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"just maybe"? My ten year old four-cylinder Opel Omega has a higher top speed than that. As for acceleration... well:

The Lotus Exige S, based on a similar platform to the one Tesla is using, does 0-100km/h in about 4.1 seconds, and costs ~40k less. A Porsche 997 Turbo could be as fast as 3.2 seconds, while the GT2 and GT3 have comparable times. The Nissan GT-R and Viper ACR are at about 3.5-3.3. The Caterham R500 is even better at about 2.88.

Ok, so the Caterham is a ridiculous car, but the others don't sacrifice much for the speed, and cost a reasonable amount of money (that is, we're not talking Veyron money here).

One huge difference here is that the Tesla is likely to give nearly the ideal acceleration for most of the ordinary consumers. There is no gear shift to enable and therefore no special skills for accelerating.... other than stomping on the gas pedal when the light turns green.

The times you are quoting above have usually been done by professional drivers who have spent a considerable amount of time with the engineers and have fine-tuned precisely when they should shift gears and are maximizing performance to get those times. I find it unlikely that even a good driver under more typical circumstances can obtain this sort of performance.

Still, your point is well taken, and there are other high performance automobiles that certainly can take on a Tesla Roadster at a similar if not slightly smaller price. It should also be noted that most of the other electric automobile manufacturers tend to make things that are glorified golf carts that would be lucky to get to 60 mph at all going downhill with hurricane force winds at the tail.... and you would be afraid of something breaking at that speed anyway.

A "reasonable price" is relative anyway... and besides, the resale value of a Tesla Roadster is currently higher than it costs to buy one direct from Tesla. My last car I purchased for $500 USD (admittedly not new, but it runs just fine).

"just maybe"? My ten year old four-cylinder Opel Omega has a higher top speed than that. As for acceleration... well:

The Lotus Exige S, based on a similar platform to the one Tesla is using, does 0-100km/h in about 4.1 seconds, and costs ~40k less. A Porsche 997 Turbo could be as fast as 3.2 seconds, while the GT2 and GT3 have comparable times. The Nissan GT-R and Viper ACR are at about 3.5-3.3. The Caterham R500 is even better at about 2.88.

Ok, so the Caterham is a ridiculous car, but the others don't sacrifice much for the speed, and cost a reasonable amount of money (that is, we're not talking Veyron money here).

I dare you, I double dare you - do the right thing for a change.

Only if Elon Musk is in charge.

Are you called Homer?

I'm sorry hollywood, but the tanking economy and your new-low in cowardice do not excuse you going on an all out rampage against scifi classics.

Sequel = BAD,

Let's not forget the Tesla. Top Gear had an interesting piece on it, that ended in scandal.

Let's not forget the Tesla. Top Gear had an interesting piece on it, that ended in scandal.

Or to put it another way, "They just don't make 'em like that anymore."

Pretty clever. The car's batteries power to the home, and the car's software takes care of the duty cycle.

If he got 17kWh out of 5 gallons of gasoline, he's running at about 10% efficiency (~35 MJ/L == 36 kWh/gal), which is about half as efficient as the 20% you're likely to get out of a dedicated diesel generator. The internal combustion engine of the car isn't running 24/7, it's cycling on and off every half hour or so, and there should be relatively little CO buildup within the house. (Still, if you're going to try this, you should have a CO alarm handy.)

What you lose in efficiency is made up for by the fact that if you own a hybrid, your "emergency backup generator" doubles as a source of transportation during the 99% of the time that it's not being used. As long as the roads remain passable, you can use your emergency generator to refuel itself.

In American industry, the more unreasonable the request, the better the engineers and workers assigned to the problem like it. American White and Blue collar labor loves and lives for the "moon shot" - we don't know how we'll do it, the current state-of-the-art says we can't do it, and we've got an irrationally short timeframe to do it in. Out of our way, we'll freakin' do it.

This is reflected in the Aerospace industry, in Silicon Valley, and even in Detroit. Ford asked their engineers and UAW workers to build a hybrid. They built one, then two hybrids that beat the everloving hell out of the Japanese models.

Here's the deal, tho... if Ford didn't have an "outsider" CEO, a guy who came from Boeing, it would never have been done.

There is a class of employee in Detroit who refuses to see the writing on the wall. Who refuses to alter the way they've been doing things for decades, convinced of their inherent superiority.

Not the UAW line workers. Not the pencil-pusher engineers. The management. The MBA miracles who have, in concert, done their damndest to run the US auto industry into the ground.

