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Zextraterrestials S (tory)

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So. My Tesla story starts around March 2010 when I was given around the cost of a deposit of a Model S
Growing up in Los Altos I was pretty familiar with all of the stuff going on around the area and liked the idea of electric cars.

The Factory tour last October and Test ride was pretty sweet. I stopped shaving my beard then and just shaved a little last week finally! (the wife was a little upset, no more braids ) I studied for a few days after the test ride and passed CA seismic part of the PE in late October last year for civil and was licensed in December which was critical to be able to afford the S (almost afford :>

After taking the PE for the second time I had a little time to make my first RC Models S (pic above + some in my albums) 4 LiFe batteries makes the little S pretty quick

For the test drive event in June at the Factory I took my wife + 2 Bay Area Friends - 1 who worked at NUMMI before Toyota left and another that works for Hilti

I think They liked the car and Factory! I managed to get the S up to 110 on the return into the factory - with 5 people, averaging 200 lb each!! From that speed I slammed the brakes on and - still total control!

During Thanksgiving weekend we were in the Bay and stopped at Santana Row so I could sit in an S for a little and just look at him/her a litle more. I was expecting/ hoping to get my car by the end of the year but close to Christmas.

Well, I guess they wanted to do some grey ones first after the Sigs and I was shocked to get the e-mail that my car was Finished on November 28th!! Just 2 days after returning home (300 miles from the factory)
What?? I had to sell my Rav4, to my neighbor fortunately, but still that is short notice.
Somehow I managed to get together the cash I needed + smoged my Rav4 and sold it to my neighbor on Friday to get enough cash for what I was paying down.

My wife and I drove down to Freemont in the crazy rain storm that was flooding rivers over the highway later in the night luckily it wasn't raining the whole way. We made it to the factory right on time for our time slot. The tour is even more Awesome than before - So much going on, I could stand there and watch each station for hours. Pretty cool stuff
They had put out 20 cars that night and were busting ass. I talked with a final QC inspector that does the bump testing and noise/vibration I think. He said thank you for giving me a job!
The cars are Awesome I told him :biggrin:

- - - Updated - - -

So my trip from the factory on saturday night was in mild rain and I drove to Los Altos hills (Magdalaena). The car was even better than the test drive since I had 1000+ lbs in the car of people ( a couple of heavier friends came along).
Passing cars is like magic and the car is so responsive in every way.
Saturday night I only plugged into 120V and picked up 60 miles overnight.
I left in the morning headed up hwy 101 to eureka. I managed to use cruise control for most of the drve and kept right around the speed limit except for some little bursts here and there.
Several people gave thumbs up and many passengers in other cars were trying to figure out what my car was
I stopped in Hopland at the solar living center for about an hour and left there with 160 miles ideal. Our next stop was the Benbow for dinner and dog walking (my wife was driving her truck back with the dogs) benbow was something like 70 miles farther so I had plenty to start driving 'fun'
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Hopland solar living center / Gaiam

- - - Updated - - -

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Here is my screen before the update - they said mine was one of the last built with the old one - the new one came that night
This was when I was driving nice. Now I get 400-50whr/ mi but I haven't been doing freeway driving
 
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Thanks Nigel!

The last week I have driven 760 miles and I must say I love it and think I am selling a few up here !
I didn't install a sub panel until last night and re connected a 14-50 that came with the house that I had unhooked to power my wife's shop.
Now I have plenty of extra breaker spaces and even finally added an outlet to the front of the house. all < 100$ - only needed 4 feet of 6 gauge wire + the panel and breakers. Works like a dream now. I have been charging on a free 14-50 that I found in Arcata so I kept my car in the middle range of battery for the beginning of the week until I went up to Crescent city and did a range charge
I have 315 ideal miles on Wednesday! Did one last night and it finished awhile before I could check and see the highest it hit but it was at 312 miles when I left
to go take pictures today

I washed my baby for the first time this morning, pretty chilly out.
She is prettier than I remembered.
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we drove all the way out the South jetty that you can see below in the background but the camera totally crapped out by then and we didn't get any shots of the breakers coming in with the coastguard house in the background- and my wife won't go back out there in the S with me - too bumpy of a road and crazy potholes that were manageable but i was swerving a bit the whole way


So I should mention that I have been anal w/ car logs since the first time I bought a new car. My Grandpa let me fill in his book when I was a tot and showed how to keep track of gas / mpg and when he changed oil with the idea that if the #'s start looking screwy there might be a problem. At least that's what I got from it.
I have kept 100% perfect logs on my last 2 cars ~ since 2002, a Jetta that was totaled when it was parked and the Rav that my neighbor has. I plan on doing the same with this car and have a book that I am writing all driving data / daily trips w/ Kwh used. So I should have some real world data for people :biggrin:
 
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fabulous! those are my colors and wheels tooo!!!! looks awesome. as they say in so cal.

con grats.

