Power of D.C.

[doug]

Article on the Power of D.C. event yesterday: The Herald-Mail

[James]

Something looks strange in the area where the panels meet. Is there something in there to protect the car?

Is that TDave?

[BBHighway]

Yes, that's TDave. We had a great time! Unfortunately, nobody got a video of me spinning out.

[johnr]

Something looks strange in the area where the panels meet. Is there something in there to protect the car?

You're probably seeing the blur of the traffic cone as the car whizzes by. Looked like some kind of plastic strip on the car to me at first too.

[stopcrazypp]

Article on the Power of D.C. event yesterday: The Herald-Mail

Wow, the video in the article badly needs some de-interlacing. However it does look like a lot of fun.

[Tdave]

The whole weekend was a blast. That article is about the Saturday autocross. Sunday was the drag race. James will be pleased to know his car's world record quarter mile time is safe. My best time was 12.676. So close!

I have photos and video I can share, and a story about my car's refusal to charge Friday evening due to a error that Tesla emergency tech support identified as "moisture in the battery pack". The next morning it started charging fine.

CNN was prominently covering the drag race event on Sunday all day long. Hopefully we can soon find the video and print story that results from it. I wish I could remember the name of the reporter. BBHighway gave her an in depth interview and tour of his car.

[James]

Sunday was the drag race. James will be pleased to know his car's world record quarter mile time is safe. My best time was 12.676. So close!

What were the conditions during that run? 100% charge in performance mode before the run? Tell me what you did prior to achieving that time.

Thanks

[Tdave]

What were the conditions during that run? 100% charge in performance mode before the run? Tell me what you did prior to achieving that time.

Thanks

I was at 95% charge in Performance mode (210 ideal mile range in performance mode). Moderate humidity, about 80 degrees. I weigh 180 pounds. I let a 40 pound lighter Tesla owner drive my car for a couple runs, thinking that might be all we needed to give us the record, but his runs couldn't beat my time.

Each quarter-mile run used about 5 miles of range. Then I'd get back on the charger for a half hour before we were called to stage again. At that high a charge level, it's not pulling the full 40A, more like 15A as it was nearing full charge. So that half hour of charging only got me back to about the 210 mile range mark again (95% charge). That was a bit frustrating.

Also, at this track, there was no way to drive around the water box. It was wet for the gassers.

[Tdave]

One of 2008 owners beat the 2008 model quarter-mile time record, about 12.94 I think. I find that interesting that they could beat the 2008 record at this track on the same day I couldn't break the 2010 Sport model record.

[BBHighway]

The CNN reporter was named Poppy. She does some sort of special reporting on green energy or something.

I didn't mention to her that I never watch CNN, so I've never heard of her show before. I took her for a short ride, and she seemed quite impressed with the acceleration, even in the brief bursts that I demonstrated.