It all started at my friend Warren’s place where we were celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, (his wife is British). He has a low Signature reservation number and was facing the irksome prospect of committing big bucks without a test drive. We knew that Tesla planned something for June 22nd, and that test drives were coming first to Fremont, but agonizingly Tesla still hadn’t firmed the dates up yet. So while sipping lots of wine at the party we resolved not to wait for Tesla any more and decided to book airline and hotel reservations for us and the wives to fly out to Fremont on June 21st followed by a trip to wine country later. With only a few week’s notice fares and hotel rates were not great, but certainly better than waiting for Tesla to send out invitations.
The plan was that his wife, my wife and I would be guests on his test drive and maybe, if we were feeling mischievous, we would try to crash the party on June 22nd. :wink: So in the morning of the 22nd the four of us are in my hotel room and we’re just about to head out to the Santana Row store, when my cell phone rings. “Lawrence, this is Doug from Tesla, we know that you’re on the Signature waiting list and we have a slot open for you, are you interested?” Whoopee, pandemonium breaks out! I tell him you bet and that I’m in Fremont. He says he’ll attempt to get me a test drive if one becomes available. Whoopee, pandemonium breaks out!
So we head off to San Jose to check out the store and the local sights. The folks at the store are super friendly and they invite us to come back at 3:30 PM to watch the Tesla party on their big screen. Well, that sounded a lot better than trying to convince the security that Elon sent us. Later we return to watch the festivities, drink fake champagne, and yell encouragement to the Tesla folks on-screen along with other gathered reservation holders.
The next morning we’re one of the first scheduled for test drives. George greats us. His enthusiasm is palpable. He tells me that he’s an avid reader of my posts. Golly.:redface: He also tells me that his wife and family were with us at Santana Row watching the festivities. George is the first to give us the instructions regarding the course and emphatically exhorts the drivers to “put the pedal to the metal”.
Warren is the second car out. It’s a performance model. Well, Warren owns a Roadster and it seems his idea of a test drive is to see if a 4,600 pound sedan, with five adults can out-perform his Roadster. Before we get to the test course we’re tearing around the parking lot. When the Tesla copilot tells him to floor it, Warren FLOORS it!! I’m not a very religious guy, but I had a religious experience at that moment!! We may have been the second to leave the "starting blocks", but we were definitely first to return.
George "floor it".
On the way out Warren is coasting at a mere 81 mph, on the return we were just a hair under 100 mph. (Notice that the speedometer shows 81 and we're only a few yards from a sharp left turn.)
Yes, you could say Warren's driving style was "aggressive".
Here's the first car out in front of us just before Warren passed him on the highway in front of Solyndra.
Here's what a Model S looks like in your rear view camera.
Larry
The plan was that his wife, my wife and I would be guests on his test drive and maybe, if we were feeling mischievous, we would try to crash the party on June 22nd. :wink: So in the morning of the 22nd the four of us are in my hotel room and we’re just about to head out to the Santana Row store, when my cell phone rings. “Lawrence, this is Doug from Tesla, we know that you’re on the Signature waiting list and we have a slot open for you, are you interested?” Whoopee, pandemonium breaks out! I tell him you bet and that I’m in Fremont. He says he’ll attempt to get me a test drive if one becomes available. Whoopee, pandemonium breaks out!
So we head off to San Jose to check out the store and the local sights. The folks at the store are super friendly and they invite us to come back at 3:30 PM to watch the Tesla party on their big screen. Well, that sounded a lot better than trying to convince the security that Elon sent us. Later we return to watch the festivities, drink fake champagne, and yell encouragement to the Tesla folks on-screen along with other gathered reservation holders.
The next morning we’re one of the first scheduled for test drives. George greats us. His enthusiasm is palpable. He tells me that he’s an avid reader of my posts. Golly.:redface: He also tells me that his wife and family were with us at Santana Row watching the festivities. George is the first to give us the instructions regarding the course and emphatically exhorts the drivers to “put the pedal to the metal”.
Warren is the second car out. It’s a performance model. Well, Warren owns a Roadster and it seems his idea of a test drive is to see if a 4,600 pound sedan, with five adults can out-perform his Roadster. Before we get to the test course we’re tearing around the parking lot. When the Tesla copilot tells him to floor it, Warren FLOORS it!! I’m not a very religious guy, but I had a religious experience at that moment!! We may have been the second to leave the "starting blocks", but we were definitely first to return.
George "floor it".
On the way out Warren is coasting at a mere 81 mph, on the return we were just a hair under 100 mph. (Notice that the speedometer shows 81 and we're only a few yards from a sharp left turn.)
Yes, you could say Warren's driving style was "aggressive".
Here's the first car out in front of us just before Warren passed him on the highway in front of Solyndra.
Here's what a Model S looks like in your rear view camera.
Larry
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