decodeddiesel
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Wes
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2021
- Threads
- 8
- Messages
- 799
- Reaction score
- 1,072
- Location
- Southern New England
- Car(s)
- 2020 Supra, 2016 VW Tiguan, 2007 Cayman
I drove that friends Tesla a couple of times. What a story about that car. It was a 2018 Model S Performance.
(Long story about his Tesla follows, but I learned a lot from the whole thing looking from the outside in)
My friend waited forever to take delivery of his Model S. Then when he finally got it nearly a year later there were some issues with the car. I don't remember specifics, but it took several weeks to resolve. He finally got it all sorted out and started driving it. He loved the car and wanted all of his friends to check it out.
My other buddy who got me into AutoX convinced him to take it to an AutoX. It did very well. Well long story short, my friend got hooked and took the car to a few more events. Unfortunately all of this ended up damaging the battery which was replaced under warranty.
After having the battery replaced and being without the car for several months he decided to take his family on a road trip from Denver to Disneyland. He spent days planning the route and charging points. They were on their second day of driving when I shit you not, a wheel came loose from a tractor trailer and slammed into his windshield with his wife in the passenger seat and his kids in the back!!!! It totaled the car, but everyone was okay. That was the end of his first Tesla. After all of the drama with the car and an errant wheel takes it out.
Driving Impressions:
The "one pedal" operation really threw me off at first, especially because my fun car at the time was a 987.1 Cayman with a 5 speed. Having the pedal pressed just to have the car keep moving forward was very weird.
The acceleration is obviously very different than any ICE. I've been in some very fast cars (legit 8-second at Bandimere Speedway) and they still don't feel like a Tesla. That's because even though the acceleration numbers are close, the rate of acceleration is different. There is no ramp up on an EV like there is on an ICE.
Handling is where the weight really becomes apparent. The car does it's best to hide the weight, but driving it while also regularly driving a Cayman made it seem like driving an overloaded dump truck. Even the V60 Polestar I was daily driving seemed light compared to the Tesla (I'm sure the Ohlins in the Volvo helped a lot).
One big concern about Telsa is I've now seen 3X different Teslas (including my friend) damage their batteries doing motorsports things. That's very concerning.
(Long story about his Tesla follows, but I learned a lot from the whole thing looking from the outside in)
My friend waited forever to take delivery of his Model S. Then when he finally got it nearly a year later there were some issues with the car. I don't remember specifics, but it took several weeks to resolve. He finally got it all sorted out and started driving it. He loved the car and wanted all of his friends to check it out.
My other buddy who got me into AutoX convinced him to take it to an AutoX. It did very well. Well long story short, my friend got hooked and took the car to a few more events. Unfortunately all of this ended up damaging the battery which was replaced under warranty.
After having the battery replaced and being without the car for several months he decided to take his family on a road trip from Denver to Disneyland. He spent days planning the route and charging points. They were on their second day of driving when I shit you not, a wheel came loose from a tractor trailer and slammed into his windshield with his wife in the passenger seat and his kids in the back!!!! It totaled the car, but everyone was okay. That was the end of his first Tesla. After all of the drama with the car and an errant wheel takes it out.
Driving Impressions:
The "one pedal" operation really threw me off at first, especially because my fun car at the time was a 987.1 Cayman with a 5 speed. Having the pedal pressed just to have the car keep moving forward was very weird.
The acceleration is obviously very different than any ICE. I've been in some very fast cars (legit 8-second at Bandimere Speedway) and they still don't feel like a Tesla. That's because even though the acceleration numbers are close, the rate of acceleration is different. There is no ramp up on an EV like there is on an ICE.
Handling is where the weight really becomes apparent. The car does it's best to hide the weight, but driving it while also regularly driving a Cayman made it seem like driving an overloaded dump truck. Even the V60 Polestar I was daily driving seemed light compared to the Tesla (I'm sure the Ohlins in the Volvo helped a lot).
One big concern about Telsa is I've now seen 3X different Teslas (including my friend) damage their batteries doing motorsports things. That's very concerning.
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