It is a super 'tits' combo.. the calipers match the wheels that match the car all perfectly!
Can't wait to tint it . Not sure about the auto roll thing w/regards to tint though and might just waste some money to get it done, rather not though.

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graves of all the dead ICE cars!! BWahahaha

- Ferndale, CA
 
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For some Data:

Driving from the Bay area to Eureka I used 343Whr/mi average for the 309 mile trip

I currently have 769 mles on my car and average of 373 Whr/mi and I have been flooring it way too often for my tires to last very long
I have given lots of test rides.

Driving the short 4.1 mile trip to my work as hard as I can w/ remaining close to the speed limits after I have accelerated quickly I got 439 Whr/mi

My highest trip was a 12.5 mi averaging 528 Whr/mi probably giving some test rides
 
New data Point

Standard charge - 270 ideal miles ... edit : switch to rated if your car is set to ideal unless you drive like a 'granny' ;>

I pushed her to 123 today. had a limit line somewhere around 280-300 kW, not sure though ( 220 ideal miles on bat) after all I was going 100-110 and paying attention to the road to make sure there were no cars coming. Ran out of road with sight distance ahead and had to slow. the over 110 part is definitely slower, which is not bad in my opinion. 100 is fast enough and she reaches it pretty damn quick.

I gave 2 of my neighbors rides- and lots of people I work with. The first neighbor is in his late 60's? and retired. He is the one that bought my Rav. He has been talking about the car as much as I have! I gave him the first ride and he seemed excited, but i found out that he was just on the edge of having a heart attack :scared: oops.

Today I gave my neighbor, who is a mechanic at the local Ford dealership, a ride. He and his wife finally caught me to look at the car. He was super impressed with the size of the interior and, well, no engine or motor in the front or rear!. what? his wife was a little more shocked. I told him the motor is between the wheels an battery is flat and under, he was the first person who seemed to get it. Everyone else says' oh batteries are in the sides?' or something opposite of what I just said.

I gave him the same ride but pushed it a little harder for a couple of the curves and straight. All you can do is laugh a little Right?:biggrin:
He took pics of the interior to show his buddies at the shop.


Thursday night some kid took pictures for his webpage featuring cars that he sees drive around in places.
he was super stoked to see a Tesla!

Thumbs up from a kid in a bigass V8 lifted truck. He was turning and slowed to snap a pic I think with a big grin

good times

I was always shy, trying not to be anymore I guess:wink:
 
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It is a super 'tits' combo.. the calipers match the wheels that match the car all perfectly!

good lord, i have come back so many (embarrassing to say how many exactly) times to this post to drool over your (fantastic) pictures or your (off the HOOK) beautiful car. i was probably sticking with black (same color i've had on my cars for last 15 years... yawwwn..) or maybe going to try the green before the get amped hawthorne event where i finally saw the colors in life. i left there with zero doubt i wanted the metallic grey.

i am so (prematurely) happy with my decision.

only 5 or 6 more days....

:)
 
good lord, i have come back so many (embarrassing to say how many exactly) times to this post to drool over your (fantastic) pictures or your (off the HOOK) beautiful car. i was probably sticking with black (same color i've had on my cars for last 15 years... yawwwn..) or maybe going to try the green before the get amped hawthorne event where i finally saw the colors in life. i left there with zero doubt i wanted the metallic grey.

i am so (prematurely) happy with my decision.

only 5 or 6 more days....

:)

It is sick in person. This is the color combo of the test drive car I had.
My Rav4 was black and the last car I had was blue. I liked the green, blue and brown too.
The grey is even better than I thought when I picked it. I didn't realize the rims were the same paint and calipers too. I always thought painted calipers were a neat touch on some high end cars as long as they weren't tacky. These are sick. :cool:
 
Great pictures and report. The car club that I belong to took a trip to Eureka 6 months ago. We had dinner at the Carson Mansion and even took a drive to Ferndale. I have pictures of that cemetery and hope to make a future trip in a Model S. :). Beautiful scenery up there.