Fastest four-door?

Announced yesterday, purportedly the fastest 0-60 production four-door ever made, 3.2 seconds. A new Panamera Turbo? Ahhh, No. The newest Tesla, a dual-motor Model S, P85D. Thoughts?

I thought it was Model D not S. I'm too lazy to look it up.

Yea but have you checked its top speed?

Nice car but still not practical as your only driver. A few months ago one of the car magazines made a comparison between a Tesla and another car on a journey from somewhere like Chicago to Philadelphia (don't remember exactly) - the car they compared it to was a Model T. The Tesla won by an hour. Maybe in the future it will be a practical car

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D=Dual Motor, a new option on the Model S. 155 MPH... Panamera Turbo = 192. Lots of pro/cons of the Tesla, but having a top speed of 155 MPH wouldn't be one of them for me. I've done many track days, backroad blasts, driving schools, etc. and I can count on one hand the number of times I've been at a place where I could go faster than 150 regardless of the car... Just not enough road or not enough safety margin. Somewhat bogus info... The Tesla was 76 hours LA to NY using only Tesla supercharger stations (free to most Tesla owners). That's was a a few months back when there fewer superchargers than the current network of ~117. The 'Model T' cross country run was done last year and was a 'modified' model T with a huge aux fuel tank. Other than Cannonballers, how many people really want to drive cross country stopping only once or twice for fuel? Not exactly a test of practicality... By the end of next year, 98% of the US population will be within supercharger range. Love or hate the Tesla, that is an amazing feat, especially considering that it will be less than 3 years from the first supercharger station to blanketing the entire US. But even without supercharger stations... I drive my primary vehicle about 12,000 miles/yr. That's means plugging in at home for an overnight recharge about once a week...

My point was it's not such an engineering marvel that its max speed is so "low" compared to cars powered by internal combustion engines. Completely unfair comparison.

@ahsai, I think any sedan that goes 0-60 in 3.2 is an engineering feat, electric or ICE. This Tesla is faster than my 7.1 turbo, faster than many Lambo's, (Murcie) and Ferrari's (599), and as fast as the hallowed F1. But that's not what's even more amazing: only $120k.

The car is nothing short of amazing... and to think, this is just the beginning for the company. Now realize the curb weight of that sedan, and you have to be even more amazed. If they are able to drop some lbs, they will reach (literally) mind numbing acceleration numbers.

I'm sure the top speed is a engineering limited number rather than a power limitation. If Tesla ever does another 'real' sports car, top speed bragging rights might be more important. But unless you are planning on heading out to the (flooded) salt flats, where are you ever going to get over maybe 140? The top speed of my 987CS is listed as 171 MPH. I will never see anything close to that....

The Tesla is a great looking car and a great concept but it would drive me crazy to stop for an hour charge for every 3 hours driven on a cross country trip. http://www.edmunds.com/tesla/model-s...er-charge.html

My new fav sedan. I would like to see an Auot Pilot "performance" mode where it can navigate an auto cross course at max velocity. Optional third row reminds me of similiar usage from 911 owners but allowing the grandparents to also tag along in he Tesla while going fast. When electric cars become the norm, the wars will shift from Middle East to Bolivia but I digress, that is going off topic...

The amazing part of the Tesla story to me is that none of the established car companies even made an attempt to build an electric car as good as the Tesla. All of these car companies have been making cars for a long time and out of nowhere a start-up beats them at their own game. Just shows how complacent established companies can get.

My buddy has a Tesla S (and a 997). The Tesla is amazing. Great acceleration without shifting (no tranny) and a very smooth and obviously quiet ride. Maintenance is a breeze since he only worries about tires and brakes. The technology in the car is equally amazing. Their owners are almost as cultish as we are.

Diff strokes to diff ppl. I watched formula E, just the first and the last laps. Nothing compared to F1. The sound from the engine was aweful. If all you care is 0-60 in a very quiet car, yes I agree Tesla is the best.

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Electric motors generate their max torque at speed 0, right at start up so they can do 0-60 fast. It's physics. To make the car go 190mph and fast 0-60 you need a gearbox and enough power generated by burning fuel. If the Tesla goes at 190mph, it may have arange of 5minutes.

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The Bugatti is an amazing car because it drives well and can go 300mph. But outside of magazine articles, who cares? The Tesla is a nice big 4 door sedan you can drive to work everyday and carry your full grown family around in comfortably without using gas AND!!! it rips! With any car I buy, I care about acceleration, not top speed. One you can experience, the other you can not (unless it's really low). And to be clear, if I was buying a 120k car it wouldn't be a Tesla. But I do think they are great cars and so do the owners. Lastly, what does Formula E or F1 have to do with a Tesla? What does Formula E have to do with F1 for that matter?

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So what would you rather buy for $120k? E car is just not my cup of tea even if it can go 0-60 in 1s I do agree it's a great car for some, especially ppl who don't care about engine and exhaust sound.

Used GT3 RS probably. Lol But I don't think Ill ever have to decide what car I'm buying at $120k unfortunately.

