Tag Archives: Speeding

Tesla 3 Performance $76,500, Worth it?

Is this the long awaited Tesla Model 3 Performance?

Tesla Model 3 Performance?

O.K., I’m not really sure it’s been long awaited or even if there is a need for a “Performance” Model 3.

Who really needs a car that can go really fast and get there really quickly when the top speed on most U.S. Highways is 75 MPH and the speed on most surface streets is 30 MPH?

Well, no one actually, but what does need have to do with why many people buy the cars they do? What many car people seem to have in common is the need for speed. Going fast and getting there quickly.

I’ve loved speed since I was a little kid. I used to race my little Honda XR75 most every day during the summer before I outgrew it.

Later after I got my drivers license I learned about understeer firsthand causing my fathers fairly new Mazda RX3  trying to go around a corner but instead it hit the curb in front of me with the front wheels turned damaging the front suspension. Sorry, I meant totaling the car but fortunately no one was hurt. My racing career for the next few years was limited to doing donuts in snow covered parking lots after that.

One thing that is lacking for most people and especially teenagers is professional instruction on how to drive not only a “Performance” car but cars in general. Taking drivers ed in high school if they still offer that never taught anyone how to drive a car this fast. 0-60 in 3.5 seconds. It might not be ludicrous but it sure as hell is insane. If you wonder why Tesla’s are crashing, this is why. Stupid people with a moderate amount of money now have access to super car performance. Yesterday you could buy a Tesla S with insane performance for about $65k used or $85k new but it is a very heavy car that the smart people only tested out the performance on drag strips or highway entrance lanes. A few morons tried it in school zones and most probably got away with it. When you’re doing 105 mph it doesn’t take much to screw up, big time. I was probably only going 35 when I took that corner in my fathers Mazda.

I digress, sorry. Back to is the car worth so much? I was invited to configure my Tesla and here is what I came up with.

Performance

  1. Dual motor all wheel drive $64,000
  2. Performance Upgrade         $ 5,000
  3. Midnight Silver Metallic       $ 1,000
  4. Premium White Interior      $ 1,500
  5. Enhanced Autopilot             $ 5,000
  6. Delivery and Doc Fee          $ 1,000
  7. Sales Tax 8%                         $ 6,120
  8. Tax Rebate                           ($ 7,500)
  9. Total Cost                              $75,120

That is some major coin for something that if you value your Drivers License, Freedom, and the lives of others to pay for a car that can only be properly experienced on a track.

So that brings up some more major questions.

  1. How long will the battery last going around a track?
  2. How long will it sustain peek performance without overheating?
  3. How well do the upgraded brakes perform?
  4. Will there be Superchargers at Race Tracks?
  5. Will the car be a worthy track car for the price?
  6. Will it out perform a BMW M3?
  7. When will Elon let me drive the car around a race track?

I know there will be people with more money than brains who buy this car and have never taken a High Performance Driving class in their lives. There will also be people who take the awesome power they are given and abuse it on the street. I’m amazed with all the Tesla’s out there already that more people haven’t been creamed in intersections or crosswalks with people testing out the acceleration when the light turns green. Maybe they are still texting away or reading their email?

At $76K I’m not rich enough to take the risk to see just how awesome this car can be. In the mean time I will continue to pay about $1k every once in a while to attend High Performance driving schools where I can flog a BMW or Dodge SRT for a day or two on a track in a safe environment. If you lose your license what good is a $75k Super Car?

If my readers would like to help see if the Tesla 3 Performance is a BMW killer you can help sponsor me here. The first place it going is the track.

 

Tesla Stock Down! Cheap Gas Kills EV Car Sales, or Does It?

Will lower gas prices have a large effect on EV sales?

To a certain extent but there is a way that car makers could diminish the cheap gas advantage.

The Tesla has never been a car whose sales have been driven by high fuel prices. It’s appeal has been in performance and technology as well as status and muted luxury.

Anybody who has driven an EV loves the real world acceleration. By real world I mean 0-30. The burst of energy to change lanes or get on the freeway.

The average car takes much longer from a full stop to 30 MPH than an EV. From 30-60 it’s about the same time but the gasoline car spend from 30-60 catching up.