The engineers love a challenge, and American engineering stands for itself - from the original Model T to the Apollo Program to the Apple II. The workers stand for themselves, Union or not - Ford (Union) and Honda (Not) get about the same productivity from their American factories, and at the same cost, and it's a hell of a lot better than even the Japanese factories. (The problem facing the Big Three is actually =overproduction= - their factories churn out too much product that no-one is buying, because the product is crap, as mandated by MBA Miracles.) The Unions take pride in their work... you don't hear much about "those shoddy Boeing Jets", despite being engineered and made by Union members.

The management, the "money-men" - they all suck. Universally. This is the same class of management pros who ran Wallstreet into the ground. Fire them all, and put an engineer or a union boss in charge - I can guarantee a better product at a lower cost.

Maybe, but first they have to ensure that the cabin does better in safety tests.

http://jalopnik.com/cars/news/chinese-suv-scores-zero-in-european-safety-test-126200.php

Yes, but that means Telsa is only playing catch-up. Not to mention Toyota and Honda.

And don't forget, GEM is a subsidiary of Chrysler.

Everyone seems to believe designing and manufacturing a car that everyone can drive is easy. Tesla didn't design their chassis, its Lotus derived. Tesla didn't deliver on time and didn't deliver what they promised because they couldn't get their transmissions done properly. They laid off their workers via a blog post. They've got 100s of pre-order checks, but no money to build them.

"No point planning beyond 40% of the build for me."

Agreed.

Also the article is wrong. The guy built it from aluminum parts he made. This isn't a real Lamborghini. This is equivalent to someone building a PC case out of scrap metal and calling it Antec or Coolermaster.

don't get me wrong it looks nice, but "Lamborghini" is a real brand name. What he did was custom build a car that looks like a Lamborghini.

Nice work Ken. Need more pics though

Here's the original article with a bunch more pics and a video at the bottom. They did this feature first and interviewed him after, so it kinda makes sense to browse this before clicking the original link I posted :)

Ken didn't forget to build a way out. I first read about this via this interview.


"The idea to build the car in the basement is pretty simple really. I recalled back to my childhood again and remember my Dad's car projects always being put on hold during the winter because we couldn't afford to heat the one car garage. Sure I could heat my garage and do the work in there, but then my cars would have to sit in the driveway. I live in Wisconsin where winters seem to last six months out of the year, so that would be a long time with no place to put the daily drivers. This was going to be a long project and I figured the house had an unfinished basement with plenty of room and was heated anyway, what a perfect scenario. There would be no excuses not to work on the car right? Before I started off on the project, I had a neighborhood contractor take a look at it and he was confident I wasn't losing my mind. I will admit, the one thing I didn't think beforehand was how everything was going to either go down the stairs or go through a small basement window. There were times I wondered how well those 50 year old stairs were built, but thankfully I never did have an incident."

This is exactly why I have given up on the Chevy Volt. If you havnt seen it, take a look at the concept version versus the production model.

Yuck and also yuck. Throw the new Camaro in there and you have a hat trick of ugly.

This is exactly why I have given up on the Chevy Volt. If you havnt seen it, take a look at the concept version versus the production model. Sure, the changes were made for reasons of aerodynamic efficiency, but it could at least look a little more like the new camaro.

Anyway, I'll just have to win the lotto and get a Fisker Karma.

This is exactly why I have given up on the Chevy Volt. If you havnt seen it, take a look at the concept version versus the production model. Sure, the changes were made for reasons of aerodynamic efficiency, but it could at least look a little more like the new camaro.

Anyway, I'll just have to win the lotto and get a Fisker Karma.

Better pictures.

Hopefully, this car will come to the states soon.

New Honda Insight Hybrid Revealed, Expected $18,500 Price Tag To Make It World's Cheapest

Dont know about you, but I would say thats a bit more detail on pricing, $18500, about the price of a standard/econo car these days.

tm

"400 hp sportscar."

pfft, get a real sports car.

http://jalopnik.com/cars/detroit-auto-show/2009-chevrolet-corvette-zr1-revealed-officially-334923.php

rumor is after market chip and it will break 700hp. it's 620 stock.

Although I don't know if I like the new design as much.

at least the rich have an option - Anti-GPS Tracker Device

In the light of recent events, I'd rather not ride their bus at all.

This could just as easily be used by a terrorist who has control of the kill codes and disables a plane while its on its final descent. Or they create a situation whereby planes must be used to evacuate people but all the planes are disabled. Somehow reminds me of this, a prototype system to remotely disable cars fleeing from cops. Which could also be used by cracker/criminals to prevent their victims from fleeing TO safety. Or by a rogue government to lock down a whole city.

