by Dick Stewart

Created on: May 08, 2009   Last Updated: August 24, 2011

The sales nosedive of the US Big Three automakers, and the probable effects on performance of proposed carbon dioxide emissions limits may have caused enthusiasts considerable angst, but fear not. At a showroom in West Los Angeles, you will find the future of automotive performance. If the Tesla Roadster in that window is truly a taste of what's to come, we car nuts can rest easy. 

Background:

In 2006, skeptics scoffed at the kind of extravagant performance and range claims PayPal co-founder Elon Musk and his engineers were making for their new electric roadster. We'd been disappointed too many times before. Burdened by wholesale rejection of a century's worth of technical, industrial and fuel infrastructure development, their plans looked like pie in the sky.

Maybe that's the attraction. Three years later the waiting list for the production version is six months long, despite output at 1,200 per year on the way to full capacity at 1,800. Deliveries are now approaching 400. The automotive press has attached their computerized test equipment and played with them on tracks and twists, and the consensus is that this one is for real.

The Cars:

At a base price of $109,000, Teslas compare on price and performance with a Porsche 911 S, once you add a few options from its phone book-size list.

Among the Tesla's options, you can have 13 exterior colors and 10 leather choices; a Sport Package with suspension, wheel and tire (also available ala carte), and motor tweaks yielding more horsepower; and various power cables and connectors, up to a $3,000 240-volt 70 amp home charging station (plus installation).

That one delivers a full charge of the lithium-ion batteries in 3.5 hours. If you have to make do with house current, your breaker amperage and other factors (discharge level, voltage drop, etc.) determine turn-around, up to 37 hours.

Road & Track went only 132 miles on a charge, but you probably wouldn't do successive 1/4 mile runs and hot laps every day. EPA says it'll go 244 miles in mixed driving, but a round trip say, from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara (185 mi.) is probably a safer bet.

Much depends if you're in Normal, Performance, Extended Range, or Limited Power (for valets and teenage kids) mode. The frequency with which you chose "Performance" can affect battery life, currently given as 150,000 miles or three years.

At full charge in performance mode, you get 248 horsepower (288 with the aforementioned Sport Package). I chuckled when I saw that they

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