Categories
cars

Tesla Roadster & the Palo Alto British Car Meet [Orig posted: 13/09/2006]

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Tesla Motors displayed a prototype roadster at the 29th Annual Palo Alto British Car Meet last sunday. Looked to be a very polished prototype and I believe they actually drove it to the event. Dimensions are exactly the same as the Elise though the coke bottle shape of the Elise has been replaced by something more traditional with a large aero vent under the doors. While it does look sporty I am not sure if it is distinctive enough to make it stand out in a crowd – looks more like an MR2 body kit than a revolutionary new roadcar.

In terms of practicality the boot was much wider but the shape is still too odd for hard luggage. The door sills are about 2 inches lower than the Elise which should make entry/exit a little easier but it will still need plenty of practice. It has a GPS nav system built into the place where the Elise has its lighting controls and the rest of the controls seem to be well places. The seats are a repadded version of the Elise seats though they mentioned that they would be using wider seats for the production market (Its an American audience after all Image).

The car is currently undergoing crash testing and they hope to have deliveries begin early next year.

The rest of the meet was good fun and I got to see a lot of very cool cars. The highlights for me were

  • Lotus 41C (belongs to Kiyoshi)
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  • A couple of the original Elites (Type 14)
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  • 1928 Bentley 6.5 L
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  • The original Shelby prototype of the Sunbeam Tiger
  • Jensen FF (the worlds first 4 wheel drive sports car)
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My favourite story of the event though was of the ’64 Austin Healy Frogeye Sprite than won the Best Healy award. The owner bought it new in 1964 and gave her licence test in the car – she has kept the car for 42 years and has no plans of ever giving it up.

More pictures from the meet are at
http://flickr.com/photos/rnair/sets/72157594279009379/
Pictures of just the Tesla are at
http://flickr.com/photos/rnair/sets/72157594279770811/

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