0-60 in 4 seconds is nice but in an ICE car that requires tens of thousands of dollars and an average MPG of around 12 MPG everyday to do that the very fews times you need that power. You just don’t need or can’t really enjoy your 700HP vehicle as much as you would like to.

Your 2 seat loud and obnoxious sports cars are the proverbial 12 inch penis. Impressive looking but not to many places that can handle all of it.

The only place cars like those have any use other than getting you a superficial mate are on the track. And they are actually more likely to get you tickets than they are a mate if you are not that good looking anyway that you need to buy the car to have women look at you.

Add to that most people with cars like that never take them to a track like many Jeep or 4×4 owners never take them off road and you have probably explained why most Americans think they are broke and don’t like to pay taxes.

Car makers have to stop only building tiny compact EV’s as well. While they might get the job done they aren’t impressive at all, don’t tell me that size doesn’t matter. Small might be able to fit in any parking spot but only the city dweller sees that as an advantage.  We don’t live in Europe.

Most Americans don’t fit in a Smart EV or Fiat EV.  We are large people. Many of us are over 6 feet tall and many are over 200 pounds. Or both. We need cars we fit in.

In order to get more people into the cars they need to be real world cars. The e-Golf and Mercedes B-Class are a nice start but they are still too expensive for only having 80 miles of range.

The new cars being announced with 200 mile ranges will start selling if you really build enough and sell them outside of the few CARB States.

They will outsell the Chevy Volt which still isn’t a 5 passenger car. The rear leg room is still to small. And the battery down the middle is just as bad as the Ford and their batteries across the truck or cargo bay. They will not find many new buyers. They will just keep many of the buyers they have. Unless they change to a flat battery pack under the floor.

The greatest thing about owning an EV, or even a Hybrid,  is rarely or ever having to stop to buy gas. Even if the price of gas is $1 per gallon. The approximate equilibrium price of gas to electricity as fuel for cars.

It really is nice to come home at night and just plug in your car instead of having to wait in line and pump gas.

The worst part now about driving any car is filling up the gas tank. It’s rare that I ever get the gas station to myself. Then after waiting in line for 5-10 minutes, I have to get out, swipe my card and spend 5 minutes looking at the guy next to me that cut in front or committed some breach of gas station etiquette.

With an EV you just pull into the garage, plug in and walk into the house and go about your normal business. You wouldn’t even think of buying a phone where you had to go to the store and buy new batteries every few days. Then through the dead batteries on the street like the emissions form your tail pipe.

With the advent of the 100 mile plus battery, which is enough for most peoples daily commute, that will be shortly followed by the 200 mile battery, the plug it in at night car that can work for 100% of your daily driving needs will be all you really need.

Add to that, no more oil changes, tune ups and all those other regular maintenance items that an internal combustion engine car has and you will be hooked.

That doesn’t even included all the environmental benefits.

A 200 mile range, 5 seats and a price tag of $30k in a sporty car like a VW Golf or Kia Soul might just be what it takes to get this evolution in transportation to catch on.

It will be interesting to see how Tesla responds to these challengers that are now taking the 200 mile advantage away from Tesla.

I don’t think it will be long before my 12 year old son looks at driving a gasoline powered vehicle like he does someone smoking a cigarette. We know smoking is hazardous to your health and does cause cancer. The same thing is true of ICE vehicles.

We are just not willing to admit it yet as we love our cars.

The automakers are just starting to give us EV’s we can love.

Thanks Elon. You’re the guy who got this party started. Hopefully you keep leading the way and not letting the Big 3 kill the EV like G.M. did in the past.

I don’t think the big automakers are going to rest unless you stumble and fall.

I don’t think Apple and Google will really be a threat to the Big 3 like Tesla. For some reason you’ve got them really scared even though you only build less than 10’000 cars a month.

I might just have to buy Tesla stock now that it back down to the Moon instead of Mars, a place you want to go. Once the price comes back down to Earth people wont think your shooting for the stars.