But beside the issue of inevitable abuse, there's something repellent about these incremental encroachments upon our free will, Technology as our protector/warden. At what point do we decide that we have surrendered too much of our autonomy as living creatures for the sake of safety? Too many find false comfort in the womb-like cocoon of total surveillance and control. "...and when I wake up, I'll be fat and rich and I won't remember a goddamned thing." But unlike The Matrix, in the real world the technology is not run by impersonal machines but by real people who we voluntarily set up as our masters.

If racing is to be used as a testbed for automotive technology, we need to put more emphasis on fuel efficiency. F1 using hybrid cars is a nice idea, but everyone will have the same setup. We need more competition.

I propose that one of the major racing leagues starts implementing fuel caps on each race. A good starting point is the average fuel currently burned by each car in a given race. By making this the cap, next years competitors have roughly a 50% chance of winning the race unless they improve their vehicle to be more fuel efficient. Each year the previous year's average fuel consumption will be used to determine the amount of fuel alloted.

The average will go down because no team can use more than the previous year's average (they will run out of gas). By eliminating things like restrictor plates or downforce restrictions the teams are free to be creative at how they accomplish these goals.

Actually ford is planning on bringing back the F100 in 2010. this link is one of many mentioning the rumors. Supposedly it will be a completely redesigned replacement for the Ranger. I have seen other more reliable sources saying the same thing, but can't find them right now...

Doesn't even need to be a high end luxury car to get to that price range. Check out this Silverado: http://jalopnik.com/354900/the-ten-most-outrageous-car-msrps

Interesting part is that Daimler took care of haulage free of charge so they could use the stunt as an advertisement for their 'new' heavy haulage truck the Actros SLT.

They put out a nice press release with cuddly photos of the action: http://jalopnik.com/383099/daimler-tugs-soviet-buran-spaceship-self

One picture in 6 mos to a year video surveillance does not make.

True, but it only takes one picture to embarrass somebody, to catch a crime in progress, or to simply show an individual in a location where they're rather it not be known they are. Many people are already aware that Street View captured the results of more than one automobile accidents. How would you like to be immortalized for riding your bike down the street, unaware that Google just snapped a picture of you showing your jeans riding down your backside?

Security cameras like those in ATM's have very limited visibility & range, and most people know they are there. The contents of those tapes also aren't generally available to the public. They most likely would need a court order to obtain. How would you like it if the whole world could simply go to Google and see a photograph of you walking into a motel with a prostitute, leaving a strip club, getting mugged on the side of the street, or caught in the act of accidentally hitting somebody in a crosswalk with your car? It's that kind of publicity that most people are concerned about.

Given that Google, MSN, etc. are doing this I bet it's just a matter of time before police start mounting cameras on their patrol cars as a means to identify illegal behavior that the officers in the car might miss. How would you like to get a ticket in the mail a week after a police car driving by takes a photo of you jaywalking? That's the sort of thing this could eventually lead to, and that's not what most people want.

how many times people keep "discovering" the same thing. This has been on /. at least twice in the past.

Everything you need to know:
http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html

More:
http://jalopnik.com/335832/traffic-jam-mystery-solved-++-blame-the-wave

People need to do a simple google search before starting research.

That's not what the latest Hummer was for?

Radio-Fuel autos may solve gas problem!"

All you do, you see, is you put this big coil above your car, and several gigawatts RF transmitters embedded in the roadway! Waste heat from the transmitters (and the melted tires, and the roasting humans) can even be used to ensure that ice never accumulates on the road!

Do you think that was pure blind luck or that I am a pretty good marksman? At the first shot, you wouldn't have known that I'm that good so you would have been really worried. But after the 20,000th successful shot, you would (hopefully) think "Gee, I guess he's really good, therefore the first shot wasn't as dangerous as I thought."

Um, no. Actually I would probably be shitting my pants wondering why I just got shot at 20,000 times. Oh, wait, I guess you're assuming I was a knowing volunteer and/or participant in this apple shoot... kinda completely unlike all the other drivers on the road who wouldn't be expecting some jackass to do something dumb like... ya know ... illegaly passing in the rain at high-speed using the pull-off lane. Oh, but he knew what he was doing, because gumballers never screw up, now do they? 20,000 shots don't mean anything if the 20,001st caps somebody in the brainpan. So far he's been lucky, because experience would dictate not driving like a moron under fatigue and poor road conditions. There are plenty of experienced/professional drivers driving rigs, and even they can suffer a momentary laps or circumstance which ends badly.

