Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin  I'll be posting again this week over at Tesla Founders Blog, with more photos of my car. I will include some detail shots for you - if there's anything in particular that you'd like to see (that does not involve disassembly  ), let me know there. |
I am a bit confused, you have 2 residences: Woodside & Sierra Madre.
Carolyn mentioned an Arcadia company which installed your roof solar PV..so I assumed that was the Sierra Madre pad. (Arcadia is right next to Sierra Madre). But, you & Roadster are obviously up in Woodside. So, it will stay UP there? If it ever comes down to SM, then contact me & I can turn loose my bank of cameras (Canon digital SLR, incl QTVR panorama setup) & video cameras (Sony FX1, HC3 High Def). You can see my camera artillery at:
7/21, solar eclipse equipment prep - a set on Flickr
[ more at
Collection: Solar Eclipse 2008/China ]
As I was scrambling to prep my equipment for eclipse, I ran into a Steve McQueen '67 Ford Mustang car:
DSC01268 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
I set it aside, since there were rumors of you getting your Roadster. I was gonna send it to you via mail (to your SM residence) as a late Birthday gift (& possibly house warming icon for the impending Roadster delivery). Sure enough, you got it! BTW, have you been getting the DVDs I sent you (History Channel Int'l Voyages series on auto mfrs: Honda, Nissan, Fiat, Mercedes, Ferrari, Audi, BMW, et al)? There is some really relevant info there, on how these auto companies started out (struggled), but there was ONE really important common theme in all:
Auto Racing
From Carolyn's comments ("the man is a maniac [ not her words, but close ]" behind the wheel of a car"), your comments ("burn rubber, not gas"), it seems as if you are into Racing. "Do something you are passionate about", so your next move is probably an R&D program which involves empirical Test Program: auto racing. I have LOTS of contacts in Pavement & Offroad. My dad (UIUC Aero/Astro Eng prof, specializing in CFD/Computational Fluid Dynamics) hired Michael Selig
[ those of you who are familiar with R/C aircraft know this name, he & Mark Drela/MIT are the 2 leading academic researchers who contribute airfoil designs to amateur R/C community. M. Selig is a wind tunnel aerodynamicist (also into Genetic Algorithms), & in fact A. Cocconi used a Selig airfoil for his 2005 project: 24 hr airborne (?) R/C aircraft ]
who consulted for CART (then Champcar..which bankrupted, now with IRL) famous Newman-Haas team. (Sebastien Bourdais won like 3 straight championships. M. Selig got Michael Andretti 3 wins in the 6 races he consulted for N-H Racing, that demonstrates the power of Academia Research ("Book Knowledge", aka Knowledge Creation).
The whole Tesla crisis was due to lack of this, too much on "Knowledge Consumerism", i.e. getting a fat bank account & spending money on vendors ("throwing money at the problem"). You will recall M. Andretti's dad was the renowned Mario Andretti who drove for Lotus (won the Formula 1 Championship in '78 I believe). So, a few phone calls, & you're talking to Mario Andretti. That's your foot-in-the-door (my dad's often used phrase) with N-H, IRL (Indy Racing League, ala Indy 500..the biggest race in the world). I was contemplating a Formula 1 project back in '93 with my dad, I got an invitation to PPI/Precision Preparation Inc (the famous offroad racing team of Ivan Stewart fame, who migrated to CART..their Brazilian driver XXX ended up at N-H & won a championship). My dad (& his students, 1 became program mgr for Space Shuttle division @Boeing) has all sorts of connections in Aerospace. You will recall Aerovironment (founded by famous Caltech Aeronautics PhD Paul Macready) was based on the bifurcated model: Aerospace & Environment. So, maybe you just start another Aerovironment like company, to target those 2 markets. Like I say, you & I need to cruise over to Caltech/Mechanical Eng Dept, 1 of their profs is on sabbatical at Northrop-Grumman (alternative energy stuff, I believe). I just contacted 1 of my Dad's students (way high up @NG, in Houston/TX), so here's another opportunity to get a cross-disciplinary program started between Academia & Industry. Caltech, UIUC (our alma mater), Georgia-Tech/GTRI (another ex alumni from UIUC/AARG/Advanced Automation Research Group, that's where Martin & I were officemates that 1 summer..'81 I believe), crossing over to Northrop-Grumman, Boeing, General Electric, NREL/National Renewable Energy lab (my ex HS classmate is a group leader in solar PV, his group was just featured in a recent Science Channel documentary on Alt Energy).
I'm pretty pumped about the whole turn of events, when I get back home I get back to proposal writing & making contacts. There's a billionaire investor out there (philantrophist to Science) who understands how a viable product (that the public can relate to, especially given the bandwagoneering that AE has these days) can help fund Science/Physics (especially HEP/High Energy Physics, which is a field I'm dabbling in). The LHC/Large Hadron Collider @CERN is beginning to fire up, so that's good timing. HEP has a tough sell to the public, with their blue-sky projects (gazillion dollar particle accelerators), but if people see a spinoff to AE & EV like a Roadster...Game Over. This billionaire will come knocking on your door (actually it's a mutual beneficial relationship, both sides would want to talk), & start talking deal.
That's right, your Tesla Motors founding is about to get a unexpected spinoff: saving Particle/High Energy Physics (expands to Science in general). You icon status in AE community is about to expand to the Science community. I've had some contact with physicsts about this idea.
"Life is 20% what happens to you, 80% how you respond to it"
-- a wise man once said
You need to freaking make a move to your next opportunity..fast. The whole Tesla debacle is more about "the next step" to take AE to the "end game". Right now, you're in the "beginning game"..transitioning into the "middle game".
I am posting from Hami/China (Inner Mongolian Desert in Northwest China, near Russia/Kazakhstan/Mongolia border), as I'm in pursuit of the Aug. 1 solar eclipse:
Solar Eclipse 2008/China
I get back to Pasadena on Aug.7 (as Olympics are starting), so I need to get kicking on this proposal. Fiscal 09 stuff needs to be in by Oct.
BTW, you need to start using the Internet based media to push your "brand name". Example:
Mogulus » tesla_roadster
[ I set one up for "martin eberhard" but can't find it right now ]
Tesla Roadster
Get videos sent up to these "viral media" websites, for distribution to the masses. I'm pretty amazed that TM isn't using the latest/greatest Technology out there. Using mainstream media (MM) is not the hippest, most effective way of reaching the masses. You can have users all over the world running around with iPods, with videos of your Roadster, recent lectures (San Marin county thing, etc), etc This is what I'm doing with my solar eclipse expedition:
Solar Eclipse 2008/China Kyte Mobile
Don't have to goto a CNN, ABC News, CBS, NBC, et al, just use the blog method of reporting news.
I leave now in a Mitsubishi 4x4 to scout out Inner Mongolian high-desert.
Linear Mode
