Quiet Riot
April 1, 2008
From the outside, the car looks like a silver wedge bent on cleaving the air in two. But the combination of its blistering speed and comparative silence throws a number of hard-core bicyclists logging some miles here for a loop. As in, "Where the heck did that come from?"
But what might be even more impressive is the feeling you experience behind the wheel. Here you are, piloting a bona fide sports car and yet you’re not polluting any more than the two guys in spandex pedaling their carbon-fiber Specializeds. For car lovers with a soft spot for Mother Earth, this is called having your cake and devouring it, too.
"We’re eager to start delivering the cars," says Tesla marketing head Darryl Siry. "Only then can we say, ‘This car is for real folks. And we’re a real car company.’"
No worries there. In its final, four seconds-to-60-mph guise, there’s little question the Tesla Roadster has to be taken seriously as a true road machine, and not just some attempt to humor the carbon-neutral crowd. George Jetson, eat your heart out.
Tesla Motors, www.teslamotors.com
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