Actually, the picture in the article was from this year's Gumball 3000 -- an event where they are contractually obliged to deck their cars out in the event's sponsors' logos. It was also an event that took place after Alex's speed record attempt. Jalopnik has some pictures of the car as it was decked out for the transcontinental run. Aside from the abundance of antennas and a few small stickers on the trunk, the car looked like a relatively normal E39 BMW sedan.

One thing the Wired article also neglected to mention and that was mentioned in one of the Jalopnik articles (that I'm too lazy to look up a link for) was that they actually crafted a cover story in classic Cannonball tradition. Their cover for their fast driving and for all of the gadgets on their car was that they were storm chasers chasing a fast moving front across the country. I find it kind of funny since, to my knowledge, most storm fronts in the US move from West to East, not East to West as they were driving.

This story names the drivers who caused the accident as Morley and McConville, who are named as Team Polizei drivers in this story.

This story names the drivers who caused the accident as Morley and McConville, who are named as Team Polizei drivers in this story.

These are also the same group people that killed an innocent couple during last years gumball. How many will they kill this year?

http://jalopnik.com/cars/gumball-3000/gumballers-nick-morley-and-matthew-mcconville-arrested-after-hit+and+run-fatality-257447.php

In this case by the 300 mph hydrogen fuel cell Buckeye Bullet.

http://jalopnik.com/cars/alternative-energy/300%25 2B-mph-buckeye-bullet-hydrogen-fuel-cell-streamlin er-259765.php

Tell that to the people of Detroit, MI (and many other local economies ruined by offshoring).

I'm guessing the guy would still be in trouble because the look of the Ferrari is probably trademarked or something.

Ferrari can't do that!

The only thing companies in sane (i.e., not computer-related) industries are allowed to trademark are logos. So yes, a person could make a car look just like a Ferrari, legally -- as long as they didn't copy the actual Ferrari logo.

On the other hand, I can't stand reviews that fall into a volley of pros and cons. It creates a text-based tennis match that makes me want to vomit after a few paragraphs of indecisive rambling.

"Sure, the software took hours of troubleshooting to get working, but once it was running it loaded files without a problem!" or "It wouldn't play any files created in the advertised to work playsforsure format, but those formats that did work sounded great."

So, no, he didn't go out of his way to say anything nice about the unit because he had nothing nice to say. The positive things I appended to his comments weren't worth saying because the unit should do these things anyway. One would expect the software to work as designed and formats to play as advertised, so why should he tout these abilities? He shouldn't make apologies for a bad user experience. What I wonder is - did he buy the unit himself or was he supplied the unit for a review? What about other reviewers who might be doing volley reviews of the Zune? If anything, freebie product creates a positive bias that simply can't be trusted to be accurate, lest you piss off your source of free crap.

Jalopnik did a great article about how car magazines won't slam a long term tester because of the benefits they receive by being given free cars to drive. Every "review" they publish balances each bad aspect with a good one. This is not "subjective", this is biased. A review shouldn't straddle the fence - it should go one way or the other.

Since the range is a problem... manufacturers haven't been working on performance-oriented electric vehicles.

Why, sure they have! The only issue is that, because of the range problems, they're only working on vehicles competing in the "rich-guy's occasionally-driven toy" market (i.e., the market populated by exotics like the Lotus Elise and Enzo Ferrari -- not stuff suitable for daily driving, like the Corvette). Here are some examples:

• AC Propulsion Tzero
• Wrightspeed X1 (based on the Ariel Atom)
• Tesla Roadster (based on the Lotus Elise) [note: the company website has no useful information]
• Venturi Fetish [warning: Flash]

actually my car has a EPS ( Other cars with Eps ) and think of the impact of this in honda's autopilot car so, this idea could prove to be very dangerous indeed.
Besides that there's a lot of critical eletronic-systems already very much in use such as ABS eletronic-breaks

actually my car has a EPS ( Other cars with Eps ) and think of the impact of this in honda's autopilot car so, this idea could prove to be very dangerous indeed.
Besides that there's a lot of critical eletronic-systems already very much in use such as ABS eletronic-breaks

So this guy finds a page that includes a pink Hello Kitty Ferrari, a toaster, and a personal sand crawler and he decides that slashdotters would be interested in the toaster?!? For the $$$ I'd take the crawler over two toasters any day.