I'm sitting here, annoyed that I can't pay $6,500 to order a 2016 Model S with the suspension and staggered wheel options out of the P85+ or at least the firmer dampers of the early P85D.
Yet I could plonk down $10K to shave off a couple more tenths from a 0-60 time off a P85D which already offers world beating acceleration times.
What would be really nice would to be able to put the "+" suspension on a rear wheel drive 70 - giving you the lightest Tesla combined with the best suspension and most pure steering feel. No, not the fastest in a straight line but it would be the most pleasure to throw into a curve in the model line.
Tesla's current approach isn't a pursuit of balanced performance - cynically selling "Ludicrous mode" while simultaneously killing off the sport suspension options is an approach in line with the worst offenses of Mercedes' AMG division.
It smacks of Lamborghini's "Look at Me!" doors vs. Ferrari's heavenly handling. Oh wait. . .
I should know - I got suckered into buying an E55 AMG years ago after being floored by its acceleration on a test drive - momentarily forgetting everything years of BMW club driving schools had taught me about how handling and steering feel trumps everything else in terms of long term driving pleasure. I regretted the AMG purchase within a year and very much wished I'd never left the sublime handling of BMW's of the time.
Elon, being the perfectionist he is, can't feel good about dumbing down the suspension on a beautiful handling chassis. So why did he choose to do it? Did some bean counter or marketing dunce decide that Ludicrous sells cars, but highly tuned suspensions do not?
Imagine BMW degrading the legendary E39 chassis by telling customers they couldn't have the sport suspension (let alone the full M5 suspension) - but instead to make them happy there was a new turbo kit so they could race the local teens in the alley on Saturday night.
BMW wouldn't have done that (of course, the new BMW builds a lot of heavy garbage that the old one didn't, but that's another story).
So why did Elon? He and his engineers knew how to build the best handling Model S - they did it right out of the gate when the chassis was new.
I believe he is even on record recommending the staggered wheel setup he no longer sells. I guess you could argue there is no need for staggered wheels on an AWD car - but the initial P85D's had staggered 21's for some reason.
They offer all kinds of other options and build these cars to order - how hard can it be to stock a couple different dampers, bushings and stabilizer bars? The man in charge of the shop is landing rockets in the middle of the ocean.
The unicorns with Autopilot do show up on ev-cpo (there's one now for $82K) but I'd like a brand new one, not one 2 years old.
Yet I could plonk down $10K to shave off a couple more tenths from a 0-60 time off a P85D which already offers world beating acceleration times.
What would be really nice would to be able to put the "+" suspension on a rear wheel drive 70 - giving you the lightest Tesla combined with the best suspension and most pure steering feel. No, not the fastest in a straight line but it would be the most pleasure to throw into a curve in the model line.
Tesla's current approach isn't a pursuit of balanced performance - cynically selling "Ludicrous mode" while simultaneously killing off the sport suspension options is an approach in line with the worst offenses of Mercedes' AMG division.
It smacks of Lamborghini's "Look at Me!" doors vs. Ferrari's heavenly handling. Oh wait. . .
I should know - I got suckered into buying an E55 AMG years ago after being floored by its acceleration on a test drive - momentarily forgetting everything years of BMW club driving schools had taught me about how handling and steering feel trumps everything else in terms of long term driving pleasure. I regretted the AMG purchase within a year and very much wished I'd never left the sublime handling of BMW's of the time.
Elon, being the perfectionist he is, can't feel good about dumbing down the suspension on a beautiful handling chassis. So why did he choose to do it? Did some bean counter or marketing dunce decide that Ludicrous sells cars, but highly tuned suspensions do not?
Imagine BMW degrading the legendary E39 chassis by telling customers they couldn't have the sport suspension (let alone the full M5 suspension) - but instead to make them happy there was a new turbo kit so they could race the local teens in the alley on Saturday night.
BMW wouldn't have done that (of course, the new BMW builds a lot of heavy garbage that the old one didn't, but that's another story).
So why did Elon? He and his engineers knew how to build the best handling Model S - they did it right out of the gate when the chassis was new.
I believe he is even on record recommending the staggered wheel setup he no longer sells. I guess you could argue there is no need for staggered wheels on an AWD car - but the initial P85D's had staggered 21's for some reason.
They offer all kinds of other options and build these cars to order - how hard can it be to stock a couple different dampers, bushings and stabilizer bars? The man in charge of the shop is landing rockets in the middle of the ocean.
The unicorns with Autopilot do show up on ev-cpo (there's one now for $82K) but I'd like a brand new one, not one 2 years old.
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