The latest space flight from Elon Musk is back down to earth.
Andy
Elon is my hero! I probably couldn't work for him for more than an hour, but what a genius. Howard Hughes and Nikola Tesla were ok, but Elon's the man.
I think the guy is the best inventor/business person we will ever witness.
- SpaceX.
- Tesla.
- SolarCity.
- Starlink.
- The Boring Company.
- Hyperloop.
- OpenAI.
- Future of Life Institute.
My first blush with Elon and Tesla came in preparing a calculus lesson plan on acceleration, velocity, and position. I wanted to use a graph from Car and Driver as the basis, one of those that shows time on the x-axis and speed on the y-axis. I had never heard of Tesla, but its road test came up on a search and I was blown away.
I don't have the original anymore, but here's something close: https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a15150030/2008-tesla-roadster-road-test/
The performance graph is not there, but here are the numbers. For an electric car? Are you kidding??ÿ
C/D?ÿTEST RESULTS
Zero to 30 mph: 1.7 sec
Zero to 40 mph: 2.4 sec
Zero to 50 mph: 3.6 sec
Zero to 60 mph: 5.0 sec
Zero to 70 mph: 6.2 sec
Zero to 80 mph: 7.7 sec
Zero to 90 mph: 9.8 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 11.7 sec
Zero to 110 mph: 15.2 sec
Street start, 30??50 mph: 2.3 sec
Street start, 50??70 mph: 2.3 sec
Standing ??????¬-mile: 13.3 sec @ 104 mph (learned about trap speed here and how we need both time and distance to find speed)
Top speed (drag ltd, mfr??s claim): 125 mph
It turned out to be a great lesson, but one lesson I learned is that those kids cared nothing about cars. I came of driving age just before the GTO, 289 Mustangs, 327 Camaros, etc. There was one 289 Cobra, of Sunbeam Alpine heritage, on my college campus; belonged to a super-rich guy who had no appreciation whatsoever of the machine he owned.
Anyway, Elon came into focus, but I don't think a clear focus is possible.
There was one 289 Cobra, of Sunbeam Alpine heritage
I believe that would have been a late-model Sunbeam Tiger.?ÿ The Cobra was based on an AC Cars chassis, not a Sunbeam frame.?ÿ Both the Cobra and the Tiger were developed by Shelby.?ÿ The 289 Tiger was only available in the 1967 model, so if your college experience predates the GTO, the Tiger you saw was likely fitted with the Ford 260 V-8.
Right, the Cobra was of British lineage, and it was the car on campus. It was white with a blue stripe. The Sunbeam Tiger, the car that Agent 99's partner drove, had the 260 and then the 289. My ride for the last two years of college was a 1965 Austin Healey Sprite, a bit short on muscle but neat in other ways. It's personality traits were that if you red-lined the tach in a couple of gears on the way up, it was sure to oil the plugs, and I always had to carry a spare top radiator hose. But when you're young ....
The Pontiac GTO debuted in 1964 as an option on the LeMans. I got my first driver's license in 1961.
It's been 53 years since I graduated college, so details get a little fuzzy sometimes.
Here's a video of an original 289 Cobra. In the last scene, note the peeling paint off the aluminum body.
And here's what a special one was worth in 2016: https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/1375-million-shelby-cobra-sets-auction-record-american-car-256401#:~:text=%2413.75%2DMillion%20Shelby%20Cobra%20Sets%20Auction%20Record%20for%20an%20American%20Car,-By&text=The%20first%2Dever%20Shelby%20Cobra,a%20similarly%20impressive%20%241.25%20million.
I was in the market for a new (used) car in 1968. As recall I drove:
65 GTO (4 barrel, 4 speed)
62 Corvette (2x4 barrels, 4 speed)
6? Sunbeam Tiger (289 Cobra "crate" engine, 4 speed)
65 Mustang K-Code Fastback (271 Hp, 4 speed w/ Hurst Comp+ shifter)
There may of been others, but THOSE I remember pretty well.
The Tiger literally scared the crap out of me (way TOO much power).
I bought the Mustang, and sure wish that I still had it!
Loyal
On the subject of V8 petrol HP.
@loyal A friend's father owned a used car lot and always kept at least one "hot" car on the lot to get people in to look. I used to help around the lot and would take cars to have them serviced and return them to the lot. He had a 1968 Corvette with an L88 engine and 4 speed. I was bringing it back from an oil change and decided I would try out the acceleration. I was traveling about 45, dropped it from 4th to 2nd and floored it. It changed lanes with me about 3 times lit the tires UP. I decided I would never own something like that, I'd certainly kill myself.
Andy
My dad drove for the local dealer when he sent used cars to auction that he didn't want to put his reputation behind. Once he had a Corvette that was a good car, but so powerful he didn't want some local family to lose a son crashing it.
They had a caravan to go and put me in the Vette knowing I could be trusted to not try out its capabilities. I had a lot of trouble taking off from stop signs because there was so little difference on the accelerator and clutch between stalling and burning rubber. Screeched once. Several times had to restart after killing it. Never want to drive something like that beast again.
