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"Ludicrous Speed" For Tesla's Model S Means 0-60 MPH In 2.8 Seconds
Automobile Magazine, writes reader Eloking, reports that the highest-end of the Tesla line has just gotten a boost upward, thanks to a new "Ludicrous Speed" mode:
In combination with a newly optional 90-kWh battery pack, this new mode brings 0-60 mph acceleration down to 2.8 seconds (from a quoted 3.2 seconds for the P85D model). This larger battery pack is offered as an upgrade from the existing 85-kWh model, creating new 90, 90D, and P90D models.
It doesn't come cheap, though: this isn't just a firmware update to download. For P90D owners, the upgrade costs $10,000 (including the larger battery); P85Ds can be upgraded for half that price.
Are you even trying anymore, editors?
An article on CNN has a few more details.
Their next generation, out in four years, will offer "Maximum Plaid." No, really.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Then Mel Brooks sues Ludacris for prior, prior art.
New Tesla Model S P90D “Ludicrous Speed” Goes 0-60 MPH in 2.8 Seconds
That's gotta have some interesting ramifications when you are driving on a slope, especially if you are accelerating over a small rise in the road.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
A '72 Z28 Camaro is around 4 seconds, so I agree - those numbers are suspect at best. Have they actually done it? Or is this what the engineers calculate it might be able to do?
I'm not sure its reasonable to compare a one wheel wonder rear wheel drive car (standard differential) to an all wheel drive electric. You are basically running on a fraction of the traction and therefore theoretical maximum acceleration for your tires.
No, they went to earnings calls and straight to market just on the strength of some nerd's multiplication skills, no one actually thought of getting into a car and timing it. Maybe you should call and let them know to try it.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Have the battery display look like a flux capacitor.
Oh yes...
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
A '72 Z28 Camaro is around 4 seconds, so I agree - those numbers are suspect at best. Have they actually done it? Or is this what the engineers calculate it might be able to do?
This is a Poe, right? Well played. YouTube will give you the answers you seek. :)
The 762 HP all-wheel drive electric car with traction control and performance tires (standard on the Model D) most definitely blows the doors of of the 255 HP rear wheel drive V8 with a standard differential. Also, the '72 Z/28 has a 0-60 time of 7.4 seconds.
Some privacy policy Slashdot.
Utility of a 2.8 second 0-60 time for most ICE car owners = 0.
Utility of being able to drive 500 miles and then 'recharge' in five minutes = lots.
Utility of having decent range and never having to stop at a gas station = priceless!
Seriously. Buy a second car (owners of this Tesla can certainly afford one). Or borrow a friends (they'll be happy to drive you Telsa for a day). Or rent a car for your trip. The convenience of having a fully charged car every morning more than makes up for any range anxiety I might have had, and my electric has less than half the range of a Tesla.
"It's Tesla One... they've gone Plaid!"
Yeah? Well I strapped some fucking rockets to my car and it went from 0 to 60 MPH in about 0.8 seconds. So fuck you.
Yes, but that was 0-60 straight up.
To win the race you need to move forward, and the largest piece left over from the explosion must cross the finish line.
Tesla has liquid battery cooling that can dissipate quite a lot of heat. It was quite difficult to hit throttling even during a race on a real racetrack (and impossible on regular public roads). And they've also reduced the throttling in recent software updates.
I used to race RC cars in competition. Both "Stock cars" (we called them pan cars) and drag races. We're not talking about walmart RC cars here... Mine were custom cut out of graphite sheets with a CNC router. My pan car would do between 70 and 80mph real speed, not scale. The drag car wasn't really measurable but it's speed resembled an arrow in flight. Random video I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Basically everything Tesla is doing was stolen from my old hobby. The torque possible with an electric motor is only limited by the fleshy bit behind the steering wheel. Tesla could literally kill you if they let the motor wind out at full torque. The biggest problem I had to deal with was the heat on the power cables. The cables were the size of pencils but they were draining 20+ c-cell batteries completely dead in just a few seconds. As the tech advanced, we eventually had to get rid of battery connectors completely. We'd solder the battery backs directly to the speed controller. Then the cables between cells would start melting, so we spot welded sheet metal directly to them. Then the speed controllers started frying to we switched to mechanical relays that just dumped the entire battery at 100% at once. We had so many car fires, the school gyms that we used to race at wouldn't let us run there anymore. If you're wondering, to get batteries to dump that much juice at once, you have to "Train" them... we'd hook them up to tractor headlights from the local farm implement store and dump them quick. Then charge them quick. Do this hundreds of times and they'd turn into these super high voltage power houses. I think a while later, after I left the hobby, they put limits on the voltage output of the batteries, because they were getting pretty dangerous. I saw people get hurt at some major competitions by batteries exploding and in one case a car punched through a 3/4" sheet of plywood and broke a persons leg. That was from a standing start from less than 100 feet away.
As far as tires go... that's nothing. Regular car tires... well they suck. They're made very hard so they'll last a long time. To make a tire than has insane amounts of traction is easy... only problem is it only lasts 5k miles. But if you're buying a $200k car, I doubt you care.
Only every single state in the union, that's all. If the cops don't like the cut of your jib, their racket is to nail you for "exhibition of speed" or the equivalent (I know it's really acceleration, not speed, but you're not going to win the argument with ol' man law by dazzling him with grammatic precision - please trust me on this). Completely aside from obvious no-nos like drag races, street races, peel outs, skidding, sliding, and drifting, any suggestion of "showing off" is your doom, but you can also be written up for doing it alone on a deserted stretch of road. And the old ruse of "gee officer, the car surprised me, I wasn't trying, I had no idea the car had that much power" also usually doesn't fly at all.
Finally, "breaking traction for an extended period of time", are you kidding? Just barking the tires instantaneously is a no-no.
I get that there may still be efficiency gains over pushing a gas-fired car to 60mph in ~2 seconds, but doesn't this kind of wasteful driving sort of defeat the purpose of having an electric vehicle? Meanwhile you're using up highly specialized materials that simply aren't needed, if all you want to do is show off. --Legal.Troll (dodging his -1 Karma)