 

 

 

 

People are not so EV Friendly

Ford Focus

2015 Ford Focus

I have had my BEV (battery electric vehicle) less than a week now. And just like the complaints about cars having to share the road with bicycles, ICE cars have to share the road with drivers who are trying to get the most range out of their battery.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love flooring the gas pedal and going fast but I do it for fun, not because I am trying to get anywhere in a hurry.

Yet most drivers, my wife included drive like they are always late to work or trying to catch a flight leaving in 5 minutes. You’ve seen people like this or you might be one. They are first to the red light and the first to honk their horns if you aren’t going at least 10 MPH faster than the posted speed limit.

Just today while driving just a few miles to my mothers house. I was doing the speed limit when I saw the light ahead of me turn red. There was a line of about 5-6 cars ahead of me so I clicked off the cruise control, (yes, I do use the cruise control a lot now and have it set at the speed limit) and coasted to the light ahead of me. I was probably at least a block away from the light when I did this. The person in car behind me threw  up their hands in frustration. I look in the mirror a lot more now too.

As I coasted to a stop, so I didn’t hit the car in front of me, the light turned green. Had I gone faster all I would have done is wasted a lot of energy by not getting all the regeneration from slowing down and put a bunch of wear on my brake pads instead. An advantage of hybrids or electric vehicles.

Once I reached 30 MPH I let the car coast again so I would make the next light where I was turning left, now we all know you have to slow down to turn. That is unless you want your passengers puking in your car.

At this point the Chrysler 300 that was dying to get out from behind me did and speed off ahead into the distance. Not so far a head though that two miles ahead I caught them at the second stop Light. They were now 6 cars ahead of me instead of just behind me. Probably still frustrated though they weren’t the first car at the light. LOL

This is not a one time incident, this happens all the time. Every day, many times a day. More than once has someone speed past me giving me the finger only to have to sit next to me at the next light if not the next 2 or 3 traffic lights. And that’s not in my Electric car. That’s with my Miata or my Mazda 6. Going fast just to stop ahead just wastes gas and adds a lot to your maintenance bills.

If you wonder why your gas millage is terrible, why you need to replace your brake pads every 12k miles or why your cars are beat to crap in just a few years, just look in your mirror.

Next time you drive to work, or the store or somewhere you always go trying doing this. When you reach the speed limit, set your cruise control. When the light ahead of you is red cancel the cruise and coast. If it turns green before you come to a complete stop and it is safe to do so hit the switch to resume your speed on the cruise control. Try to use your brake as little as possible. Do not speed or at least don’t do more than 5 MPH over. Time it. See how much longer it takes to get where you are going.

See how much less stress you have driving like that as well. Another benefit is you won’t stand out when the police are around. Drunks and stoners drive to slow and thieves and drug dealers usually drive to fast. How many times do you see some guy who sped by you getting a ticket down the road?

Another thing you can do is compare your gas millage. Like most cars now days your car probably has a trip computer that is pretty accurate. It probably even tell you how long the trip took. There was a reason they set that 55 MPH speed limit back in the 70’s. That’s the speed where you generally get the best gas millage per mile of driving. After the power needed to move your car through the air takes far more gas than the engine moves the car efficiently.

I do realize that 55 feels slow, real slow but 65 is really pretty fast and since most people are doing 70 anyway the 75 MPH speed limit is ludicrous. At most it will say you 5 minutes every hour and cause you far more stress of having to be vigilant of others. Another draw back is if you opt to have one of those drive safe discount monitors on your car it will send love notes to your insurance company every time you exceed 75.

The easiest way to see what kind of damage and wasting fuel speed can do is take your car to the race track.

I have a Mazda Miata that I have taken to the track and a car that can get a combined MPG of 26 becomes a car that gets less than 12 MPG. The tires last about a third of their regular life and the brakes last even less. Even if you aren’t going from 35-110 and back down to 30 again in seconds, all that acceleration and stopping is what causes wear and tear on your car.

In an Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) driving smart can be the difference between getting 50 miles per charge versus 100 miles per charge. Maybe the reason you don’t like or have never considered driving a BEV is because you drive like a teenager. That or you don’t have to pay the bills.

Check out this website. It will open your eyes. https://www.fueleconomy.gov