thomasearlemoore
Thomas Earle Moore
thomasearlemoore

I teased that Tesla should take its new Roadster to the ring and limit production to the required minimum, so they could focus instead on producing an updated “everyman’s” roadster that would sell more like an MX-5. The new roadster is a more comparable car to the Taycan, and more worthy opponent. But do they listen

The significant addition over what Tesla has for cooling is the rotor coolant circuit. It’s obvious that this contributes to the expense of a Taycan (rotating coolant couplings, anyone?), but could someone please explain to me why cooling the rotor should trash its energy efficiency? Are those rotating couplings high

Outstanding article! A bit light on battery cooling details, but perhaps that will get covered in a future sequel? 

Base price doesn’t include ANY mobile charging gear, s0 $1k to $1.5k to connect it to an outlet, and another $500 to let 400V charging go higher than 50 kW as it would for a Nissan LEAF. 800 V charging stations will be exclusively for Taycan for now, so most stations likely won’t have it. 

Nope. Performance may be ludicrous, but it turns out 350 kW charging for this beast remains a myth. And you have to purchase an extra-cost option to charge faster than a Nissan LEAF, at special stations of which there are not very many. So all the engineering that went into that unique 800 V power system is pretty

For sentimental reasons I went seriously shopping for a Fiata and drive one Abarth that was pretty nice, but did not have the Brembo, Bilstein, Recaro package, and had 20k miles on it. Every other one I could find had an automatic, which I found unacceptable with the turbo lag added on top of a balky set of shift

Has anyone looked at energy use or cost per mile? I mean, diesel has quite a bit more energy per gallon and costs accordingly more per gallon, right?

Anyone get one off the lot for $59,995 yet?

Miata Is Always The Answer, and you can get a new one fully loaded for $35k. 

I sorta think that five passenger sedans outsell two seat sports cars, in general, so big whoop? 

“The engine noise in the cabin sounded so good that it almost felt fake, as if it was piped in through speakers or other means”

Like there was not enough oil back in 1972?

Obviously, this is bad behavior, but let’s face it ICEholes, it’s no worse than siphoning some gas in a pinch, which has been known to happen. BTW, 17 kWh will take a Model 3 about 70 miles, so it’s equivalent to more than a gallon of gas.

Why only old cars? We should do this to every gas or diesel powered car in the world. 

Surely there will be at least one guy here ranting about how you don’t even have to work at it to destroy a Tesla this way. 

Excellent article! But nothing about serviceability? That’s always the issue with mid-engines, and what’ll makes them “exotic”.

Missing so far is any discussion of the serviceability penalty of a rear mid-engine car. Somehow these mid-engines always seem to need expensive “engine-out” servicing and maintenance. It’s not obvious why they cannot be as accessible as front mid-engines, but no one seems to have mastered that aspect so far. Perhaps

“...happy to push trucks until gas is $10 per gallon”. I submit that gasoline is destined to fall in price rather than rise. And it’s because of, rather than being a cause of, the EV revolution. Humans are capable of recognizing that a harmful, if also useful but unneccesary, product is not worth using at any price,

The footwell cutout design was widely touted as likely for the Model 3, but then those folks were wrong. It seems like a natural for a sports car model, but not so much for a sedan trying for the largest possible battery and range. Jalopnik readers are not so much into SUVs, perhaps, but everyone else in the known

There’s a world of difference between “not exactly super environmentally friendly” and “trashing the planet on which we live.” To quote Voltaire, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good enough.