Living with the Tesla Roadster Sport: One week in an electric light orchestra

After finally getting myself situated in the back of the Boeing, I notice the lady to my left wearing a Tesla fleece. As fate, the alignment of the stars and unbridled dumb luck would have it, I was seated next to Rachel Konrad, Tesla's Senior Manager of Communications... for the next 10 hours.

After exchanging pleasantries, discussing each other's plans for the Frankfurt Motor Show and getting acquainted, the topic of conversation naturally turned to cars, and the Tesla Roadster, in particular.

"It's not just about performance," an overly animated Konrad told me. "What journalists don't understand is how functional it is. Owners forget to clean their windshield because they never have to go to the gas station!"

Okay, sure. But if you're selling a vehicle that starts at $109,000, you're interested in more than avoiding dirty hands at the pump. You want the full sports car monty. Power, poise, engagement, the lot. And a bit of green cred to boot surely doesn't hurt.

So after several hours of discussion, I finally say, "Hand it over to us for a week. We'll give it a proper review on its day-to-day livability. No track tests. No slalom speeds. No smoky burnouts. Just a comprehensive assessment of functionality."

A handful of phone calls and dozens of emails later, I arrive at Tesla's flagship dealership in Menlo Park, CA to pick up a full-kitted 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport. After a tutorial on the charging procedure, the internal computer and signing my life away, I was off. The Roadster was mine for the next five days, so I promptly pulled off into a bus stop, set a destination for the coast, disabled the traction control and laid a set of elevens down the street from the dealership.

2011 Infiniti M37S and M56S answer many questions

What is an Infiniti? That's a pretty harsh question to be asking 20 years after the brand's debut, but sadly, it's pertinent. To be fair, the possible answers to this question got much narrower in 2003 when Infiniti introduced a legitimate BMW 3 Series competitor, the G35 (now G37). The situation further clarified that same year when the "Bionic Cheetah," known to the rest of us as the FX showed its (then) quite handsome face. But it was the 2005 introduction of the second generation M sedan that announced most loudly Infiniti's luxury-performance aspirations: to kick BMW in the back of the pants.

When it debuted, the M (specifically M45S) was a better sporting sedan than the BMW 545i. It had more power, it arguably handled better, and the heavily larded-on high-tech gizmos were worlds more user-friendly than BMW's first-generation iDrive (two minutes to tune in a radio station sucks). Only problem was father time, who simply wasn't kind to the ultimately frumpy looking M. While the rest of the world's sporting, mid-size sedans evolved into better, sharper, faster machines (see the astonishingly good Mercedes-Benz E-Class), the Infiniti M languished on the vine. A good car? Yes, for sure, but by its less-than-notable refresh in 2008, the M had became an also-ran. All it really had going for it was a lower price than the competition, which isn't exactly a strong selling point in such a cachet-conscious segment.

The future of the BMW 3 Series

The next generation BMW 3-series is set to get some major revisions when it arrives in two year's time. The new model is expected to be the first in the range to get a line of turbocharged three-cylinder engines in both gas and diesel variants, and will likely be 1.5-liter units -- essentially halved versions of the latest generation inline-sixes.


BMW's current six-cylinder diesels use a sequential dual turbo setup with small and large blowers to provide quick response and better top-end power. The new engines may use an electric motor to spin up the turbo more quickly allowing the use of a single turbo for reduced weight and complexity.

Aerodynamics will also be a major focus of the new 3 with the expected inclusion of front wheel air curtains. Ducts in the lower front bumper will route air out just ahead of the front wheels, creating a virtual wheel skirt. The high velocity over the wheels will prevent air coming around the sides and spilling around the wheels, one of the major sources of drag.

Other areas of improvement will include weight reductions, the incorporation of hybrid drive technologies, low-power climate control systems and eight-speed automatic transmissions. All that and more could be in showrooms as early as 2012.

[Source: AutoCar]