
Tesla Model S P100DL Motor Trend all-time world record 60mph in 2.27s - saurabh20n
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/828981873086865410
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kisstheblade
One thing I wonder is why Top Gear (the old one) / Grand Tour never has the
tesla in it's episodes or drag races?

Especially the latest episode of Grand Tour did some kind of road test with a
hybrid car and made a laughing stock of it. And they laughed about the "future
of cars" if it would be like that (they used some ridiculous bmw hybrid).
Driving very slow to preserve electricity and long charge times every 40 miles
or something like that. Why didn't they test with a Tesla to give a realistic
picture of "the future"?

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taurath
They did a road trip in a BMW i3 which is basically a commute car. And their
point does stand - if you like cars and road trips enough to watch GT or Top
Gear you probably care a lot about being able to make road trips.

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bcrescimanno
As a former Tesla owner and current i3 owner, I really don't understand why
the concept of the road trip is constantly held up as the standard by which
electric cars should be judged. I really don't understand why people are
optimizing for their once a year use case rather than their daily use case.
Unless it's your lifestyle, road trips are the exception, not the rule.

For my family, it means owning my i3 for commuting and my wife's Toyota Sienna
for family trips. For others, it could mean renting a car for a week or two
when you take a long road trip.

As a fun note: As a BMW i3 owner, BWM offers me up to 2 weeks per year of
complimentary gasoline car rental for road trips.

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stuckagain
If you own two cars, isn't it actually you who have arranged your lifestyle in
order to accommodate the electric one? And I feel kinda sad for anyone who
feels that going more than 60 miles from home happens only once a year.

~~~
bcrescimanno
My comment was only meant to discuss people optimizing for the edge case (road
trips) vs the common case (daily driving). There will always be people for
whom long-distance driving is not the edge case.

There's a pretty big assumption that travel beyond 60 miles (or 110 in the
case of my i3) requires a car. There are a lot of ways to travel that don't
involve driving. I travel frequently; it's almost always by air.

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jessriedel
This includes supercars with $1M price tags right? Honest question: why aren't
all supercars electric if this is possible? I get that there are other
parameters important for driving fast, like handling, but won't a million-
dollar electric Bugatti always be faster than a gas one?

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enduser
Right now a Tesla will overheat if you run it at top speed consistently.
Electric is unmatched for instant torque, but the current battery technology
makes electric unsuitable for sustained high speed.

As far as practical power, electric is far more useful than gasoline for
aggressive city and interstate driving (unless you have a long stretch of open
pavement). The lack of transmission gives a distinct advantage in surprise-
passing a gasoline sports car. The thrill of instant power cannot be
overstated!

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kevin2r
Actually, how does the tesla cools down? I have seen in pictures of the
battery that they have pipes connected, does those pipes goes to a heat
radiator? I'm curious now.

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ferongr
In addition to the batteries, the 3-phase IGBT inverter is watercooled with
the aid of a triangular waterblock (each phase corresponds to one side of the
block). [1]

[1] [http://www.pointthepower.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/09/Scre...](http://www.pointthepower.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/09/Screen-shot-2015-07-11-at-6.54.06-AM.png)

~~~
kevin2r
That photo of the inverter is beautiful, as I child I was passionated about
electronics, I made some projects like audio amplifier and FM transmitter,
never thought we were going to have electronics in cars at this level. Now I
wonder how reliable are Teslas, what are the parts that are prone to fail.
Going to do a research on youtube right now :)

~~~
ferongr
In theory, properly sized and protected from motor transienst, the power
electronics should last the lifetime of the car (and then some). Electric
locomotives and EMUs have been using IGBTs for decades in similar arrangements
with active cooling.

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ferongr
But can it complete a lap around the track without going into limp mode? High-
power bursts are nice and all but sustained performance is important too.

~~~
jayjay71
This is admittedly an old article so hopefully the engineering has improved
since then, but to the best of my knowledge it's still an issue. Maybe they
made significant improvements to the battery pack in the P100 though.

[http://insideevs.com/expected-tesla-model-s-fails-lap-
nurbur...](http://insideevs.com/expected-tesla-model-s-fails-lap-nurburgring-
full-power-video/)

edit: a quick Google of forums and articles suggests the car has a problem
overheating when you drive it above ~100 MPH

[http://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-s-formula-1-racing-
circ...](http://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-s-formula-1-racing-circuit/)

[https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/p90d-overheating](https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/p90d-overheating)

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justin66
I wonder a little about anyone who reads about a car that will do the quarter
mile in 10.5 seconds at 125 mph and thinks "that thing is all hype, it's not
fast enough for me."

If your plans for the day somehow involve a crash helmet and the Mulsanne
Straight, yeah, you're going to find it a little limiting and it's the wrong
tool for the job. But seriously, it's a 4-door sedan...

~~~
vinay427
It also notably has overheat protections that don't allow for sustained
acceleration, which makes it far less useful on a track day.

~~~
justin66
I can see taking it to the drag strip for a little fun, but a real track day?
Does anybody do that with a big sedan like this? Just curious, I haven't seen
enough of those to really have an opinion here.

