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0-60 champions! We race against the clock in 6 of the UK’s fastest-accelerating cars

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Yikes! I can't imagine how they got 5.1 seconds. Even without the "12 inch letout" common in most US magazine testing (with the exception of Automobile Magazine), the usual number would be about 4.2 or 4.3. Assume a battery pack that isn't peak charged and maybe a little slower but 5.1 seems really off. Automobile measured 4.7 in the wet.
 
Tesla Roadster | Car Group Tests | Car Reviews | Auto Express:

Unfortunately, with the sole official demonstrator busy elsewhere, Tesla could only supply us with a development car from its engineering fleet. We were warned that this older pre-production model wouldn’t be the firm’s fastest – but its pace still raised plenty of eyebrows. What sets the Tesla apart, though, is the driving experience.
 
Interesting. Didn't notice those links you can click through when I posted the original story earlier.

So VP12 makes a reappearance. I thought (perhaps Darryl you can confirm) the car did have a DT1.5 when I drove it last year. Maybe they swapped it back again to equip one of the new prototypes with the newer drivetrain.
 
Maybe it has the 1.5 motor and current (850 amps) so the torque is there but mated to the old "stuck in second gear" transmission with a 7:1 ratio (as opposed to the current 8.25:1)

That old setup with the 280 nM torque (650 amps) did 5.7 so same gearing but 380 nM getting 5.1 seconds sounds about right.

I don't know why that car would be offered for a feature on 0-60 acceleration though.

As for Roadster Sport, I would guess that in UK tests it will show 3.9-4.0 and in European tests it will show 4.1 (at peak charge). The fact that there were about 3-4 different permutations of how that number is reported is maddening.
 
Darryl,

The article did say the following :

Unfortunately, with the sole official demonstrator busy elsewhere, Tesla could only supply us with a development car from its engineering fleet. We were warned that this older pre-production model wouldn’t be the firm’s fastest – but its pace still raised plenty of eyebrows. What sets the Tesla apart, though, is the driving experience.

So not really a fair comparison at all ....
 
To which "sole official demonstrator" are they referring? Is VP19 still in the UK? The last we saw of the newer gray car was in Sweden.


It's interesting to see VP12 again, since it's been MIA for a while.

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