vehicle.

 

Meanwhile I fell back in love with the Corrado on the way home from work. Frankly when it's wet the tyres are so rubbish that you can make the thing dance across the road sideways and balance it with the throttle, brakes, and wild steering inputs. Mucho entertainment, even if it's not so fast in a straight line.. and can barely put down the power it has - was spinning the wheels at 70mph in 3rd gear on the wet, that was a little scary.

 

So everything's ok again. As you were! :)

Edited May 18, 2016 by dr_mat

[davidwort 0]

At the more realistic end of the market I went out in a 25 grand Nissan Leaf the other day, plus points being it clearly had the immediate max torque that an electric motor offers and there's plenty of places to recharge for nothing, but god is it a soulless cheaply made plastic hatchback, and once you get above 40 the tyre noise is really intrusive, there's plenty of quieter equivalent petrol and diesels.

Range anxiety is a problem as air con or heating sucks a lot of the 100 mile max away and refuelling every day would just be a pita. I'm not sure if the battery degradation gauge is a good idea either, not nice being reminded daily how your battery is getting worse, imagine having a 10 litre fuel tank that got smaller every year you owned the car, then you had to pay several grand for a new one!

Needs a few more generations and 300 mile range IMO but if you spend an hour in heavy traffic each day commuting and don't mind what your car looks like it would do the job ok.

[dr_mat 0]

At least it costs more like £18k after rebates. Still expensive. On the upside if you suffer range anxiety they will loan you a petrol/diesel car of your choice for up to two weeks per year for free to take on any longer trips you have planned. It is transport as utility, and that's enough for some people. I think they warrant the battery for 8 years/100k miles by the way. And they reckon that the earliest cars out there are still seeing almost no capacity loss, so it's not that bad.

 

In the not too distant future zero-emissions will be a requirement to enter certain cities...

Edited May 18, 2016 by dr_mat

[Jim 1]

At least it costs more like £18k after rebates. Still expensive. On the upside if you suffer range anxiety they will loan you a petrol/diesel car of your choice for up to two weeks per year for free to take on any longer trips you have planned. It is transport as utility, and that's enough for some people. I think they warrant the battery for 8 years/100k miles by the way. And they reckon that the earliest cars out there are still seeing almost no capacity loss, so it's not that bad.

 

In the not too distant future zero-emissions will be a requirement to enter certain cities...

 

Indeed. And many of these cheaper electric cars pretty much force you into paying a battery 'subscription' which means as soon as your battery loses capacity or suffers some other kind of ill health, it's replaced.

 

I still think an electric car with a range of ~100 miles is perfectly adequate for a large number of people. Especially when plenty of places these days (like shopping centres, city centres, supermarkets, etc) have charging points - so the car can be charging whilst you're between errands, or at work or whatever.

[dr_mat 0]

Absolutely. In fact my mate was looking at them for this exact reason. As a dedicated tree hugging non-petrolhead it makes perfect sense for him.. :)

 

Me, I'm waiting for the Tesla Model 3. Maybe.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The Corrado is now officially dull. Boring. Meaningless. Yawn...

 

Jeezus the Tesla is fast..

 

Did a couple of low-ish speed pulls in insane mode and it just pummels you into the seat. But the most impressive thing is that you can plant the throttle in a ~690lbft car round a roundabout and it'll work out how to get the power down as best it can. A little bit of a scrabble from the tyres, a little bit of understeer at first, but then it just bites when you get to the straight and it catapults you forward like nothing else (*).

 

I would say that yes the steering isn't as insightful as the Corrado (pretty much nothing is), but other than that it's a poor relative and for the first few thousand miles at least you would be grinning so much from the torque that you wouldn't notice..

 

Anyone else had a play?

 

 

( * - ok like a handful of other cars, all costing seriously in excess of 100k.. )

 

They were meaningless and dull years ago!

 

Haven't been in a P85D, but was annihilated by one off the lights a few weeks back :D Very impressive machines! Nice looking cars to boot.

 

A local chap has one and we often bump into each other on the daily commute. As impressive as it is off the line, it's less so round corners. A lot of bulk to carry around though, so not surprising. And going by some midrange pulls we had on the dual carriageway, they don't appear to have the same kind of thrust off the line whilst on the move. Probably some kind of battery saving mode?

[coullstar 0]

Im sold on the overall performance thing, they will be come more and more popluar. In Norway they are really popluar but probably due to very low tax levels.

Zero emissions is great as well however Im still not sure over these as to the overall environmental impact with regards to the batteries. What happens to them once there "spent"?

[Jim 1]

Im sold on the overall performance thing, they will be come more and more popluar. In Norway they are really popluar but probably due to very low tax levels.

Zero emissions is great as well however Im still not sure over these as to the overall environmental impact with regards to the batteries. What happens to them once there "spent"?

 

Interestingly they have (slightly fluffy and light on details) explanation of what happens to their 'deceased' battery packs:

 

https://www.teslamotors.com/en_GB/blog/tesla-launches-battery-recycling-program-throughout-europe

 

In short, some of the materials go into new batteries, and some of it goes into making a special type of concrete?!

[dr_mat 0]

They were meaningless and dull years ago!

 

Haven't been in a P85D, but was annihilated by one off the lights a few weeks back :D Very impressive machines! Nice looking cars to boot.

 

A local chap has one and we often bump into each other on the daily commute. As impressive as it is off the line, it's less so round corners. A lot of bulk to carry around though, so not surprising. And going by some midrange pulls we had on the dual carriageway, they don't appear to have the same kind of thrust off the line whilst on the move. Probably some kind of battery saving mode?

 

The performance differential between them and non-electric cars is less pronounced from a rolling start, but it's still capable of producing well over 700bhp, likely around 800lbft at the wheels. There are different energy saving modes though, he might have been in "normal" instead of insane.. (limits to around 380kw output, or about 560bhp I think).

 

Round corners they actually handle really really well. All the weight (2 tonne of it) is about at the height of the axles so the car is exceptionally stable, plus four wheel drive and it'll pull round corners like it doesn't care. Perhaps he had a cup of coffee in his lap...

 

As for the environmentals of it.. it's great - assuming you only use green electricity to charge it. If you burn fossil fuels to charge it it's capable of consuming a vast amount of energy very quickly, and the effective mpg drops quickly. Physics says there's no cheap way to accelerate 2 tonnes that fast...