YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside - Jalopnik Comments

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

just_randy — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:45:17 EST

They have come a long way, that 1.8 Yes was heinous.

just_randy

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

brandegee — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:42:27 EST

@LuciferV8: Tip of the iceberg. The lead-acid cartel is developing a new valve-reg battery with a supercapacitor that's showing value, seeing as how all hybrids are now using lead-acid batteries. Carbon nanotubes are being installed in silicon, which is then used as a battery anode...this used to be unheard of because silicon would decay rapidly. The result, huge gains in charge/discharge. The race is on.

@penaloza: I would say freeing yourself from the gas pump completely is more than a marginal improvement. As for weight, Tesla is *heavily* banking on major LI battery improvements in the next few years. A 1,000-lb battery pack is great in a MR sports car, but not so much in a much cheaper, FR commuter vehicle. They need tech breakthroughs to enable their growth.

brandegee

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

the good dr zero — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:38:08 EST

@Wes Siler: How about Th!nk, the crappy little Norwegian electric cars - I hate those things, always sneaking up behind me and trying to run me over, and I'm not even blind.

the good dr zero

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

LuciferV8 — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:00:30 EST

.
CHECK OUT THIS LINK!!!!!!!!!!!

[www.technologyreview.com]
Mr. Yi Cui's little trick could give us the goods we need for real electric car performance.
Then I could own an electric hot rod, which would allow me to burn rubber AND tell the George Monbiots of the world to STFU.

LuciferV8

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

JoSCh — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:29:54 EST

I'm slightly more efficient than I previously was... YES!

JoSCh

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

SRekauqh — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:59:35 EST

All kinds of horsepower and engine details, yet no details about the handling except offers supreme handling?? You know what they say, "I could get a good look at a T-Bone by sticking my head up a..." Wait, maybe I do want to stick my head up...ahh, whatever. Give me more performance figures other than 0-60 time..and this is coming from someone who drives a 2-ton V8 coupe.

SRekauqh

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

ratbark — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:56:56 EST

I really like the look, but the red button (harzards?) on the dash is distracting. It looks like it launches rockets or converts the car into a boat.

ratbark

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

FelixKa — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:06:55 EST

You should get the real picture of this car. Its a low volume car made by a start-up of german students. The price for the first gen car with 4 cylinders was about 65K € which is about 100K $. Expect the prise for the Second gen car to be higher due to the bigger engine and the other improvements. This is not the car you trade for your Z4, it's much more exclusive and hence more expensive. As there are enough people to pay good money for this, i'm sure they'll sell a few over there. By the way - can't get nothing better than VW technology :-) Greetings from Germany

FelixKa

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

hotzigettyB — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:59:32 EST

@STOPCRAZYPP ... Completely agree with you.
Its about the concept of an electric sports car. apart from the efficiency of an electric car being much higher than an ICE vehicle, theres the fact that the motor will have a large torque band (almost from start to may be 9k rpm) where the torque will remain constant. I've heard a lot of people crib about how EVs would suck (based on what they'd seen at that time), because of teh performance. This should prove them wrong.
I'm talking bout the tesla not the YES!

hotzigettyB

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Turboner — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:46:37 EST

Looks sweet, but will it have two drummers?

Turboner

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

The Kid — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 03:21:47 EST

Imagine if Funke and Will hired Marv Albert to shill for them, a la Modernista.

The question isn't whether your low-volume, European roadster has a VW engine, sub-1000 kg weight, or can accelerate from 0-60 in less than 4 seconds.

The real question is... when you hoon it, does it return the favor?

YES! And it counts!

The Kid

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

stopcrazypp — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:35:07 EST

@penaloza:
"I noticed in Autoblog's little Tesla review that the batteries weigh 1000lbs and the weight of the car is up to 2600lbs from about 2050 of the Elise. How is this useful. The engine in a Elise is a 1.8l 4 cylinder Toyota mill. The car already gets great mileage. Why would you add tens of thousands to marginally improve that? "
This is more of a proof of concept what an EV platform can do. The performance is greater than the elise, and the efficiency is even greater than the elise (concievably you can be completely self sufficient with solar panels on your roof, but in a gas car you can't & remember gas engine 20% efficiency, roadster's motor 90%). Battery tech is continually improving (recently there is news of nanotechnology tech improving li-ion density 10X), meaning cost and weight of batteries will be driven down.
Not to mention the torque is all avaliable at 0rpm and that alone should provide a unique enough experience to justify the price. I haven't seen where exotic cars have really been "useful" (since traditionally they are rich people toys anyways) so I don't think the Tesla Roadster deserves as much criticism as it gets. The first expensive model is to help fund less expensive models down the road.