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I rest my case I was so afraid you're gonna say you'd buy two e cars instead of one

I completely agree, I personally have no interest in or budget for a $120,000 sedan, but plenty of people are buying Panamera's, Audi S8's, BMW 750's. It is those buyers that should be taking a long look at the Tesla. The price is also a bit misleading, as there are about $15,000 in first-year tax credits ($7,500 Federal, $7,500 Colorado for me) plus you are front-loading your operating expenses... If you use superchargers, you pay nothing for fuel for the life of the vehicle, probably at least $25,000 if you drove a Panamera Turbo 36,000 miles over three years. Even without using superchargers, the electric cost per mile is so much less than gas cpm, about $380 for an average 1,000 mile month. No $250 oil changes either... So using fuzzy math, a top of the line Tesla S P85D is $120,000 - $15,000 tax - $3,000+/yr fuel savings trims down that price quite a bit.

I am by nature a retro person...mechanical watch, fountain pen, just bought a typewriter, and love the simplicity of the sports cars from the fifties...and we can all see where the world is going...sleep walking toward the visions of Kafka and Orwell. The Tesla is the best microwave toaster made to date. Add Google Maps and it will transport you and your dinner guests anywhere...and thanks to the government subsidies it will keep the cost down to only $120,000. While I was initially intrigued with the paddle shift DSG PDK transmissions, I was watching the F1 documentary "1" and it reminded me of what I was missing, helped me feel it in my gut. The incar camera is of Senna going around Monaco...playing the steering wheel though his hands while he reaches over and flicks his way up and down the gears. "Oh yeah" I said, "it is about driving...not just riding." Watching todays F! race from Russia, (and thinking of the footage with Senna) the modern drivers never lift their hands from 9 and 3...flashing lights in their peripheral vision tell them what the car is doing. I'm sure the Tesla and future e-cars will be filled with video game technology to give the passangers the illusion that they are a "driver"...and the e-brakes will prevent them from those mistakes and the e-suspension will keep them on the road and the e-throttle combined with the e-engine will make sure that everyone is being environmentally pc. But when I get into my 996 I am sitting in a machine...I am in charge and fully responsible for everything it does well (or badly)...I am a true Driver...in my own small way I am a little closer to Senna at Monaco than any video car can ever make me feel. It's not about comparing the Tesla to a Porsche...it is about who you are.

Comparing the Tesla to a 911 is a bit silly, to an '80's era F1 car even sillier... That wasn't the intention of this thread as I'm sure you know. The Tesla does drive pretty sporty for a big sedan (take a test drive in one if there is a dealer nearby, draw your own conclusions) and should be compared to something like an Merc S-classs, Audi S8, BMW 750, Panamera, etc... You might conclude one has a more connected feel than another, but none of them (nor our 996's) are going to have that pure mechanical feel of a non-abs, non-psm, non-eGas, air cooled 911. And just to keep those pesky facts straight, the price of a fully loaded Tesla P85D at $120,000 is without any 'government subsidies'. Tax credits are available, but that's the price before any credits. And while Tesla did receive a ~$500 million loan from the the US Dept. of Energy in 2010, they repaid the loan in full with interest last year, nine years early. Ford also took a DOE loan for alternative energy cars, a whopping $5.9 billion and Nissan $1.4 billion, both of which are still outstanding.

As I said...it isn't about Tesla vs Porsche...it is about who each of us is. If an electric car works for you, that's great. Some people will prefer Uber or a bus or the subway to getting behind the wheel of even a self-driving car and that is fine and that is who they are. As for sudsidies or loans, when the government is doing it I am against it no matter who gets the money...excuse me my money.

I drove a Tesla Roadster S a few years ago. It didn't drive itself and the driving aids (ie stability/traction etc.) seemed pretty similar to my 996 targa. The acceleration of the roadster was awesome as was the steering feel. The Tesla roadster did not have any steering power assistance which made it even more direct than the 996. The electric engine had it's own unique noise but obviously wasn't nearly as fulfilling as the 911. But it was clearly a solid sports car. Electric doesn't have to mean less "sporty".

Your take on the Tesla is interesting - I got the chance to drive a roaster - in sport mode - and it was a letdown. Yes, it was very quick - but there was so much about that car that wasn't likable. Maybe part of the disconnect for me was that Tesla was doing the test-drives at a PCA autocross - so I moved from one extreme (ragging out an internal combustion engine) to the other, and this made me concentrate on what WASN'T there instead of what the car did well. Maybe it won't matter in another 30 years when nobody remembers what a sports car sounds like, or feels like when you hit the sweet spot of the torque curve, or when you get that shift just right , or when you brake your way into a corner right at the threshold, bleeding speed faster than you ever could if you'd pressed the pedal just a bit harder and kicked on the ABS pump. In 30 years, some (or, *shudder* all) cars will be driving themselves, and actually "feeling" anything from the car will probably just be a reason to take it to the dealership for service. Driving a sports car - regardless of whether it's the fastest or best one - presents an opportunity to consider that the journey is sometimes more important than the destination. A future full of self-driving cars that give us more time to Facebook or take selfies in the car is one I'm not looking forward to.

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Add a noise generator and a big set of speakers and your sorted!

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Yeah, the only thing left to talk about in car forums Think about it, no more oil threads, engine threads, brake pads threads (regen brakes work so well), suspension threads (e car with low center of gravity really don't need so much suspension)...maybe all replaced by electrical gremlin threads

True that. Electric cars are way more simple. I think that that is a good thing.

In 80 years people will be saying, "remeber the raw feel beautiful sound of the first electrics, they just don't drive like that anymore "

I think it's more likely that they'll be saying "do you remember when they were strip-mining entire countries to get enough lithium for those "environmentally friendly" cars?" I don't know what the future of the car holds, but a dollar says it won't include hundreds of pounds of toxic battery packs...

This car is bad ***. From a roll a AMG65 car will destroy it.

tesla is where porsche is going. i'm predicting a hybrid gas/electric panamera within the next 5 years. many of us who drive porsches should drive a tesla. they are a lot of fun. i love scaring the in-laws when we all go out to dinner. every on-ramp is a drag race. acceleration is instant, more accessible than my turbo.

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This is one car where cup holders might actually be hazardous to have.

I dunno, a E-car is not for me. I'm satisfied with my 10 year old AMG S55. It was $120k when new, but I'm sure I wouldn't trade it for a Tesla anything..

I test drove the Tesla earlier this year. Wife was really interested in getting one to replace her Cayenne S. But, the range is the only thing that is preventing us to get one. It is a good car for daily commuting car, but forget about road trips. We thought that's a lot of $$ for a car that will be just used for driving around town. But, I loved the instant torque and acceleration! It was just amazing.

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Get your wife the X.

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She wants the Macan Turbo now after she saw it at the unveiling at the dealership. Her wants changes like she changes her shoes and purses!

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...and just where exactly does that electric come from?

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this i was just about to post similar. Electric Motors have a essentially a limitless low RPM torque band that makes launch killer...it is purely physics....this is nothing new, tesla is just the first company that seems to be doing it in a car the right way.

The Tesla Roadster does the 0-60mph in 3.7 seconds. The interesting part is that it does it without any drama. No need to rev the engine, drop the clutch, switch gears etc. With the traction control engaged it doesn't even feel like the car is working particularly hard. But the top speed is only 125mph and they don't indicate what the range is at that speed. A quick google resulted in some predictions that it would last 20-40 minutes at that speed (ie ~60 miles) which isn't good but better then I had expected. The roadster also had a faster time then the 996 GT3 RS on the Top Gear track despite the fact that the show was very negative on Tesla. Clearly the battery technology today is the limiting factor and it has to improve dramatically (both in performance and price) before electric cars can hit high volume. But if that happens I don't think it will mean the end of the fun driving or sports cars. Instant torque is a lot of fun...

Hope that electric car technology improves, and prices fall, so that EVs take many sales from conventional internal combustion vehicles. If this occurs, the world's remaining petroleum will last even longer, which is good news if you like gasoline-powered cars.

I find it hard to believe that some people fear the range limitations of only 260 miles or so - but I'm someone who has a Nissan Leaf that only gets about 80 miles to a charge! Yes, we have a second vehicle that we use for long trips, and somehow I'm guessing those complaining about range also won't have the Tesla as the only car in the family. If you are in an extreme rush to get somewhere 500 miles away, it would stink to have to wait 30 minutes to charge up at a Tesla super charger. How often does this happen? How many trips do you take a month (year even) where you'd drive more than 260 miles in a day? Keep in mind that you can plug the car into a standard 110 outlet overnight to recharge as well... I don't really see how having to stop for a moment and enjoy a coffee while you top-up the battery for free at a supercharger would be a pain. I believe owning an electric car (especially a Tesla) would only be an inconvenience about 1% or less of the time. There are many inconveniences with owning a gas powered vehicle, but we're used to them. We don't think about it when we have to change the oil, perform all sorts of other maintenance, have to go find a gas station etc. Those are things you don't even think about as an inconvenience - it's normal. Electric cars eliminate these things completely - you just drive home and plug in... well, you still have to rotate the tires. It may be hard to wrap your mind about the electric car ownership experience until you actually drive one, but once you do, you won't believe how amazing it is.

I miss the engine sound far too much to ever own an electric car. For me, that's part of the love of the gas engine and the driving experience...the way they sound.

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Both BMW with their 2015 M3/M4 and Ford with the 2015 EcoBoost F150/Mustang are digitally 'enhancing' their engine sound & exhaust note to appease the luddites hating the sound of the more powerful and lighter turbo sixes vs. NA V8's... Perfect technology for those who can't separate performance from soundtrack. No reason why Tesla couldn't also add a perfect rendition of all the combustion engine sound artifacts back in if they wanted to, though I just don't think it would be in Tesla's DNA. I have an early reservation number on a Model X... Out of all the issues presented here, there is really only one that might stop me from moving forward with it as an alternative SUV. Not lack of exhaust note, or range, or top speed, or driving experience which for me are non-issues. Only cost. Get it down to the $55K-$75K range and it would be a slam-dunk. At $100K+ pricing, I'll probably keep the Q5, the Cayman S, several motorcycles, and have enough change for a long vacation somewhere exotic.