The Ferrari 458 Italia is a pretty quick car, right. In a straight out drag race there’s not many cars that can beat it. Surely a miserly four-door Tesla Model S can’t do it?
Well, off the line, yes, it can. And by some margin. This is thanks to the Tesla’s near-instant torque and all-wheel drive grip.
And the Tesla’s not just happy hosing Ferraris off the line either. See below for more.
[Thanks to John for the tip]
The lights have been turned off at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show and the mammoth task of dismantling the huge displays has begun. To recap what you may have missed here’s a selection of 120+ pics reminding you what was on show.
You can have your fancy pants limited-edition Lambo, or your stonking new LaFerrari, even the McLaren P1; we’re not really interested. The car of Geneva, for us, is the Porsche 911 GT3. That’s the one we’d like to take home and get intimate with. And so begins the second and final part of our Geneva Motor Show image gallery. There’s over 120 new images to see and enjoy.
Here we bring you an almost pointless video from Automobile magazine who have lined up a Tesla S and BMW M5 for a drag. But it’s a bit of harmless fun and on paper both manufacturers claim 4.4 seconds are required to reach 100km/h. So let’s see that theory put to practice. Which car do you think will win a straight out drag?
Although, regardless of this result, we think it would be more fun to drive both cars hard around a track or mountain road and see which one runs out of juice first. The Tesla S, with its predicted 480km range (when driven at 90km/h), or the M5 and its 80 litre fuel tank. Bit of a no brainer, perhaps?
US businessman Steve Jurvetson is the first person to get his hands on the new four-door Tesla Model S, a couple of weeks ahead of schedule too. You can see a short video of him driving away in his new car from Stanford University’s business school. There’s a bit of fanfare with people lining the way as Jurveston drives off in his US$90,000 plaything, but it’s nothing like the fanaticism whipped up at an Apple Store opening.
We’re sure you’ll agree the Model S is a very smart looking car. True to Tesla form performance is key to its character. We think Jurveston has picked up the Performance model, so the 85kWh battery can propel the rear-wheel drive saloon to 60mph in a mere 4.4 seconds.
More impressively, Tesla claim the Model S Performance can travel 300 miles (480km) at 55mph, roughly 90km/h, on a single charge. That’s actually pretty good, don’t you think?
[Thanks to Michael for the tip]
British high court judge Justice Tugendhat has ruled Jeremy Clarkson and Top Gear did not mislead the public over the travelling range of the electric-powered Tesla sportscar.
“In my judgment, the words complained of are wholly incapable of conveying any meaning at all to the effect that the claimant [Tesla] misled anyone,” Justice Tugendhat said.
“This is because there is a contrast between the style of driving and the nature of the track as compared with the conditions on a public road […] are so great that no reasonable person could understand that the performance on the [Top Gear] track is capable of a direct comparison with a public road.”
However, the Tesla v Top Gear case remains ongoing while the fight over malicious falsehood claims continues. Included in the claims is Tesla’s belief that staged footage was used to deliberately portray the Roadster to have poor battery performance.
The original episode aired in 2008 (Series 12, Episode 7) but can still be accessed via the BBC iPlayer website. This, say Tesla, results in a “continuing impact” on its reputation. Top Gear, of course, say that’s rubbish (as outlined previously by the show’s Executive Producer).
[Source: The Guardian]
Andy Wilman, Top Gear’s Executive Producer, has taken the unusual step of publicly responding to Tesla’s legal challenge with an entry on the Top Gear Transmission blog. Importantly, he addresses the allegation that Top Gear had prepared its verdict on the car before filming for their review began.
Last week Tesla issued a writ against Top Gear claiming defamation and malicious falsehood over the show’s review of the Tesla Roadster (Series 12, Episode 7).
In Wilman’s blog he counters Tesla’s general criticisms, but it is his words on the claim that Top Gear had pre-judged the electric-powered sportscar before driving it, as evidenced by scripts seen by a Tesla employee, that carries the most interest.
First, Wilman states, “The truth is, Top Gear had already driven the car prior to filming, to enable us to form a view on it in advance.”
Cast your mind back to December 2008. That’s when Jeremy Clarkson reviewed the electric-powered Tesla Roadster on Top Gear. Generally speaking, he praised the Tesla for its rapid pace, but was very critical about the time it would take to re-charge the battery when it went flat.
And it is the subject of the battery going flat that has landed Clarkson and the BBC in hot water. In his review Jeremy claimed the battery could go flat after just 55 miles of travel on the Top Gear test track. The next shot showed the car being pushed into a hangar to be re-charged.
Clarkson also claimed the brakes failed on the test car. He concluded his review by saying, “What we have here, then, is an astonishing technical achievement. The first electric car that you might actually want to buy. It’s just a shame, that in the real world, it doesn’t seem to work.”