This turned out to be a very good sunday
Thanks to the friendly people at Ferdinand Motors and the event hosted by Bellona, the Tesla Roadster was visiting Oslo again this weekend. Saturday was an event for the press, I'll make sure to post links when I see anything. Sunday was a day for people that have put down deposits, Bellonas people and a fan of the Roadster. I belong to the last category
I did get a trip in the drivers seat now so I've got some more impressions. We didn't do a big trip maybe 2-3 miles and then back again, so this is no review. The first thing that really strikes you is how utter tiny the steering wheel is, it's got a nice feel to it, but it's strangely small. The second thing I noticed as we were leaving the parking lot was that at low speeds it does handle bumps and curbs pretty well. I also went over a speed bump just as I was exiting the parking lot and in 10-15mph no nasty scraping sound as I would have feared with a car this low.
The next mile or so we were going in stop and go traffic through 3 roundabouts and 2 traffic lights, and the car even without power steering works nicely at slow speeds. I've never driven a automatic before and I do admit it's really really simple and comfortable to do that in slow traffic. You don't get much chance to test the accelleration and with this being central Oslo the pedestrians will all have death wishes (at least compared to US city streets Eventually we got to the "highway" and I could step a bit more aggressively on the accelerator. The regenerative breaking is also very usefull in stop and go traffic as it brakes you down gently and it's easy to get a very laidback driving style. Considering there's another stoplight just down the block speeding 80 yards and then braking for the last 20 yards always seemed a bit silly to me. The fact that you can do this kind of "lazy" driving is going to IMHO make it a lot more usefull as a daily commuter than I would have guessed.
The accelleration is insane, and as I was at least trying not to loose my licence I didn't go that fast. This major road only goes up to 70km/h max speed, but inside the big tunnel mostly everyone is speeding. The feeling that really sticks with me is that everything was so easy and effortless. No increase in sounds or anything, just the feeling every other car seems to be backing up, ON the highway.... or I might have been going a bit faster than I'm used to I did try to check the speedometer every now and then, but since it's listed in mph I had to convert to km/h on the fly. That wasn't too easy, not to mention the silence of the whole thing means you think you are driving a lot slower than you are. In the speeds I was doing as well as with the relatively moderately curved highway the car felt like it was glued to the road. The handling in my very inexperienced view felt perfect.
That is another thing I got to test this time, last time I drove with the Roadster I was a passenger and with the windows down you get a lot of wind noise in the car. This time since the weather was cloudy with possibility of rain the windows were up, and it was a lot quieter inside the cabin now. We also experienced a bit of a rain shower coming out of the tunnel on our way out and had to put on the soft roof. That's a pretty easy process with two brackets you squeeze into matching holes and then draping the cover them, locking the roof on each side with some springmounted clips. As someone at our base commented, it looked a bit like using a can-opener on a box of tuna when they did take it off later
The visibility is actually pretty decent with the top off, at least for someone like me that looks over my shoulder before a lane shift. With the top on, on the other hand it feels a lot more cramped. The visibility upwards (obviously) is also pretty much gone, which meant at a stop light when first in line I had to bend forward to see when the light changed.
Unfortunately I didn't get someone to take a picture of me as I was leaving the car with the traditional "Tesla grin" but I was very happy for getting this testdrive of the car.
Cobos
Thanks to the friendly people at Ferdinand Motors and the event hosted by Bellona, the Tesla Roadster was visiting Oslo again this weekend. Saturday was an event for the press, I'll make sure to post links when I see anything. Sunday was a day for people that have put down deposits, Bellonas people and a fan of the Roadster. I belong to the last category
I did get a trip in the drivers seat now so I've got some more impressions. We didn't do a big trip maybe 2-3 miles and then back again, so this is no review. The first thing that really strikes you is how utter tiny the steering wheel is, it's got a nice feel to it, but it's strangely small. The second thing I noticed as we were leaving the parking lot was that at low speeds it does handle bumps and curbs pretty well. I also went over a speed bump just as I was exiting the parking lot and in 10-15mph no nasty scraping sound as I would have feared with a car this low.
The next mile or so we were going in stop and go traffic through 3 roundabouts and 2 traffic lights, and the car even without power steering works nicely at slow speeds. I've never driven a automatic before and I do admit it's really really simple and comfortable to do that in slow traffic. You don't get much chance to test the accelleration and with this being central Oslo the pedestrians will all have death wishes (at least compared to US city streets Eventually we got to the "highway" and I could step a bit more aggressively on the accelerator. The regenerative breaking is also very usefull in stop and go traffic as it brakes you down gently and it's easy to get a very laidback driving style. Considering there's another stoplight just down the block speeding 80 yards and then braking for the last 20 yards always seemed a bit silly to me. The fact that you can do this kind of "lazy" driving is going to IMHO make it a lot more usefull as a daily commuter than I would have guessed.
The accelleration is insane, and as I was at least trying not to loose my licence I didn't go that fast. This major road only goes up to 70km/h max speed, but inside the big tunnel mostly everyone is speeding. The feeling that really sticks with me is that everything was so easy and effortless. No increase in sounds or anything, just the feeling every other car seems to be backing up, ON the highway.... or I might have been going a bit faster than I'm used to I did try to check the speedometer every now and then, but since it's listed in mph I had to convert to km/h on the fly. That wasn't too easy, not to mention the silence of the whole thing means you think you are driving a lot slower than you are. In the speeds I was doing as well as with the relatively moderately curved highway the car felt like it was glued to the road. The handling in my very inexperienced view felt perfect.
That is another thing I got to test this time, last time I drove with the Roadster I was a passenger and with the windows down you get a lot of wind noise in the car. This time since the weather was cloudy with possibility of rain the windows were up, and it was a lot quieter inside the cabin now. We also experienced a bit of a rain shower coming out of the tunnel on our way out and had to put on the soft roof. That's a pretty easy process with two brackets you squeeze into matching holes and then draping the cover them, locking the roof on each side with some springmounted clips. As someone at our base commented, it looked a bit like using a can-opener on a box of tuna when they did take it off later
The visibility is actually pretty decent with the top off, at least for someone like me that looks over my shoulder before a lane shift. With the top on, on the other hand it feels a lot more cramped. The visibility upwards (obviously) is also pretty much gone, which meant at a stop light when first in line I had to bend forward to see when the light changed.
Unfortunately I didn't get someone to take a picture of me as I was leaving the car with the traditional "Tesla grin" but I was very happy for getting this testdrive of the car.
Cobos