Electric Sports Car a Reality

"Burn Rubber, Not Gas"

Gas is expensive; theres simply no way around it. And with prices continuing to climb, its not a particularly good time to own a large displacement sports car; in fact with gas well into the $3.00 per gallon range, its not a good time to own a sports car, period. But what if you could get all the performance of a Corvette, Porsche 911 or even a BMW M6 without paying a dime at the gas pumps? Well thanks to the genius of the folks at Tesla Motors, you can.

Called the Tesla Roadster, most likely named after the worlds most prolific inventor and humanitarian, Nikola Tesla (1856 - 1943; born: Smiljan,

Looking very similar to the Lotus Elise, the Tesla Roadster is even faster, and burns no gasoline. (Photo: Tesla Motors)

Croatia) who once stated "Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity," this Lotus Elise-like sports car could be the vehicle that blows the conventional sports car off of the tarmac while, in homage to Tesla, doesnt harm and therefore benefits the human condition.

Going from 0-60 mph in about 4.5 seconds, producing 248 horsepower and with

Capable of out-accelerating all but the most hardcore sports cars, the Tesla even looks the part. (Photo: Tesla Motors)

a redline of 13,500 rpm, its specs sound like some sort of race cars, yet the Tesla is a completely livable and economical way to get to and from the office every day. The secret is its powerplant: a 3-phase, 4-pole electric motor. Completely devoid of any form of internal combustion, the Teslas only oil resides in its two-speed electronically shifted manual transmission. Providing the car not only with excellent economy (Tesla reports the cost per mile to be in the one cent range), the electric motor also delivers performance gasoline-powered cars could only dream of. Granted, the horsepower

The included home charger will give the Tesla a full charge in as few as 3.5 hours. (Photo: Tesla Motors)

figure isnt the most astounding spec, its the motors torque curve that makes the Tesla feel like a high-powered sports car; peak torque literally occurring off-idle. And perhaps even better is that it doesnt fall off like a gas-powered cars torque curve; the Teslas twist delivery stays almost dead flat until roughly 5,500 rpm, where it begins to decline slowly until redline. That should correlate into furious acceleration that will surely be unrelenting in a way no gas powered sports cars can.

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