{"id":21405,"date":"2017-11-21T19:16:22","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T23:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=21405"},"modified":"2017-11-21T19:16:22","modified_gmt":"2017-11-21T23:16:22","slug":"payne-its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-tesla-roadster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/payne-its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-tesla-roadster","title":{"rendered":"Payne: It&#8217;s a bird, it&#8217;s a plane, it&#8217;s Tesla Roadster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/7d857b21bd7752a9f35466153c8d5bc6ff0f8e8b\/c=374-0-2625-1688&amp;r=x404&amp;c=534x401\/local\/-\/media\/2017\/11\/20\/DetroitNews\/B99600633Z.1_20171120171228_000_G331OA16G.3-0.jpg\" alt=\"Tesla\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><p class=\"speakable-p-1 p-text\">Like a \u201cJustice League\u201d toy found in a cereal box, an electric supercar emerged from Tesla\u2019s semi-truck last week and stole the show. Boasting breathtaking acceleration, long range \u2014 and maybe even the ability to fly \u2014 the Tesla Roadster\u2019s performance makes it one of the most capable sports cars on the planet. All that\u2019s missing is a cape.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable-p-2 p-text\">The first Tesla product to evolve to a second-generation \u2014 the Roadster was the brand\u2019s first product in 2008 \u2014 the supercar will be a $200,000-plus halo car. Like Ford\u2019s GT or Acura\u2019s NSX, the Roadster pushes the envelope of Tesla performance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cThe Tesla Roadster will be the fastest production car ever made. Period,\u201d said Tesla CEO and ringmaster Elon Musk before a packed house in an airport hangar outside Los Angeles last week. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time any car has broken 2 seconds (zero-60 mph acceleration). The point of doing this is to give a hardcore smack-down to gasoline cars.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"ad-position-227\" class=\"partner-placement partner-spike\" data-monetization-id=\"native-article_link\" data-monetization-sizes=\"fluid,3,3\">\n<div id=\"ad-slot-7103-mi-detroit-C1561-native-article_link-news-opinion-229\" class=\"ad-slot\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_7103\/mi-detroit-C1561\/native-article_link\/news\/opinion_0__container__\"><iframe id=\"google_ads_iframe_7103\/mi-detroit-C1561\/native-article_link\/news\/opinion_0\" title=\"3rd party ad content\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_7103\/mi-detroit-C1561\/native-article_link\/news\/opinion_0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The event was supposed to be about Tesla\u2019s entr\u00e9e into the truck market. But as the sleek semis exited stage left, one lingered. Escorted by a swirl from dry ice, the Roadster appeared from the truck\u2019s rear doors to bedlam from Tesla fans. It circled the tarmac, stopped, then shot into the distance like it had been fired from a silent cannon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Due in 2020, the details of the Roadster are sketchy beyond the dizzying numbers Musk provided in L.A.: zero-60 in 1.9 seconds (topping current-champ Dodge Challenger SRT Demon\u2019s 2.3 seconds); 620 mile-plus range (the first EV to eclipse 620 miles); and a 250 mph top speed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"partner-outstream\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Musk has endeared himself to speed freaks by naming performance upgrades \u201cInsane\u201d and \u201cLudicrous\u201d \u2014 the latter taken from the sci-fi movie spoof \u201cSpaceballs.\u201d Will the Roadster eclipse Ludicrous?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cIn \u2018Spaceballs\u2019 there is one thing beyond Ludicrous and that is Plaid,\u201d said Musk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Tesla didn\u2019t disclose chassis details, but the Roadster\u2019s four-seat configuration and copious cargo room suggest the same batteries-in-the-floor, EV-style architecture that undergirds the companies\u2019 sedans. The original Roadster, by contrast, converted a mid-engine Lotus Elise chassis to battery-power and was confined to two seats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Musk continued to tease Roadster details over the weekend \u2014 including its flight potential.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cNot saying the next gen Roadster special upgrade package *will* definitely enable it to fly short hops, but maybe,\u201d he tweeted Sunday. \u201cCertainly possible. Just a question of safety. Rocket tech applied to a car opens up revolutionary possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Nothing sounds out of bounds in a new age of automobility where manufacturers talk of driverless cars and \u201csmart\u201d highways \u2014 especially from a CEO who also owns rocket-company SpaceX and was the first to put gull wings on an SUV.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cI don\u2019t know what to make of that,\u201d laughed IHS auto analyst Stephanie Brinley. \u201cThere are at least four other companies that are playing with the concept of a flying car.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">What the Roadster does bring into focus is Tesla\u2019s luxury strategy. Like other premium automakers, the electric-car maker builds an entry-level sedan (the Model 3) at $35,000 that\u2019s book-ended by a halo supercar in the $200,000 range. Acura and Audi have similar supercar strategies with the Acura NSX and Audi R8 V-10 sports cars. Even Ford, a mainstream brand, produces a supercar \u2014 the GT \u2014 which starts at a stratospheric $450,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Like the second-generation R8, introduced in 2015, the Roadster appears to be here to stay. Tesla built 2,500 copies of the original Roadster from 2008-2012. Packed with 53 kWh of lithium-ion batteries, it shocked car enthusiasts with its 3.7-second 0-60 sprint and 200-mile EV range \u2014 a first for an electric car.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cTesla is still a long way from becoming a normal car company,\u201d says Brinley. \u201cBut this is the first time they have done a second generation of something they have done before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The second-gen car promises performance numbers that eclipse even million-dollar hypercars like the Porsche 918 hybrid and Bugatti Chiron. For $2.8 million less, the Roadster\u2019s claimed numbers beat the Bugatti down the quarter-mile by a full second. Its sub-2 second, 0-60 spec would put it on par with specialty mods like Brighton-based Lingenfelter Engineering\u2019s 800-horsepower Corvette.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cI want a Roadster,\u201d says Joel Szirtes, one of the first Model S owners in Michigan. \u201cObjectively and aesthetically, at $200,000 this car is a great value proposition in the supercar segment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Whether Tesla can deliver on its 2020 delivery promise remains to be seen as the company burns through billions of dollars in capital to produce its bread-and-butter volume seller, the Model 3. Musk promised production of 5,000 Model 3s a week by December, but delays have already pushed that promise off to March. Current production is about 250 vehicles a week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The Roadster will get in line behind the semi-truck \u2014 scheduled for 2019 \u2014 which already has production orders from commercial interests like the Meijer grocery chain. The \u201cfalcon-winged\u201d Model X SUV was delayed about two years due to production issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cTesla\u2019s biggest challenge,\u201d says Brinley, \u201cis ramping up production of the Model 3.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like a \u201cJustice League\u201d toy found in a cereal box, an electric supercar emerged from Tesla\u2019s semi-truck last week and stole the show. Boasting breathtaking acceleration, long range \u2014 and maybe even the ability to fly \u2014 the Tesla Roadster\u2019s performance makes it one of the most capable sports cars on the planet. All that\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21406,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21405\/revisions\/21406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}