Tesla Roadster and Semi

Elon Musk kept the new Tesla Roadster very quiet until the official launch. Like typical Tesla the Roadster was nothing short of spectacular. There were rumours floating around that Tesla would make a new sports car but no one had any idea how good it would be.

The new car looks stunning but it is not all about the looks. The car performs far beyond the expectations of anyone. The performance figures is simply amazing and really would rock the super car industry. The sticker price is US$250,000 which is right up there with Lamborghini but the Tesla Roadster will show any Lamborghini a thing or two about serious performance. The Roadster can accelerate to 100km/h in 1.9 seconds!! Thats is like Formula One car territory, but this is not the best part about it. The car's driving range is now 620miles or 1000 km! there is no super car in the market that can achieve even 500km on a fuel tank of fuel.

The Roadster just moved the performance yardstick a country mile further for all the car companies to chase. They are already struggling to chase the P100D and now it has just gotten a lot more difficult. Porsche claimed that their new electric car will be better than the P100D with faster charge times but it is not due to be available until 2020, by then no one knows what else Tesla will introduce and push the performance boundary even further.

I believe the Roadster will shake up the super car segment since no standard production Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche or Mclaren can achieve such figures. The closest rival for the Roadster will be the Rimac Concept-one which is not for sale yet. The Rimac Concept-one is a real contender for the Roadster since it is also capable of similar performance figures.

The second part of the new Tesla launch was the Semi that was launched which claimed to have a 500 miles driving range. After that launch Walmart immediately placed orders for 15 units. Tesla is obviously moving in the right direction with shaking up the transport industry. The Semis offer incredible performance and extremely good drag coefficient to enable it to be significantly better than any big truck in the market. There are just so many advantages of the Tesla Semi since it is fully electric there will be far less maintenance involved, less pollution and the high torque from the electric motor will enable the Semi to easily haul cargo compared to traditional trucks that struggle with heavy loads.

The 500 miles driving range is good enough since most trucks travel an average distance of 300 miles for single trips. this is well within the range with good surplus.

There will be a lot more to come from Tesla. All those car companies who laughed at Tesla will start to cringe knowing that despite Tesla being a small car manufacturer they have made all the car companies sit up and listen. Tesla made all other car companies look old and out of date because the amount of innovation that goes into any Tesla is nothing short of impressive. Thinking outside the box has really made Tesla a force to be reckoned with!

Corvette ZR1

The latest iteration of the Corvette is by far the best that Chevrolet has ever produced. It is light, fast, agile and incredibly powerful. The latest version ZR1 just moved that yardstick further with a stonking 755hp and 930Nm of torque driving through the rear wheels. It is obviously an attempt to keep up with Ferrari and other Europeans hypercars that push out over 650hp. The horsepower game is definitely moving on to newer pastures and it is exciting for new buyers. The age old problems still remain and that is 90% of buyers will likely struggle to drive it since they already struggle to control a 600hp car let alone one that is 750hp!

The ZR1 has proven to be highly capable and is a bargain compared to exotics like Ferrari and Lamborghini. It is little wonder why  it is so popular in America. For such little money you can scare the living hell out of exotics that cost 3 times more. The Corvette is also a good looking car and is able to turn heads. I won't be surprised if Chevrolet will aim for a more extreme version is more power soon seeing that the Dodge Hellcats are easily pushing well over 700hp! The motto will be something like this "since we are at it might as well go for more power!".

It appears that the American car makers are on a rampage to build cars with ridiculous power. their design philosophy is different from the Germans that look at refinement over power. The Americans aim for huge power figures as a marketing tool to attract hot blooded young buyers and those middle age guys with mid life crisis. This recipe seems to work and these tuned models have been selling well.

Value for money, bang for your buck sports sedans, sports SUVs and sports car are all the rage now in America. Screw the hybrids...!

I do hope that these car makers will spend a bit of marketing dollar toward driver training for every Hellcat, Corvette or any other high horsepower car they sell. It won't look good in the news when many are crashed due to driver's inability to control the car.