tonybelding

Just a couple of things I've learned from the Tesla Owners' Forum. . .

The new transmission has been installed in the VP10 now, and a couple of customers have driven it and reported their impressions, which were highly positive, although one felt the transmission might need a remaining minor adjustment.

The other thing I learned is that there will be 24 cars in the Founders' Series. I'd never known how many, I'd just assumed it was like five or six cars. So. . . The plan is to produce 24 Founder's cars, 100 Signature cars, and then start building cars for the rest of us poor slobs.

TEG

Thanks for the update, Tony.

malcolm

"Poor slobs"

Er......who's the one with $100,000 to spend? :)

The wait will do you good.

Not that I'm jealous or anything.

malcolm

By the way, does this mean that someone got to try out FIRST GEAR????

AND???

Any clarification on 3.moderated?

Kardax

The founders series probably was five or six at some point, but Tesla expanded it substantially as major investors and supporters became involved. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who ordered his car relatively late, was added to this series.

It's entirely possible that the founders series could grow even larger if more key people become involved. It might seem as though these folks are budging in line, but I understand Tesla's motivations... the publicity of the Governator driving around in his very own Tesla Roadster would be far greater than, say Steve Casner would produce (no offense, Steve :) )

Practically speaking, the founders series is never going to get all that big, so the delivery of roadsters to other customers shouldn't be affected much.

-Ryan / Kardax

Kardax

Oh, and on the 3.moderated thing... that seems to be a pretty big secret. I don't think they'd be keeping it so tightly under wrap if it's 3.9....

My theory is that it's well into the supercar range, and Tesla wants to delay the press frenzy until after the Roadster is in production. Somebody should start a betting pool for guesses of what the real number is :)

-Ryan / Kardax

tonybelding

No clarification on that, neither of the drivers took it to the drag strip.

Their comments on the transmission were brief and lacking drama. Which is good. If something exciting happens with your transmission, it would almost invariably be something bad.

One wrote: Not having driven the old 2nd-gear-only, I can't compare, but the transmission was smooth, shifting was completely seamless. Since I never drove over 50 or so on the winding, hilly road, I never really needed 2nd gear, but I did shift and it seemed just fine. With the electric motor, you don't get that feedback of winding up the gears until you have to shift.

The other: Shifting was natural, happened fast with little fuss. There's a little bit of drive train thunking and slight gear noise when letting off the accelerator, it seemed mostly auditory. Since the transmission is still being worked on, no worries yet from me.

donauker

Well marketing types may be better at keeping secrets, but when a technically inclined future owner gets to speak at length with an engineering type who is closely involved with these tests, there is much unmoderated information available.

That being said, I have no "official" information available and can only guess at what such "official" numbers will be. ;)

Some of my guesses at this time are:

The car has probably done 3.8 with traction control on.

Work is probably still being done to the firmware to slightly improve the shift time.

With said improvements and traction control off it would not be unreasonable to expect 3.7s.

Ok, the last one might just be our wishful thinking.

TEG

Based on their writing style, I have figured out who they are and will add them to the semi-confirmed owners list...

(Just kidding!)

MDR

During a lecture at Stanford, Martin quoted 3.86 0-60.

http://edcorner.stanford.edu/authorM....html?mid=1816