@goatrope:
I would hope most of your skepticism is probably directed to Tesla as a company itself rather than at the concept of an EV roadster. The production models haven't come out yet, but from what I am seeing in terms of the performance it's not bad for it's price. That's not even considering it's a startup (starting a company costs lots of money) and many of the components are more expensive to manufacture than normal cars more due to the fact they don't have economy of scale working for them (in both their car manufacturing and also in the EV parts such as the battery pack). I mean for a car weighing 2700lbs (also passing all the crash tests including a 50mph rear crash) and with only 250hp and only 2 gears (revised to 1 gear with liquid cooled motor according to news) it performs quite well even compared to current ICE cars. Against all those odds, if Tesla delivers I don't see why it isn't a great achievement.

stopcrazypp

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

944turb0 — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:34:33 EST

YES! Great news.

944turb0

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Mizzle fo Shizzle — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:13:43 EST

@ Daily Dwayne
I'm with you. Hard top!

Mizzle fo Shizzle

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

daily dwayne — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:17:11 EST

is there a hard top version? if so, color me intrigued.

daily dwayne

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

POLAЯMISSESEVEЯYBODY — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:37:48 EST

Jon Anderson is making cars now?

POLAЯMISSESEVEЯYBODY

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

NovaloadMissesPolar — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:24:55 EST

Look this up in your Funk & Wagnel's.
(That would be the late 60s, maybe early 70s, children.)

NovaloadMissesPolar

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

larsenf — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:18:37 EST

dammit dammit dammit, they were so close. then they had to use a VW.

larsenf

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Shapeshifter — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:55:57 EST

@goatrope:

No, no, no... It's not that easy.

You need powerpoint, man! Powerpoint!

Shapeshifter

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

michaelgray — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:43:17 EST

Volkswagen motor....meh

michaelgray

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

clank-o-tron — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:24:18 EST

The price would have to be mighty low for me to take one over an Elise. As far as I'm concerned, there's no cooler looking car that's anywhere near as fast as the lotus for less than $45k. The Sky is a close second, imo.

clank-o-tron

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

penaloza — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:04:03 EST

@goatrope: I noticed in Autoblog's little Tesla review that the batteries weigh 1000lbs and the weight of the car is up to 2600lbs from about 2050 of the Elise. How is this useful. The engine in a Elise is a 1.8l 4 cylinder Toyota mill. The car already gets great mileage. Why would you add tens of thousands to marginally improve that?

penaloza

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

wkiernan — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:02:42 EST

Any idea how much this thing costs? I looked around at about a half dozen websites and there wasn't a word. Not of course that I could afford it, but I'm just curious. It's kind of pretty.

wkiernan

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Wes Siler — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:51:13 EST

@damnElantra: Yes! galleries are fixed.

Wes Siler

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

crevans — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:51:06 EST

I tried importing one, but they gave me the long distance runaround. Maybe now I can get a deal on one for five percent for nothing.

With that wheelbase though you're liable to spin out on the roundabouts in and around the lakes. But I like driving close to the edge.

Tip your waiters folks.

crevans

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

goatrope — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:44:58 EST

I've got a better idea... let's gut the engine and transmission and replace them with lithium ion batteries and an electric motor and a one-speed transmission. That way, we'll get the weight up to a proper 1,300 kilograms, and we can double the price.

Now that you've read my brilliant business plan, who will loan me $300 million to make this vision a reality?

goatrope

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

velocecrat — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:23:57 EST

@Fitty7lax: looks like this wheelbase is 4mm longer than the F40's. Then again, the F40 had some aero on it.

I may have my loyalties to Ariel, but this car does look like a good one. 'Cept for the VW electrics...

velocecrat

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

smokeydog001 — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:23:01 EST

I think I'd save a lot of brass and have a lot more fun in the hills with a Se7en.

smokeydog001

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Mysterious Utility Bento — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:59:48 EST

Okay, How many weeks before someone stateside Prefontaines one of these bad boys?????

