Later, we’ll figure out how to bury it in the ol’ expense account. After cajoling the couple for access to their 100-amp utility pole, we hire electrician David Hayes to install the $1200 HPWC that we have shipped in. We find Tesla Roadster owners and solar enthusiasts Mark Doncheski and Mary Hermann in Danville, Pennsylvania, but their existing charger isn’t compatible with the Model S. With preparation time dwindling, we still haven’t nailed down a suitable second charging stop. Finding a high-voltage unit with the necessary amperage is challenging. We use PlugShare, a website and app that lists kindred spirits willing to share their electricity, but not all chargers are created equal. So we start investigating potential charging locations, both commercial and private. None of the existing Tesla Supercharger stations, which offer 75-minute recharges, are close to our route. Further, they must deliver 240 volts at 80 amps of charging power, like the Tesla High Power Wall Connector (HPWC) that Glomb has in his own garage. We must find two recharging stops both near our direct route and spaced every 230 or so miles between Detroit and Shoreham. His car is ideal because he purchased it with the P85 Performance equipment, which includes the largest-available 85-kWh battery and the dual onboard chargers that would give us a chance at beating the T back to the Brass Era. Jessica’s father, Fred Glomb, 50, a man of the Information Age and owner of a technology-consulting firm, has volunteered his chocolate-brown Model S after seeing our petition for assistance on a Tesla owners message board. MODEL S TEAM: Our strategy hinges on two simple data points, the 211-mile range C/D recorded during our road test of the Model S and the 682 MapQuest miles separating the start from the finish. Every new car is endowed with a level of power and braking ability that leaves the T, which would prefer to just putter into town with this season’s prize-winning pumpkin in back, terrifyingly out of step. Even the flow of suburban or country main streets is too fast for this 40-mph buggy. While the Model T was undoubtedly the single greatest catalyst for the motor-vehicle infrastructure we now take for granted, it is also woefully, dangerously obsolete. And the number of people who could re-babbitt a Model T’s bearings probably rounded to zilch. At the time of our race, the number of Tesla’s high-power, quick-charge Supercharger stations in our area of the country was zero. Neither was designed to be a continent crosser. Now, racing a 99-year-old Ford Model T against a new Tesla Model S across one-fifth of America is, really, in no way fair to either car. How would the car that’s heralded as the savior of humanity stack up against the humble Tin Lizzie? MARC URBANO, MICHAEL SIMARI, ROBERT PLOTKIN until we pretty much bumped into the horse again. Actually, a bit further, and further still, and keep it going, just a little ways more. Hence, we looked back over automotive history for a suitable candidate. Instead, it would compete against a car more in line with an electric vehicle’s limitations. The Tesla would not go up against a new car, which would enjoy a de facto head start thanks to more than a century of development. So as not to be seen as blithely unappreciative of a new technology’s inevitable teething issues, namely the Tesla’s limited driving range and the nation’s inadequate charging infrastructure, we developed a kind of handicap for the Model S. This time we compare the electric car to its direct predecessor, the hydrocarbon-burning automobile, much as our forebears must have compared the first motorcar to the trusty nag, which was soon to be advertised with hefty cash rebates and complimentary oat bags. Thus, we proceed with yet another trial of the Model S. From the February 2014 Issue of Car and DriverĪ century from now, let no man or robot or digital personal companion embedded in the cerebellum at birth say that Car and Driver didn’t look at this thing from every possible angle.
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