Mysterious Utility Bento

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

damnelantra™ — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:49:33 EST

damn you halopnik! fix the urls in the gallery so i can lust over another small convertible

damnelantra™

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

respawn — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:43:32 EST

YES! I think you've finally helped me figure out what that odd car was that I saw back in October of '06. I was on my way to Road Atlanta for Petit LeMans and about three cars ahead of me was some odd roadster that I'd never seen before with European number plates. I even went to far as to pull out into the opposite lane of traffic to get a better view of the car (no room to safely pass to get closer, unfortunately) and could not figure out what it was. I looked for it when I got to the track too, but couldn't find it. I'm pretty sure now that this was it. Too bad it will probably be prohibitively expensive.

respawn

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

poxpopulus — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:42:16 EST

The automotive equivalent of a snub nose Smith & Wesson.

poxpopulus

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

penaloza — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:38:44 EST

Thinking this is mid-engined RWD, right?
Does it have a top or it is a true roadster?

penaloza

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

akirachan — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:36:40 EST

Great! Wow! Cool! Narly! How Much?

akirachan

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

cyclopticgaze — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:29:44 EST

This could be very fun. Small, light, powerful, with a sparse interior. Yes!

cyclopticgaze

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

no_slushbox — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:27:44 EST

@no_slushbox: For some reason I thought the Miata had a way larger wheelbase, but the 911 is actually .8 inches longer. They are both very short at around 92 inches, this would probably be a bit longer.

no_slushbox

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Solo_Racer — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:23:19 EST

@Fitty7lax: Don't worry about it! Just take it out on a 1.5 mile runway in Florida! What could go wrong?!

Solo_Racer

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

no_slushbox — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:21:22 EST

@Fitty7lax: If it has the wheelbase of a Miata then it has like 8 inches on any 911.

no_slushbox

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Euromobile — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:20:36 EST

It's an ugly little brute. It should be fun though. That said, it'll be far too expensive.

Euromobile

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

SubyDrew — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:20:36 EST

@dolo54: Yeah... (notice lack of exclamation point)

Well, they both have four wheels, convertible top, VW components, ...steering wheels...transmissions...use fuel...ahh have some seats... are available in silver... help me out with the other significant similarities.

SubyDrew

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

no_slushbox — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:20:26 EST

It all comes down to price! If they could somehow sell the base version for around $30K I might actually say Yes!, but if this is in Boxster S territory then I will have to say No!

no_slushbox

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Fitty7lax — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:18:18 EST

Do I really want to go 200 mph in something with the wheelbase of a Miata? I feel like this thing would be darty as hell anywhere above buck fifty.

Fitty7lax

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Schm, lord of Torques! — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:15:34 EST

Bring on Die Funk. .und Will!!!

Schm, lord of Torques!

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Skydiver — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:14:10 EST

@Mad_Science: Ditto. Where's my coffee?

Skydiver

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Miscellanea, now on the main floor! — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:11:56 EST

Stimpy!! Do not touch the shiny red button!

Miscellanea, now on the main floor!

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Teds — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:08:40 EST

Cool little car. If it stays under $60 k and has some service support I would cross shop it with a boxster or Z4.

Teds

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

dolo54 — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:08:22 EST

But we already have the Beetle convertible!

dolo54

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Mad_Science — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:08:03 EST

I was really confused when I read the title. I thought you guys were really excited about the 3.2 roadster, so much so that you forgot to mention who made it.

f-ing Monday.

Mad_Science

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Wes Siler — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:03:26 EST

I think more car companies need punctuation in their titles.

Wes Siler

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

NICKNICK — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:01:54 EST

@evoCS: or Yes VW Electrics!

NICKNICK

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

evoCS is possibly NSFW — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:00:59 EST

@Andrewpetty: Maybe. Or there could be variants like Hell Yes! or Yes Sir!

evoCS is possibly NSFW

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Andrewpetty — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:56:59 EST

I am concerned about the fact that there is only one exclamation point. If this were a really exciting car, it would have at least three exclamation points. Will extra punctuation be an option on future models?

Andrewpetty

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

Mysterious Utility Bento — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:53:17 EST

Was Funke & Will a seventies Comedy team? or an 80's pop-rock duo?????

Mysterious Utility Bento

YES! 3.2 Roadster is Coming Stateside

poxpopulus — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:51:50 EST

This! Is! Great! News!

